I’m pretty sure these two never stop playing.
Annie
Boomer Balls
Spring Fever, Part II
Having grown up in southern California, I don’t think I ever really appreciated spring until I moved to a part of the country with a real winter. It was only a few weeks ago that it was finally warm enough outside for me to open the windows in my apartment. That’s probably my favorite part of spring: the first dose of glorious, fresh air. I thought of the chimpanzees and how it wouldn’t be long before we would be able to open the barn doors in their playroom and let the warm air in. As Jackie said in this post, that opportunity came just the other day, and the chimps seemed to be just as grateful as I had been. Here’s some video from that day.
Hello, Spring
Volunteers Stephanie and Kate came to the chimp house this morning armed with a bounty of goodies (edible and non-) for a party celebrating the arrival of spring!
More enhanced enrichment puzzles
Thanks to volunteer Cari Parker, we have more enhanced enrichment puzzles. Cari’s friend Stephanie sponsored today in honor of Cari’s Birthday, so Cari sent us a box of enrichment for the occasion. Included in the box of goodies were some PVC pipe puzzles. There is a photo with an explanation in the video below.
Keeping the chimps (especially super smart Jamie) enriched is a challenge. We are always trying to come up with new puzzle ideas- and these are great! (Thanks, Cari!) If you ever have any ideas you would like to share, please email me at [email protected]
Calm
Caregivers as enrichment
Let’s face it- no matter how much we do to spice up captivity with enrichment and projects, it can still get pretty boring sometimes. We try to do what ever we can to keep the chimps entertained, including simple things like drinks from the hose. The chimps have access to water 24 hours a day, but sometimes they just seem to prefer to have us “fill them up”, so to speak, instead. Chimps have prehensile lips and a large pouch in their bottom lip, so they can hold a lot of water in there! And, as always here at CSNW, they have the choice to drink or…