Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

A relaxing day for Negra

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Today was sunny and beautiful, so the greenhouse was a prime spot for everyone, especially Negra.

You may have heard us talk about Negra’s spot in the outdoor area, which is the southern most end of the deck. The sun beats in the greenhouse in that spot so it’s almost always a warm and inviting place to nap.

Negra spent almost the whole day relaxing there…. and today, no blankets were necessary!

10:00am-

(I think the next one is my favorite. I love the pointed toe!)

2:00pm- Yep. Same place… only this time, she looked like she was practicing her “happy baby” yoga pose:

She finally came inside to her other favorite spot and curled up with a soft yellow blanket:

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…