This morning we put a bunch of barrels together and made a blanket fort, with all the toys inside of the fort. Not surprisingly, Jamie was interested in checking things out.
A different view
Yesterday JB walked up to the top of Young’s Hill to get some shots of the chimps from that angle. The sky was blue and the sun was out, and it made for a really pretty backdrop.
Regular Morning Routine
As we mentioned on the Facebook page yesterday, sometimes the daily routine fluctuates, and as caregivers we have to be pretty flexible depending on the choices the chimps make. Typically though, we do have a regular schedule. First we invite the chimpanzees in for breakfast—and as long as everybody comes in, one person (the Care staff or Level III volunteer) will serve breakfast while the other person (the Lead Caregiver) will start cleaning the playroom. We never enter an enclosure at the same time as the chimpanzees, so we have to ensure that all the chimps are out of the room we want to clean, and that every chimp door is secure. We do this for cleaning the playroom, front rooms, and the greenhouse. (To see what cleaning is like, watch this video from a couple years ago). Today things followed the regular routine, which you’ll see in the video below.
Stealth Mode
As many of our readers know, Jamie is the most dominant chimp of the Cle Elum Seven. That means that if food is nearby, whether she is interested in it at that moment or not, the other chimps respect it as hers and avoid grabbing anything that she might consider her own. You’ll see a couple interesting politics in the following video. Burrito knows that Jamie has left some chow on the floor and abandoned them to start wrestling with Foxie. He’s waiting for a point where he can take advantage of that distraction and get the chow pieces for himself. Once he eventually gets his opportunity, Foxie catches him in the act, and wants some for herself. Although Jamie still appears uninterested, Foxie asks for her permission to take some chow… but Jamie decides that she wants to keep the few pieces remaining for herself.
B’s day
Burrito’s birthday is just a week away! Let’s make Mr. B’s-day super great. Find out how you can become Burrito’s Pal, or Sponsor his B-day! His favorite thing in the world is food—of all kinds. Here’s a few photos of B’s cute food face:
And we can never forget Burrito’s pumpkin head from this year’s Halloween party:
Jamie helps clean up
As we’ve mentioned before, Jamie is particularly human-oriented. (Read this post from the first week Jamie was in sanctuary). She definitely watches us do things and will do them in her own style later. Jamie also likes to check up on any kind of work that’s been done and once she’s given access to a room that was previously closed off for maintenance, she will rush in to give her quality control tests.
In the first part of this video, you’ll see her cleaning up a recent paint job in one of the front rooms. We are replacing the benches, so you’ll see some primer on the wall in the spot where the bench used to be. In the second part of the video, Jamie is scrubbing a notably hard-to-reach spot. Clearly I did not do a good enough cleaning job! But I’m so glad to have Jamie’s help.
Tangerine forage
For the big Christmas celebration yesterday, Diana, Elizabeth, and Seana put out some tangerines on Young’s Hill in addition to the ones strung on the Christmas tree. However I guess the chimps were too excited about the big party inside that they didn’t really go out and forage for the tangerines yesterday. So today, they were still hanging out there, frozen for sure. I decided to leave them because I know how excited the chimps get about frozen fruit. Turns out that Jamie was pretty much the only one willing to brave the cold for any length of time, so she ended up with lots frozen tangerines to herself!
Foxie quickly came out and grabbed one tangerine while Jamie was working on some by the bamboo:
Jamie decided to eat her collection in the warmth of the greenhouse.
