We may never understand what it is about boots that Jamie loves so much, but love them she does.
chimp enrichment
Never Assume
When training new volunteers and staff, learning to identify the chimps is very important. The chimps all have distinguishing features about them. Staff will try to give helpful pointers to help figure out who is who. For example, Foxie has what looks like a bow tie on her swelling, some chimps have defined brow ridges like Jody, and Missy is petite and has a short neck. Some have freckles, permanently crazy bed hair, different body types, and others have scars or pieces of ears or toes missing. There is also the way that they carry themselves. Jamie often walks with confidence and always looks like she is 3 steps ahead of you. You can often find certain chimps in a particular area that they like or holding specific enrichment they are fond of. For example, Negra loves to make a nest on the second floor in the corner of the playroom. However, this is where it gets tricky and why we tell staff and volunteers to judge only by physical characteristics and not by what we know they like or where “their spot” is. I have also seen little Miss nesting in the same spot as Negra! Jamie loves boots and Foxie always has a doll with her, but they like to throw us curve balls! I often find someone else holding a doll like Jamie or even today I spotted Negra holding a troll doll and putting it in her pelvic pocket. We train our staff and volunteers to take their time identifying the chimps, get to know the chimps, and especially their physical characteristics!
Negra: Holding a troll doll
Sundays are Important
Sundays are important for catching up on sleep, chores, and just plain old relaxation. Jamie and Burrito took full advantage of resting while the playroom was being cleaned. Napping was a good idea because today was a busy day with a summer visit and a forage on the hill.
Jamie made a huge nest with blankets and at least 4 boots:
Burrito napped on a platform and used a very comfortable blanket to rest his head:
After Jamie left, Burrito thought the sandbox looked comfortable to take a nap in:
Or play, because we all know he can’t resist a good game:
Happy Birthday, Foxie!!
Woohoo!! It’s Foxie’s birthday and a very special day of sanctuary was sponsored in her honor by her (and our) wonderful friend, Tracy Headley! Foxie is 41 and full of sass and spitfire this morning! I think it’s more like 41 going on 14. She started her birthday morning off with a wild game of chase with Annie and Missy, swinging on a firehose while play-kicking at her friends and laughing, and then hanging upside down from the greenhouse ceiling while kicking her feet every which way possible.
Birthday packages arrived this morning, an exciting brunch forage is being prepped, and all the trolls and Dora dolls are lining up for the celebration!
Tracy, thank you so much for helping us make this an extra special day for Foxie! We are so lucky to have you as part of our chimp family. Foxie is such a special soul bringing joy, comfort, love and shenanigans to the lives of us all.
Foxie, if there were a picture of my heart I am pretty sure it would look like you. We all could not possibly love you more. We hope this day full of excitement, smoothies, fruit, crazy chimp shenanigans, more trolls and Doras than you could possibly carry, hug, bite and do pirouettes on, friends, family and love, so much love, is the best birthday yet. Until the next and the next and the next…
Happy Birthday, Foxie!!
Moments of comfort
After experiencing over 30 years of deprivation, it never ceases to amaze me (or make my heart burst) to see the chimpanzees so fully embrace a life of comfort in their own unique ways. It physically hurts my heart to think of all they went without for so long and makes each moment of joy and comfort for them all the more meaningful.
The chimps recently received some new SUPER fluffy fleece blankets and they adore them. They look as though they are floating on clouds sitting in their nests, the blankets sometimes as high as their chests. We found two super voluptuous nests this morning while cleaning the playroom. Despite Jamie’s aversion to snakes, she really loves to incorporate the stuffed toy snakes into her nests:
Jamie (we assume) decided to use a chopstick to remove a washer from somewhere yet to be discovered. She is far too smart for our own good:
This beauty was spread out over the catwalk:
Beautiful Annie lounging:
Jody in particular loved the new blankets (naturally) and frequently rubbed her head and face against them:
Jody’s sweet feet in a cloud of fluff as she napped this morning:
Seeing the chimps surrounding themselves in comfort will never grow old.
