Negra plays slower and less frequent than the other chimps. Missy and Foxie are very playful and active, but they slow down to Negra’s speed when she decides to engage in play with them.
Missy
Happy Birthday to Annie from Marcia Douthwaite!
Marcia has sponsored today in celebration of Annie’s 37th birthday (we’re gearing up for the party right now!). Marcia is a regular blog reader, and a sweet and devoted supporter of the Cle Elum Seven. She even sponsors Annie and her best friend Missy through our Chimpanzee Pal program. Thanks, Marcia, for helping us give Annie and her friends the celebration they deserve!
Here’s the gorgeous birthday girl:
Undercover
Missy has a way of making almost everything she does, no matter how mundane, silly. She has been thoroughly enjoying putting sheets and blankets over her head lately- both during play and while resting in her nest- and she incorporated that into her nesting technique today. Every addition to her nest, whether it be a sheet, a blanket, or a fire hose, began over her head and lingered for a bit before moving on to the next thing.
Once her nest was just right, she threw one more blanket over her and took a nap.
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!
CSNW is a trendy establishment
A couple weeks ago, volunteer Connie mentioned that she had a lot of pea plants and was inquiring whether or not the plant parts would be OK for the chimps to munch on. I did a little bit of online research and discovered that yes, the parts of a pea plant are indeed edible. In fact, there was this great article that describes it fairly humorously in my opinion: “You’ve probably seen them on plates in Asian restaurants and trendy establishments. Pea shoots and tendrils may look exotic or sophisticated, but even gardeners who can’t grow peas to maturity can grow pea shoots and tendrils.”
Well, Connie was able to grow not only the pea shoots and tendrils, but also the peas to full maturity in their pods! Today we put them out as a forage and the chimps really enjoyed them.
Negra, with the pea plants in the background:
Annie, taking a break and laying down while eating her peas:
Burrito:
Missy:
Missy’s grooming tool
Missy loves to groom herself using a tool. She often uses a piece of bark or straw that she finds on the ground, but if those aren’t doing the trick she will create a better tool.
