Foxie is almost never without a troll or Dora the Explorer doll, even when she is climbing, swinging, and playing chase with her friends.
Yawning
It’s been a very quiet day here at the sanctuary. Lots of napping and grooming, with the occasional break to go outside and get snow.
Negra is a pro at napping. She tried to groom with Missy for a while but it apparently wasn’t exciting enough to keep her awake, and she started yawning.
I’m sure you’ve experienced contagious yawning before. Chimpanzees experience the same thing. In fact, the humans and chimps at CSNW “catch” yawns from each other all the time. I have been yawning nonstop for the last ten minutes as I’ve been working on this blog post.
The jury is still out on the function of yawning, but some scientists believe that yawning is contagious in some animals because it facilitates the synchronization of activities, particularly the transition between activity to rest. One study showed that chimpanzees “catch” yawns more often from males than from females. Why would this be the case? According to the authors, we should expect the group to synchronize with male behavior more than females because males are the dominant sex.
In any case, I hope you all feel better now that you’ve had a good yawn.
Bubbles
Once and a while we put out buckets of soapy water, using plant-based soap, for the chimps’ enrichment. Jamie likes to use the soapy water to clean. Jody shoves handfuls of soapy foam into her mouth as she makes her “dinosaur noise” (actually a combination food grunt and low moan).
I don’t know if she did it intentionally, but the other day, Foxie was actually blowing bubbles.
Merry Christmas!
The chimps were so excited for the Christmas party this morning. We hung the tree (still decorated with beads, trolls, and cowboy boot ornaments) and placed all the presents underneath. Many thanks to Jayne Roepke, Jeff and Lori Anderson, Lori Kiers, Dick and Robbi Brown, and Patti Simms for supplying the amazing gifts and decorations.
On the menu this morning was Field Roast with bean gravy, baked yams, cranberry sauce, and pomegranates. We also put out some of Denice’s beautiful cranberry-stuffed mini-pumpkins and cups of sparkling cider.
Burrito and Jody loved the pumpkins.
As soon as they finished all the food, it was time to open presents. The gifts had started the day under the tree but by the end of the morning, the entire pile had moved ten feet as Jamie went through each and every bag.
Annie’s not much for toys, but there’s always a chance that we might have hidden a few snacks in with the gifts.
And we all could have guessed who would end up with the Christmas pinata, right?
Foxie got a bunch of new trolls this morning but her favorite, which she has been sharing with us throughout the day, is also the most appropriate for today.
Pictures don’t do justice to the excitement of the party, so here’s a short video. Our thanks again to all of you that helped make today special, and to those who helped support us throughout 2012. We’d also like to thank our dedicated team of volunteers. There are no days off here at the chimp house, and we couldn’t make it through the holiday season (or any time of year) without your help.
Foxie and her dolls
I can’t imagine Foxie without dolls. She is almost never without one, and they obviously bring her a lot of comfort and happiness. What many people may not realize is that dolls can also be an outlet for Foxie’s frustration.
In the past, Foxie has “adopted” troll dolls, Dora the Explorer dolls, Bratz dolls, and some Madame Alexander Happy Meal figurines. But most other dolls tend to get ripped to shreds immediately, especially stuffed primate dolls. And even her beloved trolls and Doras are not always treated with care.
I think it’s easy to read too much into her behavior, but some things scream out for interpretation. Clearly, Foxie shows some displaced maternal behavior with her trolls and Doras. She had five babies in the lab, and all were taken from her. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that she enjoys getting a chance to care for her dolls in a way that she never did with her real children. But most of the other female chimps at CSNW had children in the lab too, and they don’t show the interest in dolls that Foxie does. Maybe Foxie just has a more active imagination.
We’ll never really know how Foxie feels about her dolls. In school, we learned about chimpanzee behavior, but this is more like psychoanalysis. At some point, most chimpanzee caregivers stop trying to explain every detail of behavior in the chimps they care for and just accept what they see. Foxie loves her troll dolls. She also beats them up from time to time. That’s the Foxie we know and love.
Hurry up and play
Missy tends to speed up in the winter. I think she knows she won’t be able to stay outside as long so she has to cram all of her activities into ten-minute bursts.
Yesterday, she ran outside and immediately started to climb all of the structures.
Then she jumped off of them.
While climbing a structure at the top of the hill, she noticed something.
Ice is somewhat of a delicacy for chimps and Missy is good at finding it.
Of course, wherever there’s a Missy, there’s an Annie close behind, trying to catch up.
Throwing
I recently recorded some footage of Jamie and Negra throwing toys and blankets at each other during a fight, so I thought I’d put together a short video of the different ways the chimps here at the sanctuary throw objects.
Free-living chimpanzees throw objects too. They might throw a large rock or branch into the water, for example, to make a splash as part of their display. Depending on the community, they also throw objects at predator and prey animals, as well as other chimpanzees, like Jamie does in this video.
In captivity, we see a lot of throwing during aggressive or agonistic behavior, for one obvious reason: Captive chimps can’t always physically get to the ones they are directing their aggression towards. This is why we see rock-, dirt-, and feces-throwing directed toward humans outside of the enclosure, and occasionally toward chimpanzees in other enclosures. Spitting works too, but believe me, it does not have the same impact on the recipient as rocks and feces. It’s unfortunate that feces-throwing has become a standard punch line about captive chimps because it’s actually a very intelligent behavior. Disgusting, yes, but also very intelligent. If you are a chimpanzee in captivity, this is the most powerful weapon at your disposal. And Jamie knows that very well.
I am always amazed to hear stories about, and on rare occasions see in person, chimpanzees using objects to test out something dangerous, like Jody does in this video. In this case, it was something truly harmless (a plastic chimpanzee doll) but the chimps also do this sort of thing with real, live snakes. They might throw an object to provoke the thing they are scared of and see how it reacts from a safe distance, or they might do it to see how the object fares during the encounter. In Next of Kin, Roger Fouts recounts the story of a time when Washoe was wary of a new doormat. Instead of stepping on it herself, she threw her doll onto it from a distance and later carefully inspected her doll for damage.
