Today as the chimps were waiting for their lunch to be served, I caught Missy playing with a red blanketed lump, also known as Negra Chimpanzee. It stood out as particularly funny to me because, although Negra loves to wrap herself (head and all) up in a blanket, and although lots of the chimps, particularly Missy and Jamie, often play with blankets over their heads, we don’t often see Negra playing like this. I love seeing Missy bring out Negra’s playful side!
Enrichment
Team Dora or Team Troll?
Foxie’s new love of Dora the Explorer continues, but that doesn’t mean she’s dropped troll dolls out of her life.
She spent some time with a Dora and a troll doll and a mirror today:
A sure sign of Foxie’s contentment is when she rubs her toes together, like in the photo below and in this video from a couple of years ago. If you’re wondering what the powdery stuff on Foxie’s feet is – it’s pollen. The pollen has been blowing off the trees like snow all week!
Foxie is a-Dora-ble
Foxie has received so many new Dora the Explorer dolls in the last week- mostly from her great friend, Leslie Sodaro, who has been collecting for the last several weeks. We tied several together with a string, which resulted in some a-DORA-bleness.
Foxie has such great friends! On behalf of the lady herself, thanks so much to all for keeping Foxie so happy and enriched!
Foxie’s tongue is famous
If you’ve liked us on Facebook, you’ve probably seen some posts recently about Foxie’s reaction to the new GoPro camera in news articles around the world. Today, the article was posted on Huffington Post. (Click the link to go to the article).
Just to correct a misunderstanding—Foxie does still love trolls and other dolls (like Dora!) but she is not still carrying around Trixie, her original troll. She will sometimes find a troll or doll that she likes enough to carry around for a few days, but not much longer than that. (Also, as many of you know, the chimps were rescued close to four years ago—not just last year like that article says. However, it was just last year that they were given access to a 2-acre habitat of relative freedom).
In this picture, Foxie’s got her tongue out, and both a troll and Dora doll in her hand.
A Closer Look
Foxie took an up close and personal look at the Go Pro Camera the other day.
Play as therapy
Foxie is the peacekeeper of the Cle Elum Seven. She often goes out of her way during conflicts to try to calm everyone down. Yesterday Jamie seemed to be feeling a little cranky and restless, and Foxie cheered her up by initiating a wrestling game.
Motivation
As many of you probably already know, Negra hasn’t been going out on Young’s Hill much since last fall. Obviously, we cannot ever truly get inside of the chimps’ heads, and I’m sure Negra’s lack of interest in the hill is due to many different factors. I imagine 35 years in a small laboratory cage would make 2 acres seem extremely intimidating (it is intimidating!) plus we know she isn’t much of a fan of cold weather, so lately she has preferred to hang out in front of the chimp-proof glass windows in the Playroom with a blanket over her head (who can blame her when it’s that cold really?). But with the warmer weather and the vibrant fresh grass, she’s found just enough motivation to get herself out there, even if just for a minute.
Negra in her transfer cage en route to CSNW in 2008:
Negra today:
