The men of CSNW took a play break today.
chimp sanctuary
Enriching Jamie Chimpanzee
Of all the residents at CSNW, Jamie is the most interested in participating in human activities. We’ve seen her shovel snow and use tools, along with many other human oriented projects. Our strict guidelines for enrichment mean we can’t give her absolutely everything she desires (can you imagine Jamie wielding a real power tool?!). But with some creativity, we can still find things that entertain her. The other day we had a bit of success with some new art supplies.
Stirring Up Trouble
Jamie does not live in the moment. She is a thinker and a planner. Sometimes you can see her wheels turning and you have to wonder what she’s up to. As the leader of her group she performs frequent dominance displays, but with Jamie, they don’t always seem to be about dominance. Or at least not solely about dominance. Sometimes it seems that Jamie displays because she’s bored and wants to stir up a little excitement.
This happens a lot when all of the other chimpanzees are settled down, quiet and doing their own thing. Jamie struts around the room, assessing the situation and planning her strategy.
Then her hair stands on end, she pant hoots, drums on her go-to plastic barrel, and ends by screaming and throwing the barrel across the room.
She then quickly looks around to see if she got anyone riled up. If not, she tries again. And again. Eventually the other chimps can’t help but get caught up in the excitement. Pant hoots are like yawns to chimps – they’re contagious. Once the chimp house is a cacophony of noise, Jamie seems to feel like she’s done her job and she’s finally able to settle down.
Burrito’s invisibility cloak
Burrito is known for his ridiculously adorable shenanigans. And today was no different. (There are some blurry action shots that I just couldn’t leave out).
Despite the blur of Burrito, I love his huge play face you can just make out under the veil. At this point, he jumped down to begin a raucous game of tug o’ war with the scarf. This guy.
Just the right piece
There is no shortage of snow on the ground in Cle Elum, so the chimpanzees don’t have to step far outside for a cold snack. They don’t have to, but with this sunny weather they’ve been venturing farther and farther onto Young’s Hill just to grab a handful of snow and bring it back inside to eat. It seems the snow is just an excuse to have a quick outdoor adventure.
This morning Jody walked outside with purpose, climbed up onto the shaky bridge, gathered a very specific chunk of snow from the bridge, and immediately climbed back down and went back inside.
Personality
Foxie is about 60% sweet…
and 40% sass:
20 snapshots of the day
I probably could never quite explain how ecstatic we all were to wake up to sunshine and beautiful clear blue skies this morning. We couldn’t wait to start shoveling the chimps’ walkway on Young’s Hill and fluff it up with fresh, dry straw so that they could enjoy their morning outside.
As we prepped the walkway the chimpanzees were so excited, intermittently watching us and playing and laughing with one another inside.
Once I opened the door to the hill I couldn’t believe my eyes when who but Negra was leading the group outside! You can just see her head peeking out from in front of Missy at the head of the line. Then we have Annie, Foxie and Jamie bringing up the rear with one of her new snow shovels (Burrito was the one person who opted to stay inside and eat snow from the raceway door, but he’s been enjoying a day of Burrito-style antics with his caregivers):
I put a straw path up to one of the swinging tires, always a favorite spot to check for ice treats. Jody headed straight for it and quickly made her way back to the greenhouse with her prize. The trick was getting around boss lady, Jamie, with her treat undetected.
But the boss had work to do so Jody was able to sneak by.
Missy:
Annie enjoying her solitude:
But she was so happy when her best friend, Missy, arrived and greeted her with a kiss and a hug:
Foxie rubs her toes together when she’s happy and content and if you look close you can see she seemed to be pretty pleased to be enjoying the morning outside with her troll:
Jamie was in her element this morning as she proudly surveyed her snow covered kingdom:
Foxie and troll headed back inside after stopping to collect snow on the way:
Annie was the last to head inside, but had to stop briefly to readjust her huge mouthful of snow:
Jamie still had a little work to do:
Negra didn’t stay out long, but she made it quite away out to collect snow and then returned to her favorite sunny spot inside the greenhouse to enjoy it, along with Jody.
It’s been a good day at the sanctuary! The chimpanzees have spent a lot of time outside enjoying some warmer temperatures and even more time at the top of the toasty greenhouse grooming and napping. Blue skies and sunshine have worked wonders and been a welcome respite from our crazy winter for all the primates here today.
