Jamie can never have enough shoes….
Archive for the ‘Jamie’ Category
Jamie’s latest boots
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010Getting there the hard way
Friday, February 26th, 2010Jamie is the type of person that really enjoys using all of her abilities, both mental and physical. She loves a challenge. If something is too easy, she’ll find a more difficult way of doing it, just for fun.
Sometimes she gets this look in her eyes and you know she’s up to something. You can almost follow her thought process as she looks around and figures out what tools she’s going to need to get the job done, or what series of moves she going to need to do to accomplish her goal.
Here’s a brief example. Jamie wants to move about four feet over to say hello to Denice. And how does she get there?
Another day in the greenhouse…
Thursday, February 25th, 2010The chimpanzees cannot get enough of their new greenhouse. Since it was completed a few days ago, they have spent most of the daylight hours outside playing, grooming, nesting, and generally reveling in the warmth. I don’t think we can overstate what a joy it has been to see them spend so much time in the sun.
Negra
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010It’s been so exciting to watch the chimps enjoy the greenhouse these past few days. Today was completely overcast, with temperatures in the upper 30’s for most of the day. Even so, it’s about 60 degrees in the greenhouse, and the chimps have been out there all day.
Even Negra has abandoned her usual spot on the play room catwalk to make nests outside. This is more than we could have hoped for.
In fact, the greenhouse has created a new problem for us. As I write this, at 5:30, I am waiting for Jamie to come back inside so I can close the door for the night (the greenhouse does get cold at night). But she doesn’t seem to care how late I have to stay :) What a good problem to have!
Lunch in the sun
Friday, February 19th, 2010Diana and I took some photos this afternoon while the chimps enjoyed a lunch forage outside. It was great to see Burrito enjoying the sunshine.
Negra stuffed as many onions in her mouth as she could and headed back to the play room.
Jamie went after the brussels sprouts, but apperantly not before contemplating them first.
She also spent some time dipping her onions in buckets of water, and then pouring the water from one container into another. This is typical Jamie. She has such an active mind, and she will often make projects for herself to keep busy.
Sun, how we’ve missed you!
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010The sun has finally returned to central Washington! Today was gorgeous, with blue skies, temperatures in the high 40s, and lots of glorious sun. The beautiful weather has put all of us, human and chimpanzee, in great moods. The chimps spent much of the day playing, swinging, and laughing outside in their (very nearly completed) greenhouse.
Tool modification
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010A few weeks ago, before J.B.’s recent post on tool use, I took several minutes of video of Jamie attempting to get a piece of chow just out of reach in the front rooms. I condensed the video a bit to show the highlights. There are a couple of things that Jamie does in the video that just make her all-around cool as well as demonstrate the intelligence of chimpanzees.
Sun!
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010The chimps were outside bright and early this morning to welcome the return of the sun to Central Washington.
Enrichment
Sunday, February 7th, 2010Tool use
Saturday, February 6th, 2010Chimpanzees are famous for their ability to use tools, but some individuals are more skilled than others. We know that human talent is a combination of genetics, early life experience, and practice, and the same is true with chimpanzees, I believe.
Jamie loves using tools. She could spend all day working on a project. I don’t think she’s as interested in the end result as she is in the process. Sometimes, when we are serving food, we accidentally drop a few pieces on the floor outside the enclosure. Jamie will spend the rest of the mealtime working to get those pieces, even though her caregivers are still giving out food.
Burrito, on the other hand, is just not a tool user. He has very limited patience, and he doesn’t seem to get that same flash of insight that spurs chimpanzees like Jamie to go fetch an appropriate tool. This doesn’t necessarily mean he is less intelligent. Most of the time, begging humans for help works just fine. But it does give you an idea why Burrito is not the alpha that he would like to be – Jamie is always one step ahead of him!
