Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

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Bowls and straws

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For today’s afternoon enrichment, we filled bowls with tea, soy milk, soy yogurt, peanut butter, and ketchup, and placed the bowls on the outside of the chimps’ enclosure. Then we gave them tools to fish for the food.

Its fascinating to watch the different personalities in action. Burrito has no patience, and he’s not a very adept tool user either. Negra will use someone else’s straw once they’ve fished it into the bowl, but she won’t do it herself. Missy, Annie, Jody, and Foxie are all very patient and skillful. But Jamie is by far the best. I didn’t catch this on camera, but Jamie found a clever way to get the last bit out of her bowl. After she had gotten all of the yogurt that she could, she went to the water fountain to get a mouthful of water. She spit the water through the caging and into the bowl, diluting the remaining yogurt. Then she fished her straw through and drank the liquid.

Jamie sleeping outside

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J.B. and I were just outside and we spied a chimpanzee -form on top of the climbing structure in the outdoor area after all of the caregivers left for the evening. Normally the chimps tend to bed down right after dinner and are pretty well settled by the time the caregivers leave at night, and we’ve rarely seen anyone settling  outside. I figured that the indoors might just feel safer, but I’ve been hoping that, after time, the outdoor area might also feel like a safe place to sleep.

When we got closer, we could tell that it was Jamie. She was lying down on her stomach and had a sheet completely covering everything but her head. She looked at us casually, but with no interest in getting up. Next to her on the platform was the boat bumper that she had apparently pulled up there earlier today. Maybe Jamie decided it was a good night for a camp out in her own personal tree house.

Bubblicious

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Occasionally we fill some containers with water and a tiny bit of soap (plant-based and non-toxic, of course) and put them out for the chimps to enjoy. Jamie sometimes likes to dip a brush in the soap and scrub the floor, caging, enrichment, etc. Jody, on the other hand, likes to put large quantities of bubbles in her mouth. Today, she even convinced Annie to try it out.

Lettuce bonanza

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Jackie threw whole heads of lettuce on top of the enclosure tonight as part of dinner. If you know Negra, you probably know two things: first, she is not exactly the ‘athletic’ type. Second, she LOVES lettuce. So, we were very impressed when we saw her climb up and dangle from the tippy-top of the enclosure to get her head of lettuce! In the second part of this video you’ll see Missy doing the same thing, but with a bigger payoff. At the end it looks like she doesn’t quite know how to drop down to the platform without dropping her haul!

Laughter

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The chimps were in such playful moods yesterday! I could hear laughter coming from the playroom, so I grabbed the camera and caught Foxie and Jamie in a 10-minute long game of “steal the troll”. Thankfully, Foxie won in the end and the troll was returned to its rightful owner.

What a difference a day makes…when we came in this morning, the group had clearly been fighting and they had that look that says We can’t wait to take our frustration out on you, J.B., when you serve us breakfast!. Needless to say, I got drenched. But that’s what I’m here for!