Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimp enrichment

More enhanced enrichment puzzles

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Thanks to volunteer Cari Parker, we have more enhanced enrichment puzzles. Cari’s friend Stephanie sponsored today in honor of Cari’s Birthday, so Cari sent us a box of enrichment for the occasion. Included in the box of goodies were some PVC pipe puzzles. There is a photo with an explanation in the video below.

Keeping the chimps (especially super smart Jamie) enriched is a challenge. We are always trying to come up with new puzzle ideas- and these are great! (Thanks, Cari!) If you ever have any ideas you would like to share, please email me at [email protected]

Jody and enrichment

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Jody is a very casual kind of lady, which is probably why she gets less blog attention. She doesn’t play with toys too often, rather she usually inspects things for a moment and moves on. The other day she had an enrichment-loving afternoon, I suppose, and I caught her spending quality time and even playing (in her casual, Jody-kind-of-way, of course) with a toy dog and later, a popper toy.

Problem solvers

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Being the master problem solver she is, one would probably guess that Jamie is super skilled at raisin boards. And they would be right.

Raisin boards are wooden blocks with holes drilled in them that we stuff with dried fruit (because of their size raisins usually work best, but I used dried apricot pieces and dried blueberries in the photos below). We occasionally pass these out (with small skewers or sticks) as an evening “enhanced enrichment” activity, because not only does it encourage tool use and problem solving skills, but it keeps everyone busy and entertained for quite a while. Jamie often uses a technique similar to sewing- she pokes the stick slightly through, grabs it on the other side with her teeth and pulls it the rest of the way so the raisin either skewers on her stick or just falls out. It’s pretty fascinating, actually.

Jody does occasionally use tools, but she usually just pulls the fruit out with her teeth- a method that is also quite successful.

Caregivers as enrichment

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Let’s face it- no matter how much we do to spice up captivity with enrichment and projects, it can still get pretty boring sometimes. We try to do what ever we can to keep the chimps entertained, including simple things like drinks from the hose. The chimps have access to water 24 hours a day, but sometimes they just seem to prefer to have us “fill them up”, so to speak, instead. Chimps have prehensile lips and a large pouch in their bottom lip, so they can hold a lot of water in there! And, as always here at CSNW, they have the choice to drink or…

Valentine’s Day fun

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Parties are so much fun here at CSNW. On today’s party menu was strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples, dried pears, bananas, beets, sunflower seeds and tons of mixed nuts. We received a plethora of decorations and new toys from our friends Dick and Robbi Brown, Felicity, Stephanie, and Kate. Food was hidden in all kinds of Valentine’s Day themed boxes, cups, and gift bags and the playroom was filled with awesome new toys, including at least 5 new Valentine’s Day troll dolls. Thanks so much everyone!

Step one= party:

Annie drinking pomegranate juice:

Jamie opening her “Valentine”:

Foxie checking out one of her new Valentine’s Day trolls:

Step 2= nap.

Negra in her festive Valentine’s Day nest:

Burrito getting in touch with his feminine side:

Needless to say, a good time was had by all! Happy Valentine’s Day!