Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Jamie, Foxie, and Missy have been super playful all morning. The three of them played on top of the climbing structure in the outdoor area for at least an hour and have been chasing each other around the playroom and laughing hysterically the whole time. But everyone knows that in between play bouts, one must nap.
Foxie:
Jamie:
Missy:
Jamie and Foxie love to play. Today I caught them in an intense game of tug-o-war with a troll in their mouths.
Foxie usually carries around the more common hard plastic trolls, but the last couple days she’s been especially interested in this soft troll doll.
Support Foxie and her love of trolls by coming to our Troll Olympics!
Last night the chimps got the outdoor area back after being locked out for a couple of days while the raceway was under construction. Foxie was the most curious about the new door and door frame.
The raceway was actually constructed off-site using the caging that we removed when we replaced the caged windows with chimpanzee-proof glass. The welders had to make a hole in the current outdoor area and weld the raceway to it.
Of all the Cle Elum Seven, Jody and Negra are probably the least playful. Both are more solitary as compared to the others, and seem to prefer to spend much of their time either grooming or nesting. Negra has become more and more playful lately, but her typical play partners are either her caregivers, or Missy or Foxie, who are both super playful, so, you can imagine my surprise (and delight) when I looked outside and saw the following scene.
None of the following photos are by any stretch of the means “award winning”, but they represent a very special moment I just had with Negra. I was sitting outside on the new concrete footings for the soon-to-be tunnel to Young’s Hill (!!) and hanging out with Burrito. We were alternating between grooming, tickling, kissing my hand, and playing this game we often play where he leans to one side and bites the cage and I reach towards him like I’m going to touch him and he moves to the other side, laughing hysterically. Although for Burrito, it was a very mellow moment. Negra was laying beside us in her typical corner of the outdoor area with a bright pink blanket completely over her. She heard us starting to get louder with our “fake out” game and sat up, threw the blanket off of her and walked over towards Burrito to greet him. She sat next to him for a little while, but since our playful games had fizzled, Mr. B eventually walked away. Negra then walked back over to her pink blanket and put it over her head. I said “Oh Neg, you look so beautiful!” and asked her if I could take her picture. She gave me a slight headnod of reassurance, so I took the following photos. She seemed pretty content that the focus was now on her. Unfortunately I was too close to get a photo without bars, but I think with a face like Negra’s, they are pretty easy to forget about.
I think Annie actually enjoys being photographed.
