Today was overcast but surprisingly warm. The chimps spent most of the morning on the hill. Missy was so happy!
I was watching Foxie and noticed that she did not have a troll doll with her. I thought, “that’s weird.” Then, I scanned the landscape and noticed that Jamie had a troll doll in her hand…
Less than a minute later, Jamie had climbed down from the structure.
Foxie approached her, pant-grunting (a submissive behavior). Jamie immediately handed Foxie the troll doll.
Then, Foxie turned and Jamie followed her up the hill.
This was the second troll doll exchange we’ve photographed in the last week (see Elizabeth’s post of the first exchange). Pretty fascinating!
For lunch, we decided spread out a forage of tomatoes, small peppers, Brussels sprouts on their stalks, lettuce and chow all over the two-acres. Foraging for food is serious business, and it’s what free-living chimps spent a lot of their time doing in the forests.
It’s awesome to see a whole group together doing what comes naturally, like in this photo below of Burrito (bottom right), Foxie (carrying the green-haired troll on her back), Jody (to the left of Foxie), Annie (bipedal) and Missy (on the structure). In case you’re wondering, caregivers do get very good at identifying chimps from behind – each backside is unique too, after all.
Jamie was off on her own collecting Brussels sprouts and peppers.
We scattered the food everywhere, including the top of the structures. Missy doesn’t need much motivation to climb.
Burrito’s motivation seemed to be to join Foxie
Once he was up there, he took in the view. The black and orange in the background is the hill that burned during the Taylor Bridge Fire in August.