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!
Foxie
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!
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!
Troll hair
Foxie’s trolls often end up “scalped” and lose their hair. It seems like both Jamie and Jody might do the troll-scalping, although we don’t always catch it happening. One afternoon Jackie and I witnessed Jody rip this troll’s hair out while casually resting on top of the wooden platform outside.
We have some troll dolls that are quite odd in my opinion—they don’t really resemble the traditional troll doll and have a different type of hair. For some reason these trolls don’t lose their hair as often, if ever. In this troll line-up, you can see a traditional troll still with its hair, one that’s been scalped, and two of the “odd” trolls still with hair.
Foxie still interacts with these ones…
and maybe she’s on a mission to begin their hair removal too?
Happy Birthday to Richard and Foxie
Supporter Dawn Killen-Courtney has sponsored today in joint celebration of two very special birthdays: Foxie’s, which we celebrated in grand style a few days ago (see video of the party here), and Dawn’s husband Richard’s, which is today. Dawn and Foxie happen to have a lot in common: they’re both troll doll aficionados! Dawn’s even written books about trolls. While many of our supporters learn a lot about trolls after learning of Foxie’s love for them, it happened the other way around for Dawn. It was discovering that a chimpanzee shared her passion that led Dawn to CSNW. We (and Foxie) are so glad you found us, Dawn.
Here’s Foxie loving on one of her new trolls at her party:
A very happy birthday to Foxie and Richard from Dawn!
Foxie’s 35th birthday video
As promised, here’s some video from yesterday’s celebration:
Thanks to everyone who donated trolls and made this troll bonanza possible!
Photos from Foxie’s birthday party!
It’s Foxie’s 35th birthday today! And we decided to celebrate by creating a huge troll bonanza for the troll-loving lady. We literally put out at least a hundred new trolls, most of which participated in last week’s Troll Olympics.
Here’s a few pictures from the day, tomorrow I’ll post some video from the party!
Some of the trolls in the sandbox:
Foxie picked out a couple of her favorites:
Troll blanket, found and troll-adorned by volunteer Jeani:
Foxie checking out the troll blanket:
We hung some frozen watermelon from the ceiling in the outdoor area, which the chimps really loved. Foxie eating her watermelon:
Jody munching on some watermelon:
More to come tomorrow!
