Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Our coaxing and encouragement to get Burrito to spend time in the greenhouse (largely based on Burrito’s favorite activity – eating) has been really successful. Here are a couple of photos of Mr B. in the greenhouse from the cabbage wrap dinner the other night.
Although the girls have been spending the majority of the daylight hours playing, grooming, nesting, and resting in the greenhouse since it was completed, Burrito has been much more hesitant to go out. He usually has the indoors to himself during the day while everyone else enjoys the 75 degree weather outside. Even the lure of food hasn’t been enough to tempt him outside for more than a couple of very nervous minutes (and everybody knows how much Burrito loves food!).
He’s making remarkable progress, though. In the last few days, he has begun to come out into the greenhouse for a few minutes at a time (even with no food incentive). This morning, he spent about 20 minutes in the sun grooming Jody and playing with his human friends. I don’t think I can express how happy we all are to see him gaining so much confidence!
As some of you may know from previous blog posts (most notably, All About Burrito), Burrito doesn’t laugh too often. In fact, he sometimes bites his hand in what seems to be an attempt to keep himself from laughing. But yesterday, Foxie turned over his tickle box and he just couldn’t help himself.
Diana and I took some photos this afternoon while the chimps enjoyed a lunch forage outside. It was great to see Burrito enjoying the sunshine.
Negra stuffed as many onions in her mouth as she could and headed back to the play room.
Jamie went after the brussels sprouts, but apperantly not before contemplating them first.
She also spent some time dipping her onions in buckets of water, and then pouring the water from one container into another. This is typical Jamie. She has such an active mind, and she will often make projects for herself to keep busy.
Chimpanzees are famous for their ability to use tools, but some individuals are more skilled than others. We know that human talent is a combination of genetics, early life experience, and practice, and the same is true with chimpanzees, I believe.
Jamie loves using tools. She could spend all day working on a project. I don’t think she’s as interested in the end result as she is in the process. Sometimes, when we are serving food, we accidentally drop a few pieces on the floor outside the enclosure. Jamie will spend the rest of the mealtime working to get those pieces, even though her caregivers are still giving out food.
Burrito, on the other hand, is just not a tool user. He has very limited patience, and he doesn’t seem to get that same flash of insight that spurs chimpanzees like Jamie to go fetch an appropriate tool. This doesn’t necessarily mean he is less intelligent. Most of the time, begging humans for help works just fine. But it does give you an idea why Burrito is not the alpha that he would like to be – Jamie is always one step ahead of him!
When it comes to play partners, Burrito tends to prefer his human friends. It is pretty rare to see him join in with the girls’ games (it’s hard to say why — perhaps he’s a little intimidated). Although he spends a fair amount of time grooming and being groomed by the other chimps, once things get playful, he usually withdraws a bit. So I was quite excited this morning when I caught him playing with Foxie in the front rooms. Apparently it looked like such a good time that Jody and Jamie tried to join in, too.
