While winter and spring dance together outside the chimp house today, the chimpanzees have been quiet and easeful inside. (I am quite sure I’ve jinxed things with that statement, but too late now). We arrived this morning to sunny skies only to have a brief snowstorm blow in in time for breakfast. By lunch ice cold winds pushed the storm southward at which point our raptor neighbors seemed to joyfully fill the sky. Two pairs of bald eagles, two pairs of red-tailed hawks, and a pair of ravens, all swirled together above the chimp house, their calls as piercing as the cold. Eventually two pairs of blue-jays joined in with their calls of mimicry. I just ran outside to fetch snow snacks for Missy and I see the next storm heading this way. The seven have been adamant we collect as many snow snacks as possible from the dwindling supply.
The chimpanzees have taken this all in stride, enjoying their sunny windows and greenhouses when they can, and curling into their blanket nests when the sun disappears.
Dora, Lucky and Cy! I had a couple of photos in which Lucky and Cy had chins raised in tandem, looking particularly tough, but little do people know it’s the tiny, cute lady in the back who is the tough one! Dora, much like her neighbor, Foxie, is definitely of the tiny, but fierce variety when she takes a mind to be. That said, she has been very playful today. She has a really endearing behavior of gently shaking her head at us in greeting (bobblehead-style), which moves throughout her whole body when she’s particularly happy.
After breakfast everyone decided to curl up and rest as the snow came down. Gordo decided to see what all the hullabaloo about Cy’s magazines is:
Heart-melter, Cy:
Resting head to head on the bench with Cy was his sister, Lucky:
Rayne (who spent most of the morning choosing to wear a silky scarf as a skirt):
Not everyone had time to lie around though. Miss Honey B was a blur, zooming in and out of the playroom and greenhouse while the humans took turns chasing along from outside the building:
As I type this, we can see sweet Annie in the cameras as she tries to see into the kitchen to see what’s for dinner, madly stomping her feet. That’s Annie-speak for, “I’m hungry! It’s dinnertime!”
