Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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chimp enrichment

Tropical Party on a Rainy Day

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The chimpanzees had a pretty great day today. Foxie got a new doll this morning.

 

For lunch, they had a tropical party courtesy of their friends Oliver Mazner, Jeremy Mazner, and Karen Emmerman Mazner, who won a “Throw a Party for the Chimpanzees” auction item at last year’s HOOT! event.  The chimpanzees had no idea there was a party in store, and they were SUPER excited when the spied the prepared spread:

 

Jeremy renamed the ants-on-a-log “peanut butter shooters” based on Burrito’s technique of deftly removing the peanut butter and raisins while setting the celery aside for a second go-round.

 

Jamie, of course, found the plate that was hidden under the barrel.

 

She took off with the umbrella-adorned pineapple and a sweet pepper.

 

The coconut was a much-admired item by Foxie.

 

Can you just feel Annie’s enjoyment?

 

Here Annie contemplates some lettuce while holding on to some specially-made carrot cake from a recipe that we got from the Center for Great Apes.

 

Annie really scored at this party – she found both the pineapple top and the leftover head of lettuce.

 

To no one’s surprise, Jamie took down the pinata and got most of the spoils.

 

But Negra, ever hopeful, did a check to see if Jamie had left any peanuts behind:

 

After the party, Jamie got to walk with the Mazners and (easily) convinced Oliver to race her multiple times around. It was still drizzling, but Jamie did not mind at all.

 

Rainy day puzzles

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A rainy day like today seemed like a good time to introduce the chimps to a new enrichment food puzzle. Before we fully integrate a puzzle into the chimps’ enrichment schedule, we often do a trial run where we try and gauge the chimps’ level of interest in the puzzle, as well as how difficult it is for them to complete. We ultimately want the puzzle to be really time consuming for them (to keep their minds and bodies busy), but not so much that they give up and stop trying. Today we put out a few bath towel knots that had walnuts tied into them. To really make the puzzle challenging, the towels were dipped in water and frozen prior to the chimps receiving them. All throughout the rest of our cleaning this morning, we heard the thumping sounds of the chimps working on their puzzles in the loft of the playroom. I think we can consider this trial run a success, minus the fact that I didn’t manage to get any photos to document the event. Once we get photos, we will add these Frozen Towel Knots to the Enrichment Database on our website. If you haven’t checked out the new look of the database on our beautifully redone website, I highly recommend it!

Because no blog is complete without photos, here is a selection from the vault:

Burrito:

Jody:

Negra:

Keeping It Clean

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It’s a safe bet that anything you give to a captive chimpanzee will go immediately into their mouth, and if it’s possible to swallow it, they will swallow it. Those of you who have expressed an interest in sending gifts to the chimps have probably been directed to our incredibly detailed safety guidelines for enrichment.

Occasionally we put out a few buckets of soapy water for the chimps – they like to play with the bubbles and sometimes they’ll even pitch in with some cleaning. Always keeping in mind that they can’t be trusted not to ingest whatever we give them, we use only a tiny drop of plant-based non-toxic soap. And that’s a good thing given Annie and Missy’s choices this morning:

Annie:

Missy:

Added enrichment

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Believe it or not, Jamie, the self-appointed boss, has a tendency to hoard enrichment food puzzles. If we put out a dozen Kongs with peanuts in them, Jamie always winds up with a big pile and more than her fair share. To encourage “sharing,” we try to spread out the enrichment as far as possible and we attach a lot of the chimps’ puzzles to the enclosure caging. We use padlocks to hang raisin boards and other puzzles and we have recently introduced dipper tubes which we screw into fixed spots on the outside of their enclosure. With a lot of focus and determination, Jamie has made these new dipper tubes into her own unique personal project. As you’ll see, she loves a good challenge!

The Jody Olympics

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Jody is not the most athletic of chimpanzees. During her first years at the sanctuary she wasn’t always interested in traversing the great outdoors unless it was to forage for wild greens to bring back to her nest and she typically preferred to spend her days lounging with abandon, taking it easy. When she did decide to ramp up her activity a bit, our hearts swelled watching her endearing, but awkward attempts at climbing, running, and even brachiating. All run of the mill stuff for chimpanzees. But understandably, after decades spent in a space the size of a bathroom stall, she needed time to rest, recover and heal before the rebuilding could begin.

With the exception of Negra, Jody is also the most cold aversive of the group, so when she ran outside into the lower 20 degree morning today, clearly with her own agenda to explore every place she possibly could, it made my heart sing. While she still may not be the most agile or sure-footed of chimps, her adventurous and courageous spirit more than make up for it and she continues to grow stronger and more confident every day.

There isn’t much snow left on the ground, but with the temperatures staying below freezing what snow there is has pretty much turned to ice. But even that didn’t deter Jody this morning. Not to be outshone by resident athlete, Missy, Jody seemed to have decided to run her own Olympics course, in classic Jo Jo style.

Heading up the icy hill, she opted to utilize the firehose to hang onto as she bravely ventured onto the tundra:

Back down the hill she stopped to see if she could chip off an ice snack:

Her hair is pilo-erect (hair standing on end) due to both the cold and her excitement (notice that happy droopy lip!):

Nice lunge, Jo!

From here she quickly made her way up to the climbing structures to cross the swinging bridges:

I think this was my favorite moment! The structures were covered in ice and as she cautiously made her way across, she started to slide backward here, but she didn’t give up:

She made it! Looking pretty pleased with herself, as she should be:

No time to waste, she cautiously headed back across:

Here is a glimpse of Jody’s self-appointed coach/spotter/stalker, Burrito, who bravely, but reluctantly, followed her into the freezing temps every step of the way:

Making her way back down the hill toward the greenhouse Jody found a huge chunk of ice. A gold medal by her standards:

Do What You Love

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Snow was a hot commodity today! Jody was really the only one that went out on Young’s Hill and braved the snow (I know, we were surprised too!), everyone else preferred the snow to be served in the warm and comfortable playroom. Jamie tried to go out on the Hill for a walk, but it was pretty cold out so she turned around. Everyone wanted to play and sometimes they all wanted to play separate games at the same time! There were only two of us and seven of them… Foxie was dropping her dolls down, Missy was running around asking to play chase and wanted us to open the barn doors of course, Burrito was rasberry-ing to play, and Jamie wanted to play chase inside (Jamie would sometimes get Missy or Foxie in on some of the games too). Jamie didn’t want to go out on the Hill so she told staff caregiver Katelyn to put a boot on and play chase with her! Jamie made Katelyn and I play a lot of chase, from the playroom to the greenhouse, back to the playroom, and again and again. Jamie would make these low playful grunting sounds that could just melt your heart. Afterward she would ask for her boots back and hug them tight. I even caught her in a corner of the playroom playing with a stuffed Olaf toy. If you can’t do what you love when the weather is bad why not find something else to substitute!

 

Jody out venturing the Hill for snow:

Missy