Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Looking for adventure

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Missy was stuck in high gear today.

She tried joining Jamie on her walks but the walks were too slow, so she ran.

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Eventually she gave up on Jamie altogether and just starting running around the hill by herself in the rain.

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When the sun came out, all of the other chimps emerged from the greenhouse to spend time on the hill. She tried enticing Foxie to play by stealing one of her dolls, but Foxie wasn’t rambunctious enough.

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She tried getting Jody to chase her, but Jody couldn’t keep up.

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Missy is like an electron, orbiting around the other chimps as if they were standing still. But once and a while, she comes to a stop and starts looking around…

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…looking for something that will give her an adrenaline fix.

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And when she finds it, she can hardly contain her excitement.

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Look at that smile on her face.

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Morning Play

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This morning, Foxie was clearly feeling playful – stomping around the playroom and doing somersaults. Jamie noticed this, approached Foxie, and swiped one of Foxie’s beloved dolls. (Jamie knows this is a surefire strategy for initiating play with Foxie.) Jamie’s move kicked off a long game of wrestling and doll keep-away.)

Low-key play

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Missy and Annie tend to play rough when they wrestle, but Missy tones it down a little for the elder and slower Negra. Here you can see some quiet low-key play between Negra and Missy, but toward the end Annie steps in and Missy picks up the pace a bit.

Keep away

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This morning, I caught Missy in a rare moment of stillness.

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But not for long. Suddenly, she stood up and began scratching vigorously with both hands.

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Chimpanzees display self-scratching behavior when they are physiologically aroused. It’s thought that the scratching may be a response to sensations in the skin resulting from autonomic processes like piloerection (hair standing on end). In other words, something excites you, you involuntarily get goosebumps, and in turn you feel like scratching your skin. Often this occurs during times of stress, like when a subordinate male sits next to a dominant male. But sometimes the arousal is positive, like when Missy wants to play.

After scratching, Missy ran over to Foxie, took one of her trolls, and ran away across the shaky bridge.

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Foxie doesn’t like to walk on anything that feels unstable, so the best she could do was to climb up to Missy’s level on the platform.

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Missy wanted to keep the game going, so she ran back to Foxie and sat on the end of a beam.

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And then, when Foxie wasn’t looking, she disappeared down the ladder.

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Missy ran over to the tunnel, tempting Foxie come rescue her troll.

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Foxie didn’t respond, so Missy climbed atop the grassy mound, teased Foxie one last time, then took off up the hill.

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That did the trick.

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Foxie used to get anxious when the other chimps took her trolls, but now she enjoys it. In fact, she doesn’t even try to get them back right away. Allowing her friends to hold onto her dolls while they play chase is Foxie’s way of keeping the play session going.

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Missy took that as a cue to make the game even harder. She climbed back up where the troll would be tantalizingly out of Foxie’s reach.

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Again, Foxie did her best to get close to Missy.

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But after a while, she’d had enough, so she placed her one remaining troll on her back and headed back towards the greenhouse, perhaps hoping that Missy (and her troll) would come along too.

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Only Missy wasn’t following the plan.

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Foxie went back, but Missy was now holding her troll on top of the termite mound – another object that she doesn’t like to climb on.

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This game wasn’t fun anymore.

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Foxie had to resort to the only sure fire way to get her troll back: whimpering.

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Missy, being a good friend and knowing that Foxie was upset, ran after her to return the doll.

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Snuggling up with blankets: A retrospective

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This post may reflect what I would like to be doing on this cold and damp day…

In any case, below are some photos – some oldish and some newish – of the chimpanzees getting snuggly with blankets. We give out at least 60 blankets a day. Sixty is a somewhat arbitrary number, but it’s based on the amount that we can successfully get washed in a normal day with our current washer. We (and the chimps) like fleece blankets, because they are very comfy and the wash and dry fast and easy.

As you probably know, Negra is never far from a blanket, and she often has one draped over her head and/or shoulders:

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The photo above is on the holiday card available for purchase in our Zazzle merchandise store!

 

Negra blanket covering body

 

Missy sometimes “imitates” Negra’s blanket style, even nesting in Negra’s usual spots:

Missy under blanket

Always the athlete/acrobat, however, Missy incorporates interesting moves when she is nesting. For the full nesting sequence the  photo below was taken from, see this post:

missy headstand in nest

 

Jamie also occasionally sports a blanket over her head when nesting:

Jamie blanket over body

though she often chooses a sheet instead of a blanket for the job:

Jamie under sheet eyes closed

 

Jody is known for her nest making (she also likes straw nests – see this video from 2009 as an example):

Jody nesting

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jody with a blanket over her head, but she still looks darn cozy when she’s curled up in her blanket nest:

Jody sleeping

 

Annie is also a nest builder, and can frequently be found gathering nesting material and moving it to another area:

annie carrying blanket

Once she’s made her nest to her liking, she always strikes me as very satisfied:

Annie nesting

 

Burrito and Foxie are not much into building nests. Though nesting has a strong instinctual component, it seems there is a period of learning involved. Both Burrito and Foxie do mostly what we call “phantom nesting.” Once in a while, Foxie will actively nest with blankets:

Foxie in nest

but more often than not, she has a more passive relationship with all of the blankets we give out:

Foxie on blankets

 

Burrito is also more on the passive side of the spectrum when it comes to nesting, though he does like to snuggle up, particularly when someone else has done the work of making the nest:

Burrito on blanket

 

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Let us not forget, blankets are not just for nesting, but can also be great props when playing too:

Burrito clutching blankets playing

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ghost play

Burrito blanket play

I hope this inspires you to get snuggled up in your own nest tonight, or maybe play a game of ghost with a friend?