Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Play

Burrito, Joy, and Giving

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Next to eating, playing is Burrito’s favorite thing.

In case you haven’t seen this morning’s newsletter yet (subscribe here if you’re not already), tomorrow is Giving Tuesday and the donations have already started rolling in. We have currently raised about $1800 toward our goal of $12,000, and we’ve only got until midnight tomorrow! Help keep Burrito and the other chimps supplied with all the food, toys, blankets, and friends (including new chimp friends!) that their hearts could desire by making a donation. We have a group of people pitching in for a matching challenge, so if you want to make a pledge, email Diana ([email protected]) before donating. Thank you!

Part joy. Part magic. All Foxie.

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Last week you may recall that I captured Foxie snuggled up napping on the heated floor with her dolls, Kate and Alana (Dora’s friends 🙂 ). I also promised there were A WHOLE LOT of photos of that scene to follow. So here goes…

When Foxie plays she often likes to lie on her back in a tiny chimpanzee ball repeatedly tucking her arms and legs into herself and then kicking and flailing them about as she snorts and laughs. On this day, after she woke up she rolled over and decided to engage her dolls in her play session (JB wrote a fantastic blog post on Friday about chimps and imaginary play). What ensued was part joy, part magic, and all Foxie:

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Missy deigns to play with a caregiver

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Missy is a chimps’ chimp. She much prefers the company of her chimpanzee family to that of any of her caregivers. Once in awhile she honors us with some attention, but she is hilariously aloof in most of her interactions with humans. On the rare occasion that she plays with a caregiver, she typically has a “I’m a little embarrassed for you right now” look on her face. Which, of course, makes her all the more charming.

Tea & Play

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Today’s enrichment theme was “tea party” so we took that literally and made two types of tea for the chimps to enjoy after we had finished cleaning their castle.

Post-tea time was spent on important things like diving into the nesting position, staring at a troll doll, and some lazy play with friends. Watch the video with sound.

Who can resist being thoroughly charmed by these chimpanzees?

 

Imaginary Play

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Chimpanzees have rich imaginary lives. Chimps who use American Sign Language have been observed signing to inanimate objects and engaging them as if they were live social partners. For example, a chimpanzee named Dar was once seen signing “tickle” to a stuffed bear that he was playing with. I personally recall (and will never, ever forget) watching a chimpanzee named Moja don a curly blonde wig and look at herself in the mirror while signing “pretty” to her reflection.

Foxie was never taught sign language, but language isn’t a requirement for imaginary play.

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Nor is imaginary play limited to chimpanzees raised in human environments. In the wild, young chimpanzees have been seen carrying sticks as rudimentary dolls and caring for them as if they were their own offspring. Are they simply expressing a desire to be more grown up? Could it be an instinctual form of practice to prepare them for motherhood? Whatever the motivation, it is probably not much different than our own.

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What’s so interesting about Foxie is that the objects of her imaginary play are often not chimpanzee-like at all. Foxie is occasionally given chimpanzee dolls but she rejects them in favor of Troll dolls or Dora the Explorer dolls. And when she plays with Dora, she treats her more as a human than as a chimp. Note how she stands Dora bipedally (on two legs) instead of quadrupedally like a chimpanzee, even though Dora would stand upright just as well on all fours.

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We can never truly know what a chimpanzee is thinking, but we certainly know that they are thinking. And imaginary play gives us a tantalizing peek into what those thoughts might be.

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