Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Enrichment

No such thing as an easy project in Jamie’s eyes

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Jamie likes projects. If you’ve been following us for awhile, you’ve probably heard us say something along the lines of “she’s always keeping busy.” It’s so true! Her mind is always working out some puzzle, I think even when she’s napping she’s still getting a plan together about what to do when she gets up!

The other day she and I were going through her boots and she pointed toward this high-heeled zippered boot. I took it to the chute where I could give it to her, but she didn’t move. I came back over to where she was and she gestured like she just wanted to groom it. I wore it for her while she picked at it, and then I took it off and let her hold it against the caging and groom at her leisure.

Very quickly she started to unzip it. At any time I could have tried to give it to her through the chute, but I think she preferred to work on it the hard way—through the caging.

Zen Sand Garden

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Supporter Michelle C. recently sent the chimpanzees a very unique gift – a piece of the Florida beach along with some little shovels. Today we set up the gift from afar in the sandbox table.

Looking at the set up reminded me of those zen sand gardens that are sold to business executives. This one, of course, catered to Jamie (note the boot).

sand in sand table

Sand with boot in sand table

There’s a video in the middle of this post of Jamie truly looking pretty zen as she played in the sand. The other chimps weren’t sure what to make of the stuff. They’ve had sand before (one of my favorite memories is Jody laying in the sandbox in the greenhouse on “Spa Day” ). But the chimps had probably never encountered the soft white sand of the Florida beaches.

Jody and Foxie getting a closer look:

Jody and Foxie inspecting the sand

 

Annie joining the inspection:

Jody, Foxie and Annie inspecting the sand

 

Jody digging in:

Jody sifting sand

 

And Jamie getting zen:

Jamie with two shovels in sand

Jamie hands in sand

Jamie shovelful of sand

Jamie putting sand in boot

Foxie’s dolls

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We try our best to vary which chimps are featured on the blog, so that no one is over or underexposed. But sometimes good material for a blog post just comes to us, and we have to go with it. So, I have a Foxie video to share today, despite the fact that the blog has been rather Foxie-heavy lately.

Foxie has an interesting relationship with her dolls. She often treats them maternally, kissing them or carrying them on her back as a mother chimp would do with her infant. Other times, she behaves aggressively toward them, beating them repeatedly with a wooden spoon. Occasionally she seems to be in awe of them, holding them out in front of her and gazing at them adoringly. And sometimes, they’re simply playthings.

This morning she spent some time completely preoccupied with this collection of dolls in the playroom.

Foxie with tiny trolls

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It seems Foxie has been the center of our blog posts lately, but that might be because no matter what she is doing she is bright, playful, funny, and can bring a smile to all of our faces. You’ll see what I mean while watching this video:

 

The Wonder of the Season

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For Burrito, the wonder of Christmas includes Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest’s traditional hanging (and therefore spinning) Christmas tree. Just see the earnest look on his face in the photo below:

Burrito chimpanzee gazing at tree

Not surprisingly, the reason he is so enamored with this tradition is because it involves food. Today we stuffed the tree with mini-bananas and coconut covered dates. Jamie monopolized the tree in the beginning.

Jamie spinning tree

Jamie spinning tree

Jamie spinning tree

Missy, being Missy, tried a more daring approach

Missy stand xmas tree hanging

Foxie looked on from above

Foxie looking down at xmas tree from catwalk

Once Burrito thought it was okay with Jamie to approach, he joined her in the tree worshiping

Burrito looking into tree

Burrito gazing at tree

and spinning

Burrito spinning tree

Burrito and Jamie look at tree

Jamie and Burrito spinning tree

Later, someone decided to pull the tree up onto the catwalk, which provided some browsing – the chimpanzees like to eat the pine needles too, making the whole tree a treat!

Negra sit by tree

and it served as a nesting companion for Negra too

Negra lay by tree

 

Jamie and challenges

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You may have figured out by now that Jamie is a tough chimp to enrich. Her mind is so active and she requires a lot to keep engaged. Part of our job as caregivers is to come up with new ways to keep the chimpanzees enriched, and in particular, keeping Jamie busy.

Though raisin boards are already a puzzle in themselves (the chimps usually have to use tools to get the raisins out), it’s even more so when they are just out of reach. Jamie prefers the challenges. She will go right past the raisin boards that are hidden under a blanket and aim for the ones that are harder puzzles to solve.

Here you see she even learns from her own mistakes—the first board she dropped too quickly and it went too far for her to reach. At first she looks around for a tool to grab the raisin board but decides to work on the more accessible one and leave the other project for later (don’t worry—she got that one eventually, too).

After seeing this video (and likely even without watching you know already) I think you will agree that Jamie is amazing.