Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Play

Greenhouse play

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Here’s the video I promised in yesterday’s blog post. My favorite part is when Annie joins in the play (using her favorite blanket-swinging method of play initiation), something she’s doing more and more as her confidence continues to grow (read Diana’s thoughts on the changes we’ve seen in Annie here.)

Distractions

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I’m going to be honest: Sometimes it’s just more fun to watch the chimpanzees play than it is to scrub the playroom. JB and I had a hard time making any significant progress this morning because the chimps were on fire (figuratively speaking)! We had some serious sun today, and relatively mild temperatures, which meant the greenhouse was warm and inviting. Foxie, Missy, and a troll doll had a lengthy play session on and around one of the window ledges; I’ll do my best to post that footage tomorrow.

For now, here’s a video of Annie reprising her stand-on-Missy game from this past summer (see that video here).

Imaginary play

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This morning, while Elizabeth and I were cleaning the playroom, Annie was sitting in the window. She playfully opened her mouth for a “drink of water” through the glass. She’s not the only chimpanzee at CSNW that we have witnessed play this game. We caught a short clip of it:

This reminded me of something I saw, but failed to get on camera a few weeks ago. Jamie was sitting on this small toy horse and scooting along the playroom floor. She then lifted her leg up high and over in an exaggerated dismount. Two things stood out to me- the first was how interesting it is to me that chimps engage in this type of pretend play, and second- how truly little we know about the chimps’ histories. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing when she “dismounted”. We suspect she was a “pet” prior to the lab, but was she raised by a cowboy (hence the boot obsession?), did she just see this on TV?, or was she taught to ride a horse at some point? We may never know, but it was a fascinating moment none the less.

Here’s a photo of the horse, for scale. 🙂

Play with me

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This morning Jamie seemed to be feeling a little ignored. She displayed a couple of times, probably in an attempt to draw some attention to herself, but volunteer Denice and I were busy cleaning the front rooms, and the other chimpanzees didn’t seem too impressed. She eventually convinced Foxie to play with her by “stealing” one of her trolls. Once she had Foxie’s undivided attention, she proceeded to drag her around the playroom by her feet.

Full of beans

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I love watching Jody play. Usually, she expends the least amount of energy possible. If she’s playing chase, she’ll walk at a snail’s pace. If she’s playing tickle, she’ll do it laying down. But something got into her today, because she was climbing, brachiating, and even running (if you can call it that) during a game of chase with Foxie.

New camera!

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The chimps aren’t the only ones receiving gifts this holiday season. Our Board of Directors has generously donated the digital SLR camera from our wishlist. It’s similar to Diana’s personal camera that we have been using, but it has the added capability of recording video.

Because it accepts all of the same zoom lenses, we can now film the chimps in areas of the building that were previously out of range for the point and shoot camera. Plus it will allow us to get great close up video when they are roaming their two-acre enclosure this summer. Take a look: