Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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cattail

Change of Plans

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This afternoon I was photographing Jamie as she chewed and wadged some cattails.

While I was hoping to write a blog post about wadging, she soon decided that she’d rather groom the camera with her cattails.

There’s no way to ever be a fly on the wall when photographing chimps.

Thankfully, Jamie was in a very laid back mood today so she let me continue taking close-up pictures while she groomed the camera, my phone, and my boots.

Eventually, a bit of drama between some field mice outside the Greenhouse got Jamie’s attention, and she chose to finish wadging her cattails where she could watch it unfold.

Wadging

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Whenever I try to describe wadging, I end up making it sound too clinical: Chimpanzees wadge in order to extract nutrients from fibrous foods. This is true in the sense that humans eat food in order to extract nutrients, but but it doesn’t get at the enjoyment that we feel when we eat.

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I’m pretty sure that chimps get that same feeling when they wadge. One of the most mysterious aspects of it (to me anyway, maybe there’s a good explanation) is that they seem compelled to keep checking on the wadge. They hold it out on the tip of their lips for a visual inspection. They take it out and hold in their hand. They work on rolling it into the perfect ball. I don’t know what makes a wadge good or bad from a chimp’s perspective, but it seems like they are constantly evaluating them.

Young’s Hill is too dry for growing cattails, but we collect them from a nearby pond and give them to the chimps. Cattails are great for wadging, as Burrito demonstrates here: