Yesterday, Jackie and I put out a party with “Texas in a box” sent from Candy C. She also sent a DVD with line dancing for us to show the chimps. We thought Negra would like to see the dancing, so Jackie went to set up the TV so they could watch from the front rooms. We had come technical difficulties so instead decided to just do a video search on my iPad and show the videos to the chimps that way! Negra, Jamie, Foxie, and Burrito all showed interest. Jamie especially liked the boots the dancers were wearing. Thanks again Candy for sending us fun enrichment!
Posts Tagged ‘enrichment’
Kickin’ and Clickin’ Country-Western Dance
Monday, January 30th, 2012Enriching Negra
Thursday, January 26th, 2012Negra doesn’t hang out with her human friends all too often, so when she’s in the mood to play (or to even just sit next to you), it’s a real treat. Lately, however I think she has been more interactive than usual, both with her human caregivers and with the other chimps. This morning while we were cleaning the playroom, I caught her casually spying on me through a mirror. At first I just greeted her with a head nod and she enthusiastically head nodded back, so I started dancing for her (Negra loves it when her caregivers dance and often bobs her head and moves with us a bit when we do). I think she was definitely enriched.
Slurp, slurp, slurp
Monday, January 23rd, 2012Yesterday Jackie and I set up a great enrichment project for the chimps. We filled buckets with some snow and added a little juice for flavor, and then we put the buckets outside the caging and gave the chimps straws to use as tools. Everyone had their own way of trying to get the most out of the buckets. Eventually all the snow completely melted and the buckets were dry, but we certainly found a way for this project to last longer than just juice in buckets.
A cold snack
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012I know we’ve had a lot of posts about the snow lately, but I just couldn’t resist posting this adorable video from yesterday.
the snow days continue
Saturday, January 21st, 2012If you’re in Washington State or have heard the national weather news, you know that there’s been no shortage of snow this week! We probably have about 16-18 inches on the ground now with more expected. The snow accumulation has caused the electric fence voltage on Young’s Hill to reduce (this is normal and expected). That, combined with the chimpanzees generally not enjoying walking in snow, they haven’t been on the hill this week. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t been able to take part in the weather!
J.B. shared a video on Thursday of the chimps snacking on troll doll snow cones – snow combined with a bit of orange juice, then frozen overnight outside.
Today, we filled up the big tub in the greenhouse with snow, so the chimpanzees have been free-snacking on it all day. Below are a few photos.
Burrito (Jamie in the background):
A series of Foxie:
Forget milk mustaches, 2012 is all about snow beards:
If you’re wondering if Foxie went to the tub empty-handed, the answer is no – she brought a troll doll and a brush:
Negra opted to bring her snow inside for snacking:
Troll head snow cones
Thursday, January 19th, 2012These were a big hit this morning.
Creative Jamie
Saturday, January 7th, 2012I enjoyed watching this in person as much as I enjoyed making the video. Jamie is endlessly fascinating. I love the intense purposefulness that she employs no matter what she’s doing.
Silly B
Sunday, January 1st, 2012Burrito was in an exceptionally silly mood today. After putting a paper bag around his shoulders like a cape, he went out into the greenhouse and spent some quality time with a blue fish.
Jamie helps clean up
Thursday, December 29th, 2011As we’ve mentioned before, Jamie is particularly human-oriented. (Read this post from the first week Jamie was in sanctuary). She definitely watches us do things and will do them in her own style later. Jamie also likes to check up on any kind of work that’s been done and once she’s given access to a room that was previously closed off for maintenance, she will rush in to give her quality control tests.
In the first part of this video, you’ll see her cleaning up a recent paint job in one of the front rooms. We are replacing the benches, so you’ll see some primer on the wall in the spot where the bench used to be. In the second part of the video, Jamie is scrubbing a notably hard-to-reach spot. Clearly I did not do a good enough cleaning job! But I’m so glad to have Jamie’s help.
Adventures of a peanut butter jar
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011The other day, we put a mostly empty plastic peanut butter jar in with the chimps’ enrichment, which is something we often do when we’ve used the bulk of the peanut butter- the chimps spend hours trying to get the peanut butter remnants off the insides! Foxie was the lucky one who found it first the other day, and she took it on quite the adventure. First, she had it in the playroom. Later, she took it out with her into the greenhouse, and then she and her peanut butter jar went on a hike on Young’s Hill.
She took it with her as she climbed up and down a couple of the climbing structures and then around the perimeter, enjoying the occasional snack. At one point, Jody decided to start a game of chase. She got in front of Foxie and started playfully walking backwards, encouraging Foxie to follow her.
They played for a little while, but then Foxie got distracted and put down the jar. I can’t say if Jody had an ulterior motive for starting the game of chase, but it definitely seemed to work in her favor.
Jody enjoying the peanut butter jar in the greenhouse:
