As many of you know, Foxie likes to invite her caregivers to play with her by throwing trolls to (or at) them. Here, Foxie does the same to our chow chow, Honey B. You might notice that Foxie isn’t all playful – its as if she doesn’t know whether she should play with Honey B or display at her. So she does some of both!
Play
New Fire Hose Swings
The way the chimps react to new enrichment says a lot about them. This morning, I installed some new fire hose swings in the outdoor area. Missy tested them out playfully. Jamie had something else in mind…
An excuse to play
Way back in grad school at Central WA University I did my master’s thesis on chimpanzee play initiation. I watched a lot of video of the chimpanzees at CHCI (mostly Moja and Tatu) begin play sessions. I loved seeing them in person and on the videos indicate to each other that they wanted to play. I found that the CHCI chimps often used objects and clothing when initiating play. And so do the Cle Elum Seven! Sometimes it’s Missy pulling on a sock, and sometimes it’s an object that I personally wouldn’t normally think of as a barrel of fun, like a plastic tube.
Pre-play: Jamie adjusting her scarf, holding plastic tubing, Jody lying in straw, Foxie looking at her troll
Beginning play: Foxie takes the end of the tubing
Foxie and Jamie run around for a while, then Missy chases Jamie
During play, the object is often transferred between partners – like keep-away. Missy got the hose from Jamie and climbed up the fire hose
When Missy jumped down, Foxie decided to join in again
A little bit later, another object comes into play – the scarf that Jamie was wearing.
The Cle Elum Seven sure do know how to have fun!
Negra playing chase
If you received our latest e-newsletter, you know that Negra has been a little more active lately (if you don’t get the e-newsletter, you can sign up here). I thought I’d post another photo of Negra and Missy playing chase around the climbing structure. Missy usually has only one speed (fast), but she was nice enough to slow things down a bit for Negra’s sake. Afterwards, Negra took a well-deserved rest.
Foxie and the boat bumper
I’ve been wanting to post this for a few days. Elizabeth and I hung one of the boat bumpers in the play room the other day and tied a troll doll to it. Foxie and Jamie were the most entertained by it, and Jody tried to pull up the boat bumper from above (smart!). The video is of Foxie “boxing.” She wasn’t upset – she mostly seemed curious and appeared to want to see if she could get the troll off of the rope. She wasn’t counting on the troll bouncing back!
More fun than a blanketful of trolls
In an effort to encourage Foxie to explore more types of enrichment, Diana had the idea to tie several trolls into a blanket. Foxie carried this “troll blanket” around with her today for quite awhile, sometimes walking tripedally while cradling the blanket in her free arm. The troll blanket also inspired some great play between Foxie and Jody:
The life of the party
The Cle Elum Seven are, on the whole, some of the most playful chimps I’ve known. I think its mostly due to Missy, who is always up for wrestling, chasing, or playing tug-o-war:
I don’t know if we’ve mentioned this before, but she really loves to jump off of things. Just today, she used a boat bumper as a springboard in an attempt to get Annie to play, and later she jumped off the deck to chase after Jamie (and get her blanket back):
