Posts Tagged ‘northwest’
More Negra
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010Negra
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010It’s never too hot for Negra to wear a blanket.
Diana took this nice profile shot of Negra this morning.
Bounty of trolls
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010This 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.
Cat Tails – yummm
Saturday, June 26th, 2010Jody’s sweet face
Monday, June 21st, 2010Diana took some pretty awesome pictures of Jody cuddling with a giant stuffed dog the other day. You may have seen it on Jody Chimpanzee’s facebook page, but I wanted to share them here. So adorable!
New Chimps’ Choice Item!
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010We received such a wonderful response to last month’s Chimps’ Choice item, Protein Powder, which we add to the chimpanzees’ breakfast smoothie. Thank you so much to all who participated! This month, we’ve taken inventory and are in need of chewable vitamins and acidophilus, which are both available on our Amazon Wishlist. We appreciate all brands, however, we would like to request that they be vegan (no gelatin) and definitely chewable! As a thank you, we will send the first 10 people to donate between today and July 15th a ChimpSanctuaryNW.org bumper sticker. What a great way to support the sanctuary and get the word out! So, ready… set… go! :)
Faces
Monday, June 7th, 2010Foxie:
Jamie:
We’ve come a long way, baby!
Thursday, May 27th, 2010In November 2008, volunteer Dakotta, of the High Mountain Sustainable Project, and myself came out to build the sanctuary compost boxes in preparation for a garden in the future.
The ground around the perimeter fence is nothing but fill dirt. But, in spring of 2009, we got serious and 96 wheelbarrow loads of compost, manure and top soil later…
And man o’ man, was last year’s garden successful!
But it just keeps getting better! This year, we’ve built up the trails around the beds so that the soil stays nice and warm. We are also in the process of tearing down the straw compost boxes and replacing them with wooden ones.
We’ve also added more beds around the south side of the building so that the chimps can get a closer view of what’s growing in their garden!
Royal City’s Cloudview Ecofarms have donated tons of starts for this years garden, including broccoli, kale, cabbage, onions, and lettuce.
Because of all of our hard work this year, I am now officially calling myself, Dakotta, JB, and volunteer Denice the “Garden Committee”. With the help of all these individuals, we’ve landscaped the area around the chimps’ outdoor area, which will soon also include more garden beds of fast-growing veggies, like carrots, lettuce, kale, etc…
Can’t wait to show you all the finished product! We’ve come a LONG, LONG way, baby!! Thanks so much Dakotta, JB, Denice, the awesome folks at Cloudview Ecofarms, and everyone one else that has contributed. You guys are awesome and are helping us provide the chimps with fresh (and enriching) food!
Photos of the day
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
Sperm Competition
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010If you watched the video from the previous blog post, you may have some questions about a certain part of the male chimpanzee anatomy. Think of this post as Everything You Wanted to Know About Chimp Testicles, But Were Afraid to Ask.
Burrito is not unique – male chimpanzees have rather large testicles compared to other apes. And there’s a very interesting explanation for this. Most people are familiar with the concept of males competing for access to females. For example, male gorillas will compete for control over a harem of females – whoever controls the harem has primary mating access. But female chimpanzees will regularly mate with multiple males during estrus (see this recent article for an interesting take on chimp mating behavior). Therefore, much of the competition between males takes place between their sperm within the female’s reproductive tract.
If you think of mating as a lottery, with the prize being a fertilized egg, then whoever can produce the most sperm is essentially buying the most lottery tickets. And whoever has more tickets has a better chance of winning. There are also other forms of sperm competition besides this sperm “arms race”. Chimpanzees also produce sperm plugs (also called copulatory plugs). After mating, some of the semen will coagulate to plug up the cervix, so that sperm from future mating (with other males) will be less likely to reach the egg.
So for chimpanzees, it pays to produce a lot of semen, and that requires large testicles. Now you know!
