Snacking on a raw potato may not be your idea of a good time, but Missy thinks it’s delicious. (Volume up for satisfying crunching.)
Cle Elum
Missy’s Legs
Missy’s legs take her on some pretty great adventures.
So they need plenty of rest.
Blankets
It’s the time of year when everyone just wants to curl up with a blanket or ten, chimps included. Earlier today, I posted this photo of Negra to our Facebook page:
This gave me the idea to go through some of our older photos and collect some of the chimps cuddling up. Negra is the biggest blanket enthusiast, but the others enjoy getting comfy too.
Negra:
Jamie:
Jody:
Missy:
The More the Merrier
Walking through the chimp house this afternoon, I came upon this multi-player, cross-species grooming party.
How’s your chimp ID?
One of the first things new chimp house volunteers start learning is how to identify each of the chimpanzees. When you’re meeting a group of chimps for the first time (or the first ten times), they can often look frustratingly similar to one another. Eventually, of course, they start to look like individuals and you wonder how you could ever have mixed them up. But there’s a definite learning curve.
It helps to be able to spend some time just staring at each chimpanzee, so I just made these videos for our volunteers, in which you can see each of the seven chimpanzees from every angle, just being themselves. I thought some of our blog followers might appreciate them also. And if you’re not interested in working on your chimp ID, the videos make seven good excuses just to look at each of these beautiful chimps for several minutes.
(For extra credit, click on each name below to learn some identifying physical characteristics for each individual).
Jody:
Positive Reinforcement Training with Negra and Anna
A few years ago, we began a Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) program with the chimpanzees here at the sanctuary. (See this post for an introduction to PRT including how it works, why we feel it’s important, and how it improves the chimps’ lives.)
All seven chimps have made incredible strides since we began the program. Some chimps were enthusiastic participants right from the start while others have chosen to take part at their own pace and in their own time.
Negra has always been a little touchy when it comes to, well, being touched. She’s still working on moving past her decades in research labs where she was poked and prodded against her will. Probably for that reason, she wasn’t always a big fan of PRT. She voluntarily participated, but she would be sure to let her caregivers know when she had reached her limit. At the very beginning of the program, she was even scared of the sound of the clicker.
As you’ll see in this video, she’s certainly come a long way…
Foxie in the Greenhouse on a Summer Day
Can you hear the birds chirping?
