Annie

Still life with Missy

April 2, 2014 by Katelyn

If you are a regular follower of the blog you probably realize it’s a rare moment that we catch Missy sitting still. Just yesterday I saw her on Young’s Hill trying to climb the very uncooperative and very bendy bamboo. She finally gave up, leapt into the air and spun 360 degrees before landing, and then ran back down the hill at full speed.

Today all the chimpanzees have been enjoying a leisurely day of lounging, grooming, and napping. And even the ever-moving Missy decided to take a few minutes to relax. But Missy still throws a little of her own flare into relaxing. While she is having a Missy-style quiet moment in these photos, (and what I unfortunately couldn’t capture with the camera) she is simultaneously tapping her best pal, Annie, on the head as Annie bites Missy’s toes.

April Fool’s Day at the chimp house

April 1, 2014 by Debbie

We are always trying to come up with fun and interesting ideas to enrich the chimpanzees at CSNW. Since today is April Fool’s Day, I was coming up with ways to mix things up for the chimps. We tried to serve lunch at breakfast, which didn’t seem to go over as well as I had thought—the chimps were expecting fruit smoothie! So we made up for that faux pas by doing a smoothie forage.

While Elizabeth and I were setting up the smoothie cups, we were trying to come up with “jokes” to play with the enrichment. We decided to put all their toys for the day inside an old trash can, and “leave behind” some things we normally don’t let the chimps have. We left a disinfectant container (with tea instead of disinfectant of course) and a gum container with just a couple pieces of gum in it, plus some kitchen utensils and other chimp-safe things we could find. This part of the day’s enrichment went much better than the first April Fool’s joke we played on the chimps! They loved it.

Jamie was the first to open the trash can of enrichment, and Annie was very interested, too.

Foxie:

Missy:

Jody found the “disinfectant” tea first:

And Jamie also took an interest:

Are you going to eat that?

March 30, 2014 by Lisa

Breakfast this morning at the sanctuary was a leisurely affair in a warm and cozy greenhouse. The chimpanzees enjoyed apples, pears and the fruit smoothie in addition to their chow. The menu appeared to be quite popular with everyone today and there was quite a bit of food peering going on. Food peering is a common occurrence in chimpanzee communities and is observed in both captive and free-living situations. Essentially, it is a nonverbal way of asking, “Are you going to eat all of that?” As a method of communication, it can be more or less effective given the audience and the mood. Today, although there were quite a few instances of it, there were not very many instances of actual food sharing, so, I would say as a strategy it was, on the whole, largely ineffective.

Annie on Young’s Hill

March 26, 2014 by Debbie

Sometimes, Annie will sit out on Young’s Hill to just take in the view and feel the sun on her back, even if no one is sitting there with her. We used to say that Annie wouldn’t do much without Missy by her side, but that’s not how we describe Annie anymore. She is fine being on her own.

It’s only for a short while though, because of course her friend Missy will run out to play chase at full speed.

Paper, it’s fun and practical!

March 24, 2014 by Lisa

As JB mentioned in his blog post last month about power, mornings at the sanctuary can often be determined by the luck of the draw. Today I should have played the lottery because I was blessed with good weather, good moods, and good enrichment.

If you’re a long time reader of the blog you’ll be familiar with the concept of enrichment and how central it is to engaging the chimpanzees actively in their environment. If you’re new here I encourage you to explore to find older entries we’ve written about it, like this one. We try to provide new and engaging activities and items for the chimpanzees on a regular basis to help mitigate the boredom that can result from captivity. To that end, we have an enrichment calendar to schedule themes for creating the daily enrichment that the chimpanzees are given; it helps us stay creative.

Today’s theme was lots of paper, and yes, it’s been done before, but the reprise was just as good as the original, if you ask these chimpanzees. Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it, you can see it for yourself in the video below!

St. Patrick’s Day Party – in brief verse

March 17, 2014 by Lisa

There were seven chimps of Cle Elum
Who were ready for breakfasts of melon.
The party was set
In the greenhouse the fete.
At foraging they were excelling!

And, yes, I apologize in advance for my less then ideal rhymes, it’s very difficult to come up with words that rhyme with Cle Elum. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all!!

Annie forages for nuts in a sock: