We have the BEST supporters ever! We get donations from all over the United States, and sometimes even from other countries, but this donation came from close by. A week ago I was visiting my friends’ parents in the Yakima area and noticed the massive pine cones they had on their backyard. My first thought was “how weird would they think I am if I ask for permission to take some of those with me?”. After explaining what enrichment is and how much it benefits the life of chimpanzees in captivity, I grabbed as many as I could and brought them in. They are now gathering more for us! On the video it is a bit hard to visualize the size of these pine cones, but once Dora grabs one it is evident that it is almost the size of her cute small head. All the chimps in Cy’s group were super excited about these and spent quite some time getting every last bit of peanut butter from them. This was such a popular item that I can’t wait to pick up some more for the rest of the chimps!
Rayne
lol, Sofía, I think the first time I saw a pine cone that size was, believe it or not, in Ireland (the tree had been gifted to the university).
Sounds like someone took Mave’s!?
Aren’t you afraid that someone will eat part of the pine cone? And can they be recycled?
Wow! What a great score! New things are always so exciting.
I was fascinated by Lucky’s approach to getting at the peanut butter. She so wanted to simply bite down but clearly the pine cone was too hard and prickly. I think she needed a chop stick to dig out the yummy bits.
Dora’s pine cone was indeed almost as large as her pretty little head. They all seemed to really enjoy them so it’s a good thing that there is a plentiful supply.
They were certainly excited to receive their pine cones filled with yummy peanut butter! Who was that alarm calling near the end after Gordo got his cone? Did someone lose their cone to higher-ranking companion?