Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimp enrichment

Garden enrichment

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Jackie has been working pretty diligently on the best enrichment of all — the garden. It’s really great for the chimps to watch the plants grow, see us harvest their food, and then of course get to enjoy the delicious fresh produce! I have been helping her, too. Here’s us sifting the compost which we use as a growing medium for the plants. Just like Jackie said the other day, recycling at it’s finest!

Here is the view of the garden from the south side of the chimp house:

And here are some of our fruits and veggies that are doing great! Broccoli, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and strawberries.

The chimps particularly like the fresh strawberries!

Annie:

Negra:

Missy eating a strawberry while Foxie laughs to get Jackie’s attention:

Watermelon Bowls

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We have some pretty creative folks around here at the sanctuary, but volunteers Stephanie and Katelyn are definitely two of the most creative people I know. Yesterday, the two westsiders (what we Washingtonians call folks from Seattle, or west of the mountains) stayed all day and spent part of the afternoon making watermelon bowls. They cut out the center of the watermelon and filled it with all types of fruits and veggies. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that Burrito, who literally could not stop food squeaking the whole time, slept good last night.

And from the photos, I think it’s also safe to say that Annie was pretty pleased with the watermelon bowls, too:


4th of July Forage (finally)

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If you “like” us on Facebook, you probably know, yesterday we had some technical difficulties with our website, so I was unable to get the video of yesterday’s lunch forage out to you– until now! The chimps had such an exciting day with lots of yummy treats. The weather was perfect and the food matched the holiday to the T. For lunch, they had corn on the cob (a favorite among everyone), whole raw onions (another favorite, believe it or not), cherries, and (of course) watermelon! The outdoor area was decorated in red, white, and blue, and the afternoon was spent lounging, grooming, and sleeping. Then, that evening, we gave the chimps Field Roast vegan dogs from volunteer Jeani (which resulted in squeaks, squeaks, and more squeaks) and more corn on the cob! Debbie set up a rose and tea forage in the playroom while I served dinner. When we left, they were back to lounging and seemed very content with the day.

Enrichment for who?

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Because of her extreme intelligence, Jamie is a hard chimp to enrich. But I am certainly up for the challenge.

As I know we’ve mentioned before, enrichment comes in many different shapes and sizes. It’s not just the toys, blankets, and clothing we put out each day. It could be the way they are put out, or what they decide to do with them that is the enriching part. It’s all about creativity, both the caregivers’, and the chimps’ themselves.

We put out new enrichment for the chimps each day, and we have an enrichment calendar to help keep things different and fresh. I try to update this regularly and to keep coming up with new ideas, either from volunteers, things I’ve seen at other sanctuaries, or more importantly, from what I’ve seen these chimps do, themselves. That, to me, is the most important part of being a good caregiver– knowing the individuals in your care. It’s truly a symbiotic relationship. And these guys inspire me each and every day.

The enrichment calendar can sometimes look like a joke to those preparing for the next day– “things that rhyme, aka Dr. Seuss Day”, “enrichment hanging from scarves”, “square things”, “troll heads in buckets”, “everything red”… A lot of it sounds crazy. But the point is not that the chimps particularly love “square things”, but to force us to “think outside of the box”, so to speak, and to shuffle around the enrichment that we have so that the chimps are always getting something new and different (we have A LOT of enrichment!).

Lately, I’ve discovered that if you leave the toys in a big pile (rather than scatter them), the chimps have a tendency to go through each and every thing- picking things up, smelling them, biting them, wearing them, etc… and that’s exactly what happened today.

Jamie made herself comfy and spent about an hour and a half going through the enrichment pile.

She carefully picked up each thing

and of course there were boots in there!

At some point, she decided to wear the apron that friends Margaret and Karen recently gave her, and has been wearing it all morning. While wearing it, I even caught her briefly sweeping up some nut shells with her hand!

Even a sheet became interesting:

I have to say it is very rewarding when you come up with an idea that actually entertains and even inspires the chimps to do something interesting with it. Today, I felt like I got a big pat on the back from Jamie.

and that’s a very special thing.

Troll Hockey

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I played a little troll hockey with Foxie this morning. It’s hard to say because it was a close game, but I’m pretty sure she won. 🙂