We tend to get a lot of empty boxes around here at the sanctuary, and the other day Denice thought the chimps might enjoy this especially giant box. She was right, it turned out to be a lot of fun. Who knew a plain old leftover box could be so entertaining!
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Running around
I just wanted to report that I did in fact run around the outside of Young’s Hill the other day. I was so grateful for all who donated to Missy Games, I felt I owed it to you.
There is a video of it, but it’s frankly pretty boring – just me moving (not nearly as fast as it felt) around the fence in struggled silence. It seemed like it took forever and the uphill was pretty challenging. I tried to go as fast as I could. The video says it took almost exactly 2 minutes. I should have timed it before we hooked up the fence to the raceway, but I’m guessing it would have taken 20 seconds or less to run around the entire building. What I’m trying to impart is that Young’s Hill is enormous. It’s really difficult to capture the size of it in photographs. I tried a few weeks ago from across the river – see the photo below. Just compare the size of the building in that photo to the hill.
Of course the indoor space will always be important for the chimpanzees, particularly in the winter. The design of the building incorporates vertical space, which is crucial to chimpanzees, and has a lot of options. It’s temperature-controlled and stays pretty cool in the summer and nice and warm even when it’s cold outside.
It will be so interesting to see how the chimps use the hill – where they hang out and what they do out there. There’s endless improvements and structures that can be added, but I think it’s a really great start to more freedom than Annie, Jody and Negra have known since their capture in Africa and more freedom than Burrito, Foxie, Jamie and Missy have ever known.
The next birthday that is coming up is Annie’s on September 10th. The hill won’t be complete by then, but it will be closer. Any suggestions for how we should celebrate?
Relaxation
I take a yoga class once a week and am often inspired by the chimps here at CSNW. Their lives are nowhere near the freedom of Africa, but they have mastered the art of being able to truly relax in their sanctuary. Negra, Annie, and Jody have all been spotted doing “yoga poses” while relaxing (see this post of Jody doing some of my personal favorite poses), but true relaxation involves much more than a stretch or a twist. Today, I went out to the outdoor area and spotted Negra kicking back on the deck. Her ability to let go with her expression is priceless! That is true relaxation.
Art
As you may know, Jamie is an artist, though her medium of choice these days is usually pens and crayons, rather than paint. Perhaps she is more of a writer than a painter?
One of my favorite pieces from Jamie is the mask in this post. I found it while cleaning the playroom and was immediately amazed at how artistic and creative it was, so we’ve decided to frame it and put it in this year’s auction! I can’t wait to see how well it does!
Birthday Coconuts
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
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.
Frozen treats for a hot day
I know I’ve said it before- we have some pretty amazing volunteers here at CSNW. Volunteers Katelyn and Stephanie came up with the idea to freeze juice, blueberries, and raspberries in water bottles for an afternoon forage and today was the perfect day for it. It’s been several hours since we put them out, and the chimps are still looking for bottles. Thanks for keeping everyone enriched- and cool- ladies!
