Today, Jamie built herself yet another nest using a blanket and a box. This sparked a conversation between Diana and I about the similarities and differences of nesting behavior of captive vs. free-living chimpanzees. We couldn’t find many videos on the internet of free-living chimpanzees nesting, however, Jane Goodall’s Discover Chimpanzees Website has a behavior glossary, complete with video footage of the chimpanzees in Gombe engaging in a variety of behaviors, including this clip of nesting. If you compare the following video clips of Jody, Missy and Jamie (in order of appearance) to the video clip from the Discover Chimpanzees Website, you can see many similarities. Notice how the free-living chimpanzee (named Fifi) pulls the branches into her nest and pushes them down to make her bed more comfortable. It truly is an exact science.
Nesting
Jamie’s Christmas nests
Jamie took a couple of breaks from the celebration yesterday to make some pretty festive nests.
Gearing up to party
Packages from good friends of the Cle Elum Seven chimpanzees have begun to arrive and volunteers are busy getting ready for the big celebration on the 25th. The chimps? Well, Negra is doing her thing.
Volunteer Denice wrapping gifts that Robbi sent and getting into the spirit of the holidays. (Beware when Diana and a camera are in the chimp house 😉
Volunteer Deb making treats from wrapped tubes and supplies sent by Candy
Negra doing her blanket thing in front of a window in the playroom (soon – no bars on the window!) Photos taken by Sarah earlier today
More nesting
The other day we caught Jamie making a pretty impressive mixed-media nest out of carefully selected materials from the playroom. Her favorite nesting location seems to be the corner right next to the big doors to the playroom, perhaps because she can easily keep an eye on the humans from that vantage point. For this nest, she collected a cardboard box, some blankets, a ball of yarn, a bag, a shoe, and a giant teddy bear. Shortly after she settled down in her masterpiece, Foxie came over to check things out.
As J.B. mentioned in his blog post the other day, Jamie often weaves blankets or other materials through the wire mesh of the caging as part of her nest. You’ll notice that she does that with some yarn in the beginning of this video.
Foxie snuggles up
For those of you who know her, you’ll be pleased to see this cryptic picture of Foxie (which I had to snap it quickly in case she got up!). She’s got her head on a blanket in a nest she built the other day after dinner. If you’re just meeting Foxie, she is a special girl who generally avoids cozying up with blankets. All of the chimps here at CSNW make nests of some sort (and nesting is definitely a hard-wired behavior!) but Foxie’s are usually circles of plastic toys. It’s very heartwarming for the humans when, once in a while, Foxie uses a soft blanket to nest with. Of course she can choose to nest with whatever she likes, but hopefully this means that she is getting more comfortable here. The chimps have been here for a year and a half, but they’re still recovering and changing after years and years in medical research, and everyone has their own pace. It’s an honor to help them get comfortable!
Jamie undercover
Lately, Jamie’s been taking a page out of Negra’s book and spending a lot of time covered up.
Nesting
Jody has been making lots of great nests lately. It’s amazing that even after decades of deprivation, she is such an accomplished and enthusiastic nest-maker!
