Willy B must be feeling pretty good about himself these days, as he seems to be setting some of the new girls’ hearts a flutter. The first time they laid eyes on him, Dora and Rayne pant-grunted towards him and then turned to each other and hugged. And now, each time Willy B goes outside, Dora rushes to the greenhouse bench overlooking the courtyard to watch him.
For now, we are trying to regulate any close interactions between the groups, even ones that are consistent with our quarantine protocols, so that none of the chimps are able to direct dominance displays at any other individuals in particular (which could complicate potential future introductions if allowed to go on too long). The windows directly between the two areas they are currently separated into have been semi-permanently covered with thick plastic sheets and we’ll do the same to the cage walls dividing the playrooms and the greenhouses before quarantine ends and the groups live side by side. But there’s one area where two windows sit across a small mechanical room from one another and in there we simply covered one over in paper, meaning we can easily give the groups a peek at one another. So today we tried that. It was surprisingly mellow!
Mave, Willy B, and Honey B all came down to Front Room 7, the medical enclosure, to see what was going on.
They were greeted at the opposite window by Rayne, Gordo, and Dora.
As soon as Willy B approached the window, Dora stood up, smiled, and swayed back and forth. She had never been so close to him before. Terry joined her as well.
Cy then strolled in carrying one of his magazines.
Now we see what he’s been so interested in.
Lucky somehow missed out on today’s excitement but she’ll get a chance to see them soon enough!
