Winter can be tough on Jamie sometimes – her frequent perimeter walks have to be put on pause if she doesn’t want to trudge through inches of snow. But winter’s not all bad. When the chimps don’t want to go outside, we bring the outdoors to them.
Enrichment
Fun With Paper
Each day, we give the chimpanzees fresh, clean blankets for them to use for building nests (70+ to be more precise). Today, Jamie bypassed the blankets and went straight for the long piece of paper instead.
That Time Of The Year, Again
It’s here, it’s here! The snow has arrived! And the chimps know what to do when it starts getting cold and the snow has fallen.
Last Monday, I watched both Missy and Annie (and took the following photos), make the rounds on Young’s Hill, with a very specific goal in mind; to find ice chunks “hidden” within the various outdoor structures. It was indeed cold enough last week for there to be ice, but there was not enough moisture.
This morning, it was a different story. Missy and Annie set out on Young’s Hill to check all the usual spots where ice forms overnight, including in the bottom of this tire swing. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get outside in time to take photos of them finding the ice chunks this morning when Katelyn called on the radio to say they had found some. So, stay tuned for more pictures of the chimps gathering their snow and ice enrichment in the coming months!
Annie
Missy checked the same tires (but none of the photos turned out where she was reaching in).
Here’s a couple extras of Missy on the hill last Monday that I couldn’t resist adding to the blog.
One of my favorite Missy action shots.
Evening Enrichment
Each evening, before leaving for the day, we prepare some sort of puzzle or activity for the chimps to work on. There are a variety of ideas that we rotate throughout the month, including KONGs, Boomer balls, drink buckets and pine cones, to name a few. So, I thought I’d share a few of these on the blog today.
KONGs
We add nuts or a mixture of mashed bananas or avocados into the open holes for the chimps to figure out how to get out.
Missy
Boomer Balls
We place peanuts inside the balls and the chimps have to shake and move the balls to get at the nuts inside. Some of the chimps use chopsticks as tools to get the nuts out. In the following photos, Foxie used her finger to help get at the peanuts inside.
Foxie
Kebabs
We skewer small food pieces (grapes are a favorite) inside of paper rolls and tie the “kebabs” to the outside of the caging. Below Burrito demonstrates how to hold onto the caging and use his fingers to try to pull the paper rolls inside.
Burrito
Pine cones
Add a few raisins in toward the center of the cone and smear peanut butter along the outside and voila, a pretty special treat that keeps the chimps busy for quite a while.
Annie
Negra
Jamie
Treat Buckets
There are a variety of options when using buckets as enrichment. Sometimes we fill the buckets with water, adding lemons or limes for some flavor and give the chimps long plastic straws to drink from. Other times we place seeds and nuts inside the buckets and the chimps have to knock the buckets over and use a tool to “sweep” the seeds toward them. Below, Annie demonstrates how to drink the flavored water from the bucket that was placed outside of the caging.
Annie
Raisin Boards
Jamie demonstrates how to use a chopstick to push raisins through the holes in this hanging raisin board.
Foxie the Chimpanzee and Poppy the Troll
Foxie’s love of troll dolls started over eight years ago when she arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. She still loves the old school trolls, but now that there’s a new DreamWorks Animation film called Trolls, and you can bet that Foxie is going to benefit from the marketing.
Foxie likes the songs by Justin Timberlake that are in the trailers.
Her favorite doll so far seems to be Poppy, whose voice in the animated movie is Anna Kendrick. With this description of Poppy, they do sound like kindred spirits.
Time to Rest, Relax, Contemplate and Be Still
There’s something about rainy days that make contemplation, napping and relaxing seem like the perfect things to do.
Foxie
Jamie
Negra
Annie
Part joy. Part magic. All Foxie.
Last week you may recall that I captured Foxie snuggled up napping on the heated floor with her dolls, Kate and Alana (Dora’s friends 🙂 ). I also promised there were A WHOLE LOT of photos of that scene to follow. So here goes…
When Foxie plays she often likes to lie on her back in a tiny chimpanzee ball repeatedly tucking her arms and legs into herself and then kicking and flailing them about as she snorts and laughs. On this day, after she woke up she rolled over and decided to engage her dolls in her play session (JB wrote a fantastic blog post on Friday about chimps and imaginary play). What ensued was part joy, part magic, and all Foxie:
