Knowing what you should do and doing what you should do are two very different things.
When a chimpanzees refuses to cooperate with the daily routine, you should take the opportunity to problem solve. Why do they refuse to shift? Are they anxious about being confined to certain areas with other chimps? Is there something about the space they won’t leave that is particularly appealing to them? Or are they simply looking to exert control over their environment? Then you use your hypotheses to create a plan. For example, you could desensitize them to whatever is causing their anxiety through positive reinforcement, make the other areas more appealing to them, or find other more fruitful ways for them to exercise their autonomy.
What you shouldn’t do is catch them off guard and close them out when they least expect it. But like I said, knowing and doing are two very different things! This is why I like teaching – the students never have to know that you can’t even follow your own advice.
Our latest example of what not to do involves Honey B. Honey B has decided that the Mezzanine does not need to be cleaned. We beg to differ, as do our licensing and accrediting agencies, one would assume. So each morning after breakfast, when the playrooms and greenhouses have been cleaned, we ask her to leave the Mezzanine so we can wash it down. And each morning she politely declines.
Now, one day without cleaning is not that big a deal. It’s not routine but it happens. But after two days we have a problem. And this morning, Honey B was looking to throw another wrench in the works. After several minutes of pleading with her, I gave up and accepted defeat. Honey B would get to keep her Mezzanine – and its mess – yet again.
Later in the afternoon, I walked through the greenhouse hallway and was greeted by Honey B. It occurred to me that I just walked by Mave and Willy B in the playroom. THE MEZZANINE WAS EMPTY. We didn’t have much time.
I grabbed my radio.“J.B. to Anna…No one is in the Mezzanine now if you and Kelsi want to close the door!”
Upon hearing the sound of the hydraulics, Honey B headed towards the Mezzanine but the door was already closed. Feeling guilty, we gave her and the gang some gum and jumped into cleaning like a NASCAR pit crew. Pick up! Rinse! Scrub! Rinse! Squeegee! Put out fresh blankets and enrichment!
As the locks clicked shut we did our final security checks and we were ready to let her back in. I knew that she’d be so relieved to be back in her favorite space.
I opened the door and she…just stayed in the playroom.
Well, at least we have more data for our problem-solving sessions, once we finally get around to doing the right thing. And maybe a new hypothesis: She just likes the mess?
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If you’d like to help Honey B create more messes and help us continue to clean them up, please check out our wish list full of enrichment and supplies!
Ha! Ha! She is another intelligent boss lady, just letting you know that your schedule is entirely up to her, not you! Honey B and Jamie should get together over tea for a management meeting. It must be so hard to get frustrated and mad at such lovable hairy people though because they also give us laughter, joy and so many hours of pleasure.
Carol, I laughed out loud at your comment about Honey B & Jamie getting together for a management meeting! Hilarious (and so true)!! They could throw poop together as part of their protest or Jamie could write out a list (since she’s so good w/ writing & drawing implements) of demands that they could circulate among the others. Let’s hope it’s just an intermittent power issue so the humans don’t start breathy panting for (too much) booze! I wonder if parts of the gang already have meetings to decide on how to get the humans to be more entertaining?
Honey B sound like a teenage girl, and you J.B. sound like her frustrated Dad!!
Good read! Is it possible that Honey B likes to “mess” with you?
I’m with you, Magda. I think she likes to obstruct.
“Honey B, age 32. Likes obstinance and filth.”
J.B., in your youth did you ever consider Stand-up comedian as a career move?
Everything about this post had me laughing. But the one thing that always kills me about Honey B is that deadpan stare of hers. Here you are trying to decipher her behavior and feelings and you get *that face*. How do you problem solve with *that* looking at you?! I mean Honey B looks so innocent. My guess is Honey B worked hard to create that mess and she wants to live in it. On the other hand, she is good with a scrub brush. Is there anyway you can get her to clean up after herself? Not sure how that would fly with your licensing and accrediting agencies. If they have a problem perhaps they can take it with the face.
And where can I sign up to attend one of your classes? 😉
Lol, Honey B with a power hose might be just as dangerous as Jamie with a power drill, Kathleen!
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”…..Robert Burns
We really don’t know what they know, so to second guess them is a foolhardy notion……
This was so funny to read, JB!
If integration goes well and you have a group of 9, do you think that will be harder to shift than 7? How long did it take to get the 7 to (mostly) comply with shifting?
And following Kathleen’s observation on Beezus’ deadpan expression, I’d like to ask–a while back you wrote on their “tells” (that one was on Burrito’s morning displays). Does Honey B have a “tell”?
It’s hard to say how difficult shifting would be if we are able to integrate the nine. One advantage would be that the building is mostly symmetrical in design – a greenhouse and playroom on each side of a central hallway – so they’d be shifting to and from similar areas, unlike how the seven have to shift between different areas. But these things aren’t always logical and it only takes one chimp to hold everything up! It took at least a year before the seven got into the swing of things, and even then – and to this day – Missy will hold out on us.
Honey B has a pretty good poker face…I’m not sure she has a tell.
So it’s another of her mother’s traits! “Breeding will tell.”
Thanks, JB. Funny, I wouldn’t have guessed Missy was the holdout, since we always see/hear about Neggie, Foxie, and Jo.
oh my goodness! Laughing so hard! “the Mezzanine does not need to be cleaned. We beg to differ, as do our licensing and accrediting agencies, one would assume.” AND “Honey B, age 32. Likes obstinance and filth.” (along with the photo it captioned). They keep you on your toes, J.B., that’s one of their jobs!
Funny, and elucidating. Since Honey Beezie is quite adept with a scrub-brush, perhaps her reasoning is that those messy and meddling humans can interrupt a perfectly fine mess and leave in their wake a widespread petri dish of sterility. Yet further evidence that human primates absolutely do not make good housepets but, rather, need to be remanded to sanctuaries were their problematic behaviors can be somewhat controlled.
And yet they all got chewing gum. Sounds likes a win to me.
As a Hoosier I would rather you had worked like an Indy pit crew, no offense intended.
Laurie, How nice to learn of another Hoosier on this blog! Converse, Indiana is my indigenous natural habitat. To earn a fortnightly paycheck, I am obliged to live and work in the People’s Republic of Minneapolis. While Nutmeg, Meredith and their mothers might feel at home across the street from my old house in Converse, I am grateful that they have a front-row view to their chimpanzee neighbors.
Miss Honey B is definitely a force to be reckoned with, Wow!
Love the guilt she put on you, only to stay at the other spot when cleaning was done :joy:.
she is too funny and wow is she smart!!! Lets not forget about spoiled rotten!!!! but thats ok! she deserves all the good things in life!