Building Patience one Tomato at a Time
If you did not already know this about Missy, she LOVES tomatoes. Currently in our garden we have tomatoes and cherry tomatoes growing. The garden is a type of enrichment for the chimps. It is fun to have the excitement build while they wait for some of their favorite foods to grow! This morning Jamie and Missy reminded Caregiver Katelyn and I that they were out there! Missy stuck around a little longer to see if they were ripe yet. Unfortunately, they are not ready to be consumed. But… I did fine tomatoes in the fridge, which everyone got to enjoy for lunch!
Missy looking out into the garden:
Missy
Missy staring back, waiting for us to find the ripened ones:
Missy continuing to look for tomatoes:
To each their own
If you’ve been following the blog for long you’re aware that we often write about providing enrichment for the chimpanzees as a way to help alleviate boredom and bring interest and fun to their days. A lot of the enrichment is provided by us humans in the form of things like toys, food puzzles, parties, and wild browse we collect. And a lot of the enrichment the chimps provide themselves such as harvesting wild greens from Young’s Hill. Staff and volunteers alike spent countless hours trying to think of new and exciting things and we keep enrichment calendars so that we’re inspired to think outside the box and mix things up. And inspiration often simply comes from the area we live in and the distinct four seasons we have.
Being summer, it’s fun to offer the chimps extra ways to stay hydrated and cool. So today we placed the ever-popular ice water buckets and a table of ice in the chimps’ playroom. We also made a very shallow pool in the chimps’ sandbox in the greenhouse and filled it with cups for them to help themselves to throughout the day. For all the effort we put into making things new and exciting, sometimes it’s the simplest things that get the chimps excited. There was so much hooting going on over ice!
Annie found a big ice chunk and quickly made her way to the greenhouse where she made a nest to enjoy it from (you can notice the ice chunk just outside her nest):
Enter Missy. Missy LOVES ice and being the more dominant of the two chimps, Annie decided not to eat the ice with Missy hanging around. Missy was very aware of this and kept taking passes looking at the ice, but she didn’t take it from Annie. So the ice melted away as the standoff continued. But this didn’t keep Annie from relaxing and enjoying her time. That leg!!
I never did see where the ice wound up, but either way Annie seemed utterly content.
And then there’s Jamie. Two summers ago we noticed for the first time that somehow (and much to our surprise) she and Missy had discovered wasp larvae to be an exceptional delicacy. This is pretty intriguing for a variety of reasons, but the bottom line is Jamie loves them and finds the risks in harvesting them worth the reward.
Yesterday she and Missy came running in from the hill with a small nest and Jamie was screaming and alarm calling all the way with all the other chimps in pursuit to see what was wrong with their friend. As far as we could tell, Jamie appeared to have been stung on the foot. She fell into her nest (still clutching her valuable wasp nest tightly), screaming, alarm calling and looking at her foot. But within mere seconds she was up and walking around the playroom continuing to alarm call in between taking bites of her treat. All the chimps continued to follow her being interested in 1) what the apparent threat was that Jamie kept alarm calling about and if she was okay and 2) what she was eating. But Jamie quickly settled down and with six chimps gathered around her food peering (staring intently because they were hoping she’d share) she enjoyed her treat. And she did not share. It was all pretty dramatic.
So today while cleaning the greenhouse I had to remove a couple starter wasp nests for the chimps’ and humans’ safety. Jamie was watching intently and so we decided to hide this apparent (wasp free) delicacy with the rest of the forage. She immediately scooped it up and began food grunting. Missy is the only person I’ve seen show an interest in wasp larvae and she quickly followed Jamie doing her best food peer and polite requests, but Jamie was unmoved by Missy’s plea. (Missy did get a smaller bite of one later though).
Mmmhhh…wasp larvae.