Honey B

Let’s taco about Tuesday

November 23, 2021 by Sofia Castro-Loza

Tuesday has been a normal day consisting of cleaning, preparing meals and enrichment, a one-on-one introduction, and also about getting ready for Thanksgiving day. As usual the chimps will get an entire feast just for them with their favorite food items and Fall themed enrichment. On the other hand, the humans will be getting together for an early thanksgiving pot luck tomorrow night. This will consist of homemade traditional Thanksgiving meals, or what we each consider to be traditional. In my case, I’ll bring a vegan sweet potato and marshmallow casserole and although it is not a dish commonly made back home in Puerto Rico on this occasion, I like it so much that I would always require my family to make it just for me. I’ve been told that caregiver Chad makes a mean Nasi Goreng fried rice that is very famous in the chimp house so there is a lot to look forward to.

Enough about food, let’s taco about today’s introductions. I know we have said it before, but even though we plan ahead for possible introduction pairings, the chimps get the final say and that is exactly what happened today. Honey B and Willy B conspired together to not allow us to access the Mezzanine for cleaning, which directly dictated the fate of today’s pairing options for introductions. During lunch time, Willy B shifted out and Honey B remained up there meaning she was the one that was going to hang out with one of the California Six. On the six’s group, Cy was the one that wanted to stay in the front rooms so that made the decision easy for us. This introduction ended up being very low-key, with an on edge Honey B and only a few direct interactions but all in all positive.

Cy reading a magazine. Not pictured here are Cy’s happy sounds while reading.

Dora hanging out in the green house.

Lucky in her favorite spot of the front rooms with a slinky.

BONUS: A beautiful rainbow over Young’s Hill taken by caregiver Chad.

A variety of play

November 21, 2021 by Sam Jones

Enjoy this video of a variety of short play clips from around the sanctuary over the past couple weeks. Also, here are some photos from the chimp house today!

Dora enjoying the Greenhouse.

Willy B relaxing after breakfast.

Mave and Honey B in the afternoon.

Jamie watching Lisa and Burrito play chase.

All About the Girls and Cardboard

November 10, 2021 by Kelsi

Sometimes the best enrichment is the most simple enrichment. For example, all the chimps love boxes whether it’s to help build a nest, use as a tool to display with, or just play with. As you will see in the photos below and video above playing seemed to be the theme today!

As we continue on with our intro week we decided to try an all girl group again. Honey B, Mave, Rayne, and Lucky all volunteered to be a part of it today. We had tried this group before and their behaviors weren’t positive enough to open the door. But it has been a while and they all have done other introductions with each other so we thought we would give it another go! They did amazing, so good that they stayed with each other all afternoon. Rayne was just a jokester the whole time. At one point she was wrestling all three ladies! Honey B hasn’t had a person in her group to match her energy in a long time, Honey B and Rayne are a perfect match! Watching these four chimpanzees grow and develop friendships has been a true honor.

Now for box photos!

Gordo in a box:

Gordo having pomegranates in his box:

Lucky on a bench in a box:

A bonus photo of the handsome Cy:

And of course we could never forget that today is Honey Cow’s 14th birthday! She enjoyed the warm sunshine on a brisk day, fresh hay with her friends, and some tasty cob that Betsy swore was for her ;).

Getting to know Honey over the past few years has been a privilege. She is a fierce and loyal friend, self-assured, she can be sweet, and she is not afraid to tell you to go away! Cheers to the amazing Honey.

Moving Fourward

November 9, 2021 by Sofia Castro-Loza

Today was busy busy. While the usual daily tasks were in process, we continued introductions that featured a Honey B, Willy B, Cy, and Terry quad. During the beginning they spent a lot of time divided by the mesh while Cy and Willy B sorted things out with plenty of displays. When they calmed down we opened the mesh and they were together interacting for around 50min. A lot of grooming and playing went down today.

Willy B and Cy grooming – Willy B’s lip smacking was epic.

Honey B and Terry engaged in some intense playing. Terry’s mouth says it all.

Quiet Days

November 7, 2021 by Sam Jones

It was a pretty laid back day around the chimp house today. Everyone must still be resting from Jamieween and Lucky’s birthday! The weather was cold and mostly cloudy today, so it was a good day to just lounge around. In the afternoon there was a window of some sun and the chimpanzees in Jamie’s group took this opportunity to explore Young’s Hill. They were out there for awhile, but then it was back to resting again.

Missy watching the others on Young’s Hill.

Burrito between sprints around the hill.

Foxie with her doll.

Jody took her golden beets from lunch onto the hill.

I couldn’t decide which photo of Annie I liked the best, so I added them all!

This is how I found Willy B lounging this morning when I was opening up the chimp house.

Katelyn took these great photos of Honey B interacting with the foot box today.

Just as I was adding the title of this blog “Quiet Days” Willy B started rolling this scooter back and forth. I think it’s dinner time!

Jamieween 2021!

October 31, 2021 by Sam Jones

Jamieween is finally here! Today we celebrated the one and only Jamie’s 44th Birthday, as well as Halloween! Today was full of scarecrows, pumpkins, pomegranates, shrunken apple heads, birthday gifts for Jamie, and much much more! The chimpanzees here had quite the celebration today. Enrichment Coordinator, Chad did such a good job planning all of this for them. A huge thank you to everyone who bought items for today off of our wish list! Everything really added to the celebration today. Also, thank you to all of the care staff who helped get these great videos and photos!

I hope that Jamie and the rest of the chimpanzees here enjoyed themselves today. I know we all enjoyed watching them. Back in the day my time as an intern here only breached the surface of who Jamie is and I’m getting to know her so much better. I’m still leaning some Jamie language, but its a fun ride and it is a privilege to be able to help care for her. She is definitely a special chimpanzee.

Jamie’s group had a 2 part celebration that began in their Greenhouse. Willy B enjoyed time in the Courtyard with his scarecrow while Mave and Honey B celebrated inside. The Lucky Six enjoyed their pumpkins and Halloween bags full of things like nuts and cabbage.

Shrunken apple heads!

Jamie enjoying her pumpkin bags next to her new book.

Jamie gathering as many as she can.

Missy taking over after Jamie moved on.

Annie investigating the scarecrow.

Missy enjoying her pomegranate next to the scarecrow.

Burrito with his corn on Young’s Hill.

Foxie with her pomegranate.

Foxie made sure her doll got to enjoy the forage.

Negra found lots of Brussels sprouts.

Jody trying to carry as much as she can to enjoy her food back in the Greenhouse.

Jamie found three pomegranates!

Terry enjoying the celebration.

Lucky found some goodies.

Cy taking a break from reading.

Dora with her forage finds.

Gordo and Dora.

Rayne took hers to the Greenhouse.

Mave and Willy B are excited about pumpkins!

Mave and her pumpkin.

Honey B enjoying her stash.

Willy B found some pumpkin bags before making his way to the scarecrow.

Willy B ready to dive into the pumpkin head!

And…….Burrito ended up being the Great Pumpkin Thief this year! As you can see in the video he brought it down from a platform on Young’s Hill, but it rolled away. It ended up rolling into the fence and we had to bring everyone inside so we could get it unstuck. After spot cleaning the seven’s playroom we put it back inside to see who would grab it. Jody really wanted it and tried several times, but Burrito was the winner this year.

Let the Countdown Begin!

October 20, 2021 by Kelsi

Eleven more sleeps until Jamieween. Though this blog isn’t really about Jamie, the Jamieween countdown has begun! As many of you may know or even agree, Jamieween is known as a staff and volunteer favorite for chimp celebrations! Not only do we get to celebrate Jamie and all her amazing-ness, but there is always an amusing pumpkin heist too! Not to mention Halloween is some of the staff’s favorite holiday. The gifts for Jamieween have been rolling in and we could not be more grateful. This is just a handful of items for Jamie’s haunting celebration! Personally, I can’t wait for Jamie to get her anatomy apron.

I don’t have much content for today because it was rather uneventful and eerily quiet today. So quiet that I had to check and make sure there were chimps in the building! But I do have lots of photos of Cy and Rayne.

I mean come on! How handsome is he?