Archive for the ‘Jody’ Category

Wine tasting (and wine nesting)

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

This weekend, CSNW supporters will be enjoying a sampling of some of Washington’s best wines at our Sippin’ for the Seven fundraiser. We didn’t want the chimps to feel left out, so we gave them their own wine tasting, of sorts.

Yesterday, Diana and I took a drive down to Boushey Vineyards in Grandview, WA. Owners Dick and Luanne Boushey were kind enough to allow us to collect vine trimmings for the chimps (thank you!). Today’s trimmings were from French clone Syrah vines – soon we’ll get to see if they prefer Merlot :)

Web Jody eating vines OA_MG_5616

Web Jody eating vines 2 OA_MG_5660

Web Annie eating vines OA_MG_5646

In addition to eating the vines, the chimps enjoyed nesting with them…especially Jody, as you might have guessed. This morning, she seemed intent on outdoing her paper nest from last week.

Missy’s Day of Play

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Missy has been especially playful today (even by Missy standards). Jody and Annie have been good about humoring her (as you’ll see in the video), but even during those moments when no one else is up to a game, Missy has found a way to entertain herself. At various times today, we’ve caught her taking a flying leap from the deck outside wearing a huge playface or playing chase with an invisible partner.

Jody’s giant nest

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

One of our volunteers brought a giant roll of paper for the chimps (thanks David!), and with it, Jody created one of the greatest nests of all time.

Another day in the greenhouse…

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

The 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.

Sun!

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

The chimps were outside bright and early this morning to welcome the return of the sun to Central Washington.

Snake!

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Given their history in captivity, the chimps here at CSNW (unlike their free-living counterparts) have probably never encountered a real snake before, but when this toy snake (see video) went out as part of their enrichment one day, they treated it with a healthy dose of caution.

Burrito comes out of his shell

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

When it comes to play partners, Burrito tends to prefer his human friends. It is pretty rare to see him join in with the girls’ games (it’s hard to say why — perhaps he’s a little intimidated). Although he spends a fair amount of time grooming and being groomed by the other chimps, once things get playful, he usually withdraws a bit. So I was quite excited this morning when I caught him playing with Foxie in the front rooms. Apparently it looked like such a good time that Jody and Jamie tried to join in, too.

Foxie nesting

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Today Foxie nested in straw, following Jody’s lead. I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve seen Foxie nest with straw! See video:

Nesting, Nesting, Nesting…

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Today, Jamie built herself yet another nest using a blanket and a box. This sparked a conversation between Diana and I about the similarities and differences of nesting behavior of captive vs. free-living chimpanzees. We couldn’t find many videos on the internet of free-living chimpanzees nesting, however, Jane Goodall’s Discover Chimpanzees Website has a behavior glossary, complete with video footage of the chimpanzees in Gombe engaging in a variety of behaviors, including this clip of nesting. If you compare the following video clips of Jody, Missy and Jamie (in order of appearance) to the video clip from the Discover Chimpanzees Website, you can see many similarities. Notice how the free-living chimpanzee (named Fifi) pulls the branches into her nest and pushes them down to make her bed more comfortable. It truly is an exact science.