Pan bloglodytes

About once a month, Jason and I take our daughter Adelaide into the observation area to say hello to the chimpanzees through the glass.Over the last year, it has been fun to watch Addy go from sleeping through her visits with the chimpanzees to interacting with them. When we went to visit them on a recent Saturday, Loulis was very playful and interested in interacting with Jason, Addy and me. He came up to the glass and wanted to tickle Addy's feet, so we put her feet up for a tickle. 

When Loulis would put his hand up on the glass, Addy would too.

Addy was enjoying herself as well and pointing to Loulis and babbling. At one point, Loulis offered Addy a kiss through the glass.  Addy didn't understand this gesture of friendship, but that didn't phase Loulis who kept on playing with her. 

I hope that Addy's friendship with the chimpanzees will help her develop compassion for all life and to understand there is no 'us and them', but only an 'us' which includes all living beings.

Today the chimpanzees enjoyed a fun treat of the wax lips that recent visitor, Gloria Grow, left for them. Gloria is a long-time friend of chimpanzees and the founder of the Fauna Foundation which provides sanctuary for a number of different animal residents (including chimpanzees) in Canada. Gloria was recently visiting in the area and stopped in to participate in a chimposium, our one hour educational workshops open to the public on weekends.

Here Anna, one of the chimpanzees' caregivers, offers the treat to Tatu and Dar from the safe outer human cage areas of the enclosures.

The Civic Engagement Center on campus provides students opportunities to get involved in service activities. This last quarter they put together a nut drive for Tatu, Dar, and Loulis.  They put boxes around campus and asked students to donate nuts, and boy did they!  Yesterday we received the bags of nuts and we are now planning nut enrichment!  Thank you to everyone at the Civic Engagement Center and to all the students who donated.  We appreciate all your work and generosity!

Back in February we featured Brandon Wood on our blog. For those of you who don't yet know him I encourage you to find out more about this amazing individual. Visit his blog at http://makeachimpsmile.blogspot.com/ or find him on Facebook. Yes, Brandon is a SuperKid and inspiration to chimpanzee advocates everywhere!  Yesterday, in celebration of his birthday, we here at CHCI threw a party for the chimpanzees sponsored by his mom, Deanna Fawcett Wood. 

The human caregivers had a blast setting up the party room for the chimpanzees. Forage treats included in the party room were as follows: cherries, peaches, apricots, walnuts, licorice and grape juice.  From what I could tell the party was a success with the chimpanzees too!

Dar enjoying his forage.

Loulis food peering at Tatu's plum.

Loulis relaxing in the party room. Notice his drooped lip? That's a relaxed