Foxie’s not the only chimpanzee with a doll. In addition to countless examples of other captive apes carrying trolls, Sponge Bobs, and stuffed chimps, there is now evidence of wild chimpanzees treating sticks as dolls.
Knowing how intelligent and imaginative chimpanzees can be, this shouldn’t be surprising. But I can’t help being amazed. One young chimp was actually seen making a second nest, just for his doll…
Foxie with one of her troll dolls
This morning I watched Foxie gather what may have been the largest number of trolls she has ever carried at one time. She had a troll scarf, a sock full of trolls, and probably seven or eight loose trolls. It took her a few minutes just to figure out how she could hold them all at once.
In case you were wondering, she did it by holding the sock and scarf in one hand, a couple trolls in the other hand, one troll in each foot, and one in her mouth.
She seemed quite satisfied with her collection. She spent the rest of the day passing trolls to her caregivers and initiating wild games of chase throughout the sanctuary.
Troll dolls have reached fad status at the chimp house. Jody recently caught on to the trend! Here’s a photo of her with a somewhat bald troll in her hip pocket.
Foxie continues to carry around Princess (or her formerly pink-haired look alike) and allows us to wash the now-bald Trixie each day. When Foxie sees Trixie in the laundry basket drying out, she softly hoots or whimpers, indicating that she wants Trixie back. Then she carries around one big troll (Trixie) and one small troll for most of the day. We’re looking forward to adding to the troll clan – keep them coming!
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Chimp Sanctuary NW blog
