Burrito and Foxie are great friends, but sometimes friends just aren’t in the mood to play when you are.
Animal Welfare
Negra
Snow
Thanksgiving Party!
It was an exciting morning here at CSNW! We did a lunch forage with pomegranates, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, avocados, cabbage, and bananas, and volunteer Jeani found some Brussels sprout stalks- what a treat! Right now, volunteer CJ is preparing cranberry sauce, green onions, and eggplant for the chimps dinner. I can’t wait to hear the squeaks over the cranberry sauce!
Here’s Annie with her Brussels sprout stalk:
Pomegranates are ALWAYS a hit, so we put out whole ones. Guaranteed food squeaks!
Since hiding the food in boots was such a hit on Jamie’s Birthday, we filled boots (and socks, and hats, and troll dolls, and various other containers) with food. Yum! It seemed to get everyone in the spirit.
Burrito with a bottle filled with cauliflower:
We all have so many things to be thankful for, and we are all so grateful for all of you supporters! We truly could not do this without you!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Greetings
Chimpanzee culture is very political. In order to rise to the top of the hierarchy, or to stay on the good side of those at the top, a chimpanzee must know who to rub elbows with (so to speak) and when, and to what degree.
One of the ways a subordinate chimpanzee can show respect to a more dominant chimpanzee is by offering an elaborate greeting. These greetings occur when the two individuals meet after being apart from each other for some time. Most greetings involve some sort of vocalization (a breathy pant or a pant grunt, as you’ll see in the video) on the part of the subordinate chimpanzee. Generally, the louder the vocalization, the more tense the subordinate chimp feels.
Many of the chimp-to-chimp greetings here at CSNW are directed toward Burrito. Although he is not the most dominant chimpanzee here — he doesn’t quite have the skills, probably because he lacked a proper male chimpanzee role model growing up — his displays are pretty effective at intimidating the girls, so they try their best to appease him whenever they can. You might notice in the video that Burrito often turns his back or squeezes his eyes shut when he’s bring greeted. As much as he tries to show the girls who’s boss, the truth is he’s pretty nervous in social situations. Failing to graciously receive the other chimps’ greetings is probably one of the things holding him back from the dominant status he seems to desire.
Annie-isms
If you are signed up for our E-newsletter, you know we talked about some of Annie’s antics in the latest edition. You may have wondered about some of them, namely her “bird noises”, and I don’t blame you– it sounds weird! But it happens, and here’s proof, along with some of her other silly antics.
Celebrating Jody
As part of their Chimps Deserve Better campaign, the Humane Society of the United States named Jody Chimpanzee of the Month for November. We at CSNW might be biased, but we think Jody couldn’t be more deserving. Today we celebrated Jody with all of her favorite things.