Today was another unseasonably warm January day! The morning frost shrank away in the face of the formidable sun, and the chimpanzees went exploring.
Missy was all over the hill – running, climbing, frolicking, and looking for icy treats.
There are a few hanging tires on the hill that Missy knows harbor special gifts. In the summer, the tires sometimes have wasps nests, which she, Jamie, and Jody will carefully (though not without risk) harvest to eat the larvae. In the winter, when the wasps are long gone, fallen rain collects in the bottom of the tires and freezes.
It’s not always easy removing the frozen block of ice. Today, as I watched, Missy tried a couple of different positions to get the right leverage in order to remove the ice in one of the tires.
Still was not successful, she went back inside the greenhouse, passing Jody, who was stand as sentry watching the other chimpanzees on the hill.
Jody suddenly got up and started walking up the hill with no small amount of determination. Missy must have been watching Jody from the greenhouse, because she quickly came back outside (with two crayons in her mouth).
She seemed to suspect what Jody was up to, and ran to get ahead of her.
By the time Jody reached the first tire…
Missy had already absconded with the treat and ran up the hill, nature’s bounty in hand.
And the crayons?! Can I assume those were quickly ditched in the tall grass with the immediate and dire change of plans? I am also guessing that Missy had the crayons because she was making calculations on weight x distance = force or some such thing.
They are so funny and so very much like us.
I’m not sure where those crayons ended up, but I also suspect they were left in the tall grass somewhere. Perhaps Missy fetched them later to do more calculations 🙂
Sounded like a very busy day and fun one for the chimps with the warmer weather
and so much activity. I’m sure they liked a change in the weather – already thinking
of Spring.
Fun post Diana… It’s so cool that they can harvest their own ice from places they discover all by themselves… When they start pressing up against the bottom of the tire so that their body heat releases the ice we will know that soon THEY will be passing out treats you their caregivers rather than the other way around. They are truly an amazing group… as will the next group be too! Thanks.. hugs to you Diana… and all.
Hi, Diana!
Count this as another “weird” part of your job, but this question just occurred to me, seeing someone besides Jamie with crayons: have they ever colored on the walls!? 😀
There has been some wall art in the past! None I’ve seen recently. Apparently most chimpanzees agree that crayons are delicious and they don’t tend to last long enough to be used for their intended purpose.
Interesting! And thank God for edible (non toxic) crayons!
How funny!! They are so resourceful.