troll

Let’s Get It Started

August 11, 2014 by Lisa

Even though the chimpanzees enjoyed a fabulous day long celebration last Friday for Foxie’s birthday, they’re not done partying just yet. Life in the sanctuary today was sponsored in honor of supporter Erin Yuhas’ birthday. Erin also donated some fun enrichment items and decorations for today’s affair. Thank you, again, Erin for your generous gift! The chimpanzees seemed to thoroughly enjoy their breakfast forage in the greenhouse this morning.

Jamie was quite content to forage her breakfast:

And to relax in the cool playroom after a successful party:

Annie and Foxie took particular advantage of the chow forage included in breakfast. Here is Annie:

And Foxie:

Foxie also continues to enjoy the new troll dolls she has recently received:

Burrito tried to carry as much food as he could all at once:

Missy found one good spot and stuck pretty close to it:

While Jody was a woman about town this morning. She enjoyed the forage from the top of the greenhouse to platforms below and afterwards relaxed with a good book.

Negra, who has just recently started showing an interest in enrichment items, took a definite shine to the donated stuffed monkey in these pictures. She carried it around with her for most of the day, bringing it to meals and napping with it in between.

Happy Birthday, Foxie!

August 8, 2014 by J.B.

It’s hard to believe, but Foxie turned 38 today. Though she may have grown another year older, she showed that she has no plans to start acting her age any time soon. As soon as we walked in the door in the morning, she began spinning and pirouetting and chasing us from one part of the building to another while passing her troll dolls back and forth.

To celebrate her big day, we served all of Foxie’s favorite foods (fruit, fruit, and more fruit!) and gave her a few dozen new troll and Dora the Explorer dolls. The chimps really enjoyed the birthday party – we tried to capture the look of sheer joy on their faces, but they would not stop inhaling watermelon long enough to be photographed.

Luckily we got some video of the party as well:

Many thanks to all who have donated in honor of Foxie’s birthday! Here’s to many more birthdays to come!

A Surprise for Foxie

August 7, 2014 by Elizabeth

Tomorrow is Foxie’s 38th birthday, and we’ll be throwing a big party to celebrate. We’re going to fill her day with the stuff that makes her happiest, including this impressive collection of new troll and Dora dolls:

Foxie hasn’t seen the new dolls yet. We want them to be a surprise on her big day. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how she likes them!

Foxie’s Secret Language

May 9, 2014 by J.B.

Some forms of chimp communication are universal. Chimps the world over food grunt, make play faces, and pant-hoot. While there are variations to all of these behaviors based on culture and geography, they are all part of a common chimp language.

But chimps also develop communicative behaviors all their own. My favorite example is Foxie. When Foxie adopted her first troll doll, she was extremely protective of it and became visibly upset when “Trixie,” as we named her, wound up in the hands of someone else. But over time, she began to trust us with her dolls, and at that point she actually started to use her troll dolls as a way to signify that it was time to socialize with her. While I really have no idea what is going on in Foxie’s mind, I like to think of it like this: She knows that we would never take her doll away from her, so when she hands one to us, she knows we have to stick around. You have my troll, so until I ask for it back, you’re all mine. At least that’s my guess as to how it started. Now we don’t even question it – it’s just how things work around here.

When we come to work in the morning, Foxie passes us a troll to say hello and starts to do her playful acrobatics. And when we are locking up for the night, she often drops a troll on our heads from the loft, as a way of saying: Just five more minutes, then you can go. When she’s done with us, she asks for it back and she goes on with her day.

And it’s not just humans on the receiving end. When Foxie wants to play with Jamie, she will run up, stomp her feet, and hand a troll directly to her.

Jamie knows that this is an invitation to a playful game of keep-away. Some of the best play bouts between Foxie and Jamie, like this one from earlier in the week, involve a troll doll (you’ll see that Jamie has it tucked into her pelvic pocket).

But sometimes Foxie goes from playful to genuinely concerned about her doll, and at that point Jamie knows to give it back immediately. No one likes to see Foxie upset.

Who knew that a weird fad toy from the 60’s (sorry, Foxie) would become such an important part of a chimpanzee’s life?

Interrupted play

May 6, 2014 by Debbie

Today Burrito and Foxie were wrestling and chasing and just being super playful in the greenhouse. Their laughter got to be pretty loud, and I think it caught Jamie’s attention…

…She came out to see what was going on, and stepped right between Burrito and Foxie to interrupt their play.

This is a very boss-like thing to do in chimp society. We (lovingly) refer to Jamie as the “party police” because of instances like this.

But this time, she didn’t cease all playing—instead, she immediately started wrestling with Foxie and began to play “tug-o-troll” with her.

Photographing the elusive Foxie

April 19, 2014 by Diana

One super cool and unique auction item we have for Hoot! is the opportunity to photograph the chimpanzees with a lesson from professional photographers Karen Ducey and Dean Rutz, using long telephoto lenses and other professional-grade equipment! This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities!

Maybe the winner will be able to catch some photos like these of the first elusive, then charming Foxie with her troll dolls on Young’s Hill: