Today JB has been working with a crew of people to make improvement’s to Young’s Hill, including finishing the new structures, planting more trees and adding irrigation. You would think this would make for a very stir crazy group of chimpanzee’s but they all managed to take it in stride and have a relatively quiet day together. It helps that they had a lot of activities and enrichment to keep them busy including juice pools, TV time and, of course, supervising Jake when he was left alone to mow on Young’s Hill. Join Jamie & Co for a day in the Chimp House in today’s blog video!
Annie
Stay a While
The chimp house can be a bit chaotic in the morning into the early afternoon, but in a good way, of course. The building is humming with energy in preparation of the day, as the humans prepare meals, enrichment, food puzzles, work on laundry, clean the building, and do more laundry. Meanwhile, the chimps are either laughing and playing or displaying and causing a ruckus. Most days are a combination of all these activities. However, by the afternoon, the chimp house seems to be calmer, at least for the humans. After lunch, is often when you will see the chimps in the position I like to call, come over and stay a while. This is when the caregivers can sit and spend some time with their friends. The chimps often sit in a comfortable position and when they see you, they may get up and invite you to groom or sit with them for a while. Sometimes though, as we walk by to grab laundry or clean toys, we just admire how cozy and laid back they look.
Willy B grooming himself, foot up on the mesh to show he is very relaxed:
Obviously, Willy B have to try to look at his teeth through the camera:
Honey B can somehow look relaxed in a nest while simultaneous looking up to no good 🙂
And Rayne, the laid back queen herself:
Bonus photo of Annie! We put out a lunch forage today with some whole oranges and a few whole veggies. Annie went all the way to the top before everyone and scored big time!
A Little Peace of Spring
Today has been quite the perfect spring day at the sanctuary. The day started with Negra at the front of the line for the door to Young’s Hill, ready to lead her group to forage for grass on the hill, so I had a feeling today was going to be a great day. Annie and Burrito stayed outside foraging for those tasty spring grasses right up until breakfast was served, as did Gordo, and the sanctuary was quiet save for the sounds of staff preparing for the day.
We have all enjoyed a steady breeze and plenty of sunshine, and had forages for both groups during lunch. There has been plenty of play – among the chimps and between chimps and humans – with chimp laughter and the sounds of stomping feet during games of chase filling the chimp house. Today has been a perfect example of some of the things that bring me compassion satisfaction: the quiet moments of contentment among the chimps, hearing breathy chimpanzee laughter as they play with each other, getting to see them enjoy new enrichment items, and being invited to play with them. I also found myself feeling extremely grateful for this place that the chimpanzees and cattle get to call home as I watched the grass sway, listened to the aspen leaves shake against each other in the wind, and appreciated the beauty of the river and mountains in the distance. I hope the video and pictures from the day can convey a little bit of the peace we all felt today, and bring you happiness wherever you are as well.
Burrito and Annie foraging for grass
Burrito and Annie foraging for grass
Burrito with a handful of freshly picked grass
This, That, and the Other
You have probably read before that caregivers usually have mounds of unused photos and video clips. There are multiple reasons why they don’t make it to the blog: they didn’t quite fit that particular blog so they get lost to the wayside. They are too short to include into a full video. The reasons go on. Here are some clips I found on my phone that have yet to be used. Minus the Rayne clip, which I grabbed from the security cameras today.
Earlier today, you may have read it has been one year since we lost our beloved Jody Chimpanzee. I will be honest, it still is extremely hard for me to talk or even think about that day. This entire 365 days has felt like it was just yesterday, yet at the same time 1,000 years ago. There is literally not a single day that passes in which I don’t think about her.
On Jody’s burial spot, we planted some lilac trees, if you may recall. Right after planting the trees, they lost their leaves and seemed to be dead. We hoped that wasn’t the case and that Fall was just doing its thing. As the months passed and no sign of life, we began to lose hope that they survived. Well, I am happy to say, they in fact did not! On the contrary, they are thriving in this early Spring. When I noticed it as I was doing my morning run around Young’s Hill with Burrito, my eyes immediately went from dry to emitting a salty watery discharge.
Since noticing it, my entire day was filled with thoughts and memories of Jody. All the thoughts of our Joji gave me the idea to do something she loved: foraging. But I didn’t want to just do a normal forage as usual and call it a day. No. I decided to spice things up a little bit. I hid several “jackpots” around Young’s Hill. The more difficult to get to, the better the jackpot. Most of the jackpots were whole carrots and potatoes. But there was one jackpot that took a keen eye to spot and some athletic agility! (<– BIG foreshadowing of who got it.)
The prize?
A whole opal apple in one of the trees at the top of the hill! I will spare you the details of how I got it up there and got it to stay.
One person came to mind of who would reach it first. To no surprise, that person knew I was up to something at the top of the hill and it was worth skipping the bigger forage at large and see what was up there.
Initially, she found one of the easier to reach whole carrots. When she looked up though, she dropped everything and raced up the tree. I wasn’t able to get photos of it on account that I am not as fast as Missy and couldn’t make it up the hill in time.
I did, however, follow Missy the rest of the forage. During that time, Missy when to every single structure to see if any more big prizes were to be had. (Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t since some of the places she looked, I wouldn’t have been able to reach.)
It was well worth climbing to some pretty hard to reach areas to watch Missy seemingly having a forage that was designed for her, unintentionally.
Here are some bonus photos from today!
Burrito
Missy
Gordo
Rayne
Jamie
Negra
Foxie
Terry
Forage Season!
We love forage season! It’s the best time of the year, when the weather is warm enough for chimps to hangout outside! Personally, it’s my favorite time of the year to take pictures of the chimps! I love seeing the grass contrast in the background. Please enjoy these photos of the chimps having a great day!
Burrito getting a bird’s-eye view of his neighbors while eating his kohlrabi:
Later he snagged some sweet potato:
Jamie did very well for herself (the green onion in foot is the best):
Annie bird:
Negra was the first one out this morning and the first one out for the forage:
Foxie eating a carrot:
Foxie in the green grass:
We even got a glimpse of Rayne from Young’s Hill:
Rayne really enjoyed the forage:
Bonus photos of Mave working on a Giant Kong:
*Event coming up* if anyone is in the Washington or Seattle area, we will be tabling at the Planted Expo at the Seattle Convention Center this Saturday, April 20th and Sunday, April 21st from 10 to 5. This will be our first time at Planted and we are really looking forward to it, so come say hi!
A Pear-y Good Forage
Earlier this week, I was conducting my security checks to enure it was safe to give the chimpanzees access to Young’s Hill first thing in the morning. As I was checking a few locks that lead to Young’s Hill, Negra was sitting at the door that leads to the outdoor enclosure, clapping at me. This is more often than not Negra-speak for “Hurry the expletive up!” (I just assume Negra curses like a sailor when communicating with the humans.)
As the good loyal subject that I am, I obeyed my queen’s wishes and put a little more pep into my step. When I finally got the clearance to let them outside, Negra was the first one out, and she was moving with a purpose. Why did she want to go outside so badly? She had left some things out there from the day prior. (Also note, please watch J.B.’s video from yesterday.)
Cauliflower! Negra remembered there was leftover cauliflower from the previous day’s forage. And Negra was on a mission to find all the leftovers, regardless of the fact breakfast was about to be served.
This was a little different than the normal foraging for morning Spring grass. Just like Burrito this morning.
Burrito’s morning forging was interrupted by screaming from his neighbors, so he jettisoned back to home base to watch.
With all this foraging, I decided, “What the heck? I’m sure they’ll like another one. I’m sure there will be something leftover for her tomorrow morning.”
And just like the other day, Negra was the first one out. There was chow biscuits to be had and neighbors to snoop on after all!
Even Missy made sure to keep an eye on her neighbors to not miss anything exciting they might do.
But to others, the food was more important. Especially when one of those food items is pears!
As some of you know, Jamie is a fiend for pears.
We are pretty sure Jamie was able to find every pear slice out there.
For Foxie, her pears were carrots.
And for Burrito, his pears were shallots.
My apologies! I could have sworn I got photos of Annie, but I guess I was mistaken. Just know that she was eyeing all the kohlrabi.
With one final grab at a whole kohlrabi, Negra headed back inside.
She didn’t even break eye contact from the Bray on her way in.
As the day begins to wind down and dinner is being prepared, I will leave you with two bonus photos!
Jamie fishing some raisins out of a pool we left her.
And Missy, right above Jamie, fishing raisins out of a raisin board.
Ain’t No Foolin’
Happy Day After April Fools Day! Hopefully nobody pranked any of you too bad!
I apologize for this very brief blog! Caregivers had their biweekly staff meeting, and today’s went a wee bit longer than anticipated. So please forgive me.
I do have photos though! I hope they paint a better picture of today than any words I could conjure up!
Negra
Missy
Crow
Jamie
Foxie
Annie
Burrito
Cy
Rayne
Mave
