After several days of beautiful sunshine, we’re having a gray and rainy afternoon today. Not surprisingly, the chimpanzees are staying warm and dry inside curled up with as many blankets as they can find. Jody has no complaints.
Cle Elum 7
Friends
Burrito can be a little intimidated by the other chimpanzees. Because of his social anxiety, he tends to play much more with his human friends than with his chimpanzee family, but he and Foxie have a special friendship (learn more about that here).
Social Complexity In Action
You may remember Diana’s post from last year about the interesting dynamic in the relationship between Jamie and Burrito. As it happens, Missy and Negra have a complicated relationship as well. When it comes to food, Negra is definitely more dominant and Missy will generally let her have whatever she wants, even if it is reluctantly. You might think that this dynamic would affect their friendship, but it doesn’t seem to, at least not in an obvious way. Missy doesn’t appear to hold a grudge against Negra for pulling rank and is just as happy to play with her as with her friend Annie when the opportunity arises.
It is interesting to note that a similar dynamic exists between Annie and Missy but in this case it is Annie that gives up her food at Missy’s request. So, I imagine it’s not just Missy and Negra or Jamie and Burrito that are complicated. Overall chimpanzee social relationships appear to develop much more complexity than a simple dominance hierarchy suggests.
Here is Negra taking one of Missy’s chow bags:
And here they are enjoying a play session together:
All Play, All the Time
Foxie has her choice of play partners here at the sanctuary, from troll dolls to other chimpanzees to caregivers.
Playfulness
The weather in Cle Elum today finally has me convinced (and it seems like the chimpanzees as well) that Spring and Summer just might possibly be considering staying. It’s difficult to say definitively but there certainly seems to be a positive correlation between sunshine and play behavior here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Plenty of playful chimpanzees in residence today!
In the video below you’ll see two kinds of play, chimpanzee to chimpanzee, and chimpanzee to caregiver. If you watch the video with the volume turned up you can hear a perfect example of caregivers engaging in chimpanzee behaviors during filming. This is just one of the ways in which our staff and volunteers help to facilitate a healthy and happy home for the chimpanzees. To learn more about caregivers engaging in chimpanzee behaviors read about it here!
Carried Away
On a typical day at the sanctuary, we put out around 60 blankets for the chimpanzees. They use the blankets to build large, soft nests.
Jody, in particular, loves her blankets. (Watch a video from a few years ago of Jody building a nest out of a million blankets here.) She loves her blankets so much that she often picks up her whole nest and carries it with her when she decides to move from one area to another. While the other chimps tend to abandon their nests when they leave the area and build a new one elsewhere, it seems Jody doesn’t want to risk being left blanketless.
Relaxing
I found some photos on the computer taken by Elizabeth and Lisa a few days ago. Just looking at these pictures makes me feel so relaxed!
