After several days of beautiful sunshine, we’re having a gray and rainy afternoon today. Not surprisingly, the chimpanzees are staying warm and dry inside curled up with as many blankets as they can find. Jody has no complaints.
Friends
Burrito can be a little intimidated by the other chimpanzees. Because of his social anxiety, he tends to play much more with his human friends than with his chimpanzee family, but he and Foxie have a special friendship (learn more about that here).
All Play, All the Time
Foxie has her choice of play partners here at the sanctuary, from troll dolls to other chimpanzees to caregivers.
Carried Away
On a typical day at the sanctuary, we put out around 60 blankets for the chimpanzees. They use the blankets to build large, soft nests.
Jody, in particular, loves her blankets. (Watch a video from a few years ago of Jody building a nest out of a million blankets here.) She loves her blankets so much that she often picks up her whole nest and carries it with her when she decides to move from one area to another. While the other chimps tend to abandon their nests when they leave the area and build a new one elsewhere, it seems Jody doesn’t want to risk being left blanketless.
Playing with Dolls
Foxie can always find a willing play partner in her troll dolls.
Master Relaxer
Seeing Jody kick back always makes me sleepy.
On a Mission
This afternoon Foxie was lying on the platform in the greenhouse when she spotted a troll doll lying on the ground. She jumped the few feet from the platform to the ground to rescue the abandoned troll.
Pre-leap:
Post-rescue:
