Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
As part of our continued efforts to encourage Foxie to use more varied enrichment — and hopefully one day nest with something soft! — Diana created the ultimate troll hat/wig. As you’ll see in the video, we at CSNW are not above looking silly for the purpose of entertaining the chimps.
P.S. As I was typing this, Diana caught Foxie lying on a blanket in the playroom (which I believe is a first-time occurrence)!
I was thinking today about how incredibly playful Foxie is. She is the most playful adult chimpanzee I have ever known. She doesn’t seem to have non-playful days, ever. When she’s not playing with Jamie, Jody, Missy or Burrito, she play games of catch-the-troll with her caregivers. And if we’re busy? Well, she just invents her own troll games, like this one this morning…
Jody didn’t quite know what to make of the plastic chimp toy we put out for enrichment the other day. She decided to take things into her own hands and threw a “car” at the toy.
She got out of the way in case the toy retaliated.
Jamie likes using tools so much she invents reasons to use them. Here Jamie is trying to groom Diana’s broken fingernail with a plastic wrench:
Today I discovered a new game with Foxie. I was having difficulty throwing her troll doll back to her (some days my aim is just off), so I put it in a sock and tossed it up, my thought being that she would have more to grab on to. It worked like a charm, and Foxie actually really liked the sock! She almost immediately flung it over her neck, walked down the stairs and began playing with it in front of the mirror. I am sure other chimpanzees have done this before, but it was the first time I have personally seen a chimp play in front of a mirror. She was so enamored with her own reflection playing, that she completely ignored Missy’s attempts to get her attention. For the rest of the day, Foxie carried around the sock, sometimes in her hand, sometimes over her shoulders, and once on the top of her head. Every once in a while she would go back to the mirror and play.
For our response to the tragic situation in Connecticut, click here.
It’s sunny in Cle Elum! For me, that’s reason enough to celebrate. Enjoy these pics of Jamie (with her emery board!), Foxie, and Jody and Annie!
Shelly C. thought it would be great to have another call for some party donations for the upcoming Valentine’s Day party. Let us know if you’d like to contribute – it’s kind of like passing the hat around the office, only parties for the Cle Elum Seven are way more fun than office parties. This will be their first Valentine’s celebration!!! We’re brainstorming the menu already.
Oh, and speaking of celebrations, we’re almost done mapping out the birthdays for the group. We had to choose birthdays for most of the chimpanzees because they were not known, but we know they all deserve their own special day. I’ll update y’all soon with the actual dates.
Thanks!!
