One of the challenges that we have at our particular sanctuary is that we have one individual who tends to claim highly-prized food items that are meant for everyone.
Pine cones with peanut butter, one of our evening enrichment items, are are a good example.
We make extra before spreading them around in an attempt to ensure that everyone can get at least one. Sometimes the other chimpanzees choose to leave them in favor of other food if they are part of a dinner forage, like they were last night. No matter what, though, Jamie tends to end up with more than her share…
She does really, really appreciate them, though:
Well, that is the perk of being the boss!
True!
I can count 6 pine cones in the top photo and I bet she has one hidden in her boot for later! Nice she something yummy that she loves.
do they eat the whole cone or just lick the peanut butter out of them?
They just lick the peanut butter, though they are very thorough about it, so sometimes we will just find a pile of debris that was once a pine cone.
Do any of the other chimps try to take them away from her?
I bet you make sure there’s enough to go around!
Happy Easter to everyone:)
Only at their own peril! They have to be very careful about it. If you haven’t yet, read this blog post for an example: https://chimpsnw.org/2015/12/the-carrot-saga/