One of the practical problems of running a chimpanzee sanctuary involves creating a space that the chimps can’t destroy. Their superhuman strength combined with intelligence, curiosity, and a penchant for destruction keeps us on our toes. We’re very careful to maintain a safe (and sturdy) environment for the chimps, but sometimes there’s not much you can do when Jamie decides she wants to remove one of the baseboards, as in this video.
chimpanzee rescue
Foxie, the nest-builder
We love sharing stories with all of you about the chimpanzees’ daily experiences at the sanctuary. This pleasure is all the greater when we have something particularly exciting or momentous to share, as we do today.
Our frequent blog readers are familiar with the saga of Foxie’s nesting behavior. When Foxie came to CSNW, she wanted very little to do with any enrichment. Blankets, in particular, seemed almost offensive to her. If a blanket occupied the space where she wanted to rest, she would often flick it aside before sitting down. While some of the other chimps were making giant, cushy nests out of dozens of blankets, Foxie would build a “phantom nest”, showing ritualized nesting behaviors but using very little actual nesting material. She’s made slow and steady progress: she’ll incorporate the occasional toy or fire hose into her “nest”, and once or twice we’ve caught her with her head resting on the very edge of a blanket. But overall, she’s remained pretty steadfast in her distaste for blankets (or anything soft, it seems). Here’s a review of past blog posts that have highlighted Foxie’s nesting progress:
April 13, 2009
May 15, 2009
June 2, 2009
June 6, 2009
December 2, 2009
January 23, 2010
February 3, 2010
December 24, 2010
Considering all this, she surprised and delighted us all the other day when she went full steam ahead and built her first big, multi-blanket nest.
Jamie and Foxie’s wild play
The chimpanzees all have different comfort levels when it comes to intensity of play. Jody and Negra, for example, engage in play less frequently and less boisterously than some of the other chimps. When Foxie and Jamie get together, though, they completely let loose. There’s lots of stomping, slapping, and (play) biting. This morning they spent about 20 minutes running around the playroom like maniacs.
Seeing green(s)
Food is serious business to Burrito Chimpanzee and today he was seeing green. It’s been an unseasonably warm day today, so the greenhouse was a luxurious 60 degrees or so. We set up a huge lunch forage out there– I think Burrito was very happy with this decision.
Foxie’s muscle man
Jody, the blanket hog
Yesterday after playroom cleaning, instead of distributing the clean blankets around the room, we put most of them in a big pile. We figured that the chimpanzees would stop by the heap, take what they needed to build their nests, and move on. Jody, though, had different ideas. She made a beeline for the blanket mountain and immediately went to work.
Imaginary play
This morning, while Elizabeth and I were cleaning the playroom, Annie was sitting in the window. She playfully opened her mouth for a “drink of water” through the glass. She’s not the only chimpanzee at CSNW that we have witnessed play this game. We caught a short clip of it:
This reminded me of something I saw, but failed to get on camera a few weeks ago. Jamie was sitting on this small toy horse and scooting along the playroom floor. She then lifted her leg up high and over in an exaggerated dismount. Two things stood out to me- the first was how interesting it is to me that chimps engage in this type of pretend play, and second- how truly little we know about the chimps’ histories. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing when she “dismounted”. We suspect she was a “pet” prior to the lab, but was she raised by a cowboy (hence the boot obsession?), did she just see this on TV?, or was she taught to ride a horse at some point? We may never know, but it was a fascinating moment none the less.
Here’s a photo of the horse, for scale. 🙂
