Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

chimpanzee retirement

Birthday Coconuts

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Missy’s birthday party was today. First, in the playroom, Jackie and I put almost entirely SOCKS out for the enrichment (we also included some boots and trolls, which are essential for enriching Jamie and Foxie). After we cleaned the outdoor area, we set up a huge forage of watermelon, lychees, bananas, bell peppers, green beans, and of course everyone’s favorite—coconuts! We also put out amazing gift bags put together by Robbi and Dick with all sorts of new enrichment. As we were setting up the forage, the chimps watched from the windows and were food grunting and squeaking.

Jackie took dozens of pictures of the chimps foraging through Missy’s birthday party, but sadly, the camera “decided” to re-format the card! So we lost all the pictures. Luckily when we realized this, the chimps had brought their coconuts into the playroom, and I was able to get a few photos of that.

Here’s Missy opening her coconut (notice she’s holding it steady with her foot!)

Foxie:

Burrito:

Burrito had an interesting method of trying to open his coconut. First, he was dragging it across the ground, and started rolling it back and forth. When that didn’t work he tried tossing it around and around:

He still hasn’t gotten it open but he is keeping it close to him. Hopefully he’ll get it open at some point!

I didn’t get a picture of Jody with a coconut, but here she is enjoying some leeks from our garden at the end of the party forage.

Happy Birthday, Missy!

Jackie and Diana are going to be goofy in Missy’s honor in about 10 minutes, and I’m sure it will be quite the sight to see. I’ll be photographing the event, and hopefully we’ll get some good shots posted tomorrow. Thank you to everyone that has pledged or donated to today’s Missy Games!

Another use for butcher paper

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Butcher paper is not just for arts and crafts. Jamie and Jody find it very nest-worthy. They both had nests that resembled paper mountains!

 

As I shifted the chimpanzees from the front rooms to the playroom, Jody grabbed this heaping pile of paper to use for later in the day.

Troll hair

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Foxie’s trolls often end up “scalped” and lose their hair. It seems like both Jamie and Jody might do the troll-scalping, although we don’t always catch it happening. One afternoon Jackie and I witnessed Jody rip this troll’s hair out while casually resting on top of the wooden platform outside.

We have some troll dolls that are quite odd in my opinion—they don’t really resemble the traditional troll doll and have a different type of hair. For some reason these trolls don’t lose their hair as often, if ever. In this troll line-up, you can see a traditional troll still with its hair, one that’s been scalped, and two of the “odd” trolls still with hair.

Foxie still interacts with these ones…

and maybe she’s on a mission to begin their hair removal too?

Siesta Time

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Afternoons are often very quiet around here. After the chimps have their lunch, the food comas set in and it’s almost always time for an afternoon siesta. Jamie was clearly thinking along those lines today.

Burrito, the tool user

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Here at the sanctuary, we are constantly trying to find ways to encourage species-typical behaviors. Tool use is a great example. Presenting the chimps with a challenge that encourages problem solving keeps the chimps busy and entertained, which is so important in a captive environment.

Unlike Jamie, Burrito isn’t much of a tool user. J.B. said it perfectly in this post from last year- it’s not that he’s not intelligent enough, he just seems to lack the patience to use tools, especially when he can just ask for help from a caregiver.

However, the addition of the puzzles in the evenings to our daily routine has changed things a bit, and Burrito has been sharpening his skills. The fact that the puzzles are set up at the end of the day just before the caregivers leave, means that he can’t exactly ask for our help in some cases, so he’s becoming more and more willing to give it a try. There’s nothing like food to motivate Burrito!

Foxie’s 35th birthday video

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As promised, here’s some video from yesterday’s celebration:

Thanks to everyone who donated trolls and made this troll bonanza possible!