As you may know, Jamie is always busy. It is difficult to imagine how she kept her sharp mind occupied while stuck in a barren lab cage for so many years. Here is a montage of several video clips of Jamie from the last few days. In the video, Jamie makes a paper nest, cleans her sunglasses, files her nails, and brachiates outside.
chimp rescue
The two stooges?
Missy and Annie playing
New hat for Jamie
We received a package of hand knit scarves and hats for the chimps the other day from a supporter in Georgia. In addition to a really sweet card, she also sent some packets of seeds since she won’t be able to attend next Tuesday’s Stand-up for Chimps comedy night in Seattle (have you bought your tickets yet?)
Jamie wore one of the scarves during the early morning and one of the hats as soon as we gave them to her. Below is Jamie with a blue hat. Pretty stylish, I would say.
Jody and Foxie playing
J.B. was hanging some more firehose yesterday – this time in the playroom. As Jody was watching, Foxie decided to start a game of wrestle and chase with Jody.
An excuse to play
Way back in grad school at Central WA University I did my master’s thesis on chimpanzee play initiation. I watched a lot of video of the chimpanzees at CHCI (mostly Moja and Tatu) begin play sessions. I loved seeing them in person and on the videos indicate to each other that they wanted to play. I found that the CHCI chimps often used objects and clothing when initiating play. And so do the Cle Elum Seven! Sometimes it’s Missy pulling on a sock, and sometimes it’s an object that I personally wouldn’t normally think of as a barrel of fun, like a plastic tube.
Pre-play: Jamie adjusting her scarf, holding plastic tubing, Jody lying in straw, Foxie looking at her troll
Beginning play: Foxie takes the end of the tubing
Foxie and Jamie run around for a while, then Missy chases Jamie
During play, the object is often transferred between partners – like keep-away. Missy got the hose from Jamie and climbed up the fire hose
When Missy jumped down, Foxie decided to join in again
A little bit later, another object comes into play – the scarf that Jamie was wearing.
The Cle Elum Seven sure do know how to have fun!
Foxie and the boat bumper
I’ve been wanting to post this for a few days. Elizabeth and I hung one of the boat bumpers in the play room the other day and tied a troll doll to it. Foxie and Jamie were the most entertained by it, and Jody tried to pull up the boat bumper from above (smart!). The video is of Foxie “boxing.” She wasn’t upset – she mostly seemed curious and appeared to want to see if she could get the troll off of the rope. She wasn’t counting on the troll bouncing back!
Cle Elum Seven DVD slideshow – who’s interested?
I am so excited! We are almost ready to make the Cle Elum Seven DVD photo slideshow, set to music composed by CSNW’s very own Director of Operations, J.B., available to purchase in our online store.
Thanks to the wonderful work of Kathy Cochran of Cochran Productions, who put the DVD together, it is absolutely fantastic. It is a little over five minutes long and has LOTS of photos of all of the chimps. I continue to watch it over and over – it’s inspirational to see our chimp friends enjoying thier first several months of sanctuary life. We debuted the slideshow at the Sippin for the Seven event and received GREAT feedback.
I just need to make sure that we are going to be able to sell 25 dvds right away. We’re pricing them at only $15 a piece, so please think about all of the people you can give the dvd to for gifts (plus a copy for yourself, of course), and either comment on this post or email me separately to let me know how many you will purchase once they are available. As soon and I’ve received 25 pledges, I’ll make them available to buy!!
Thank you to everyone for your continued support and love of the Cle Elum Seven. You truly help to provide them with the sanctuary lives they deserve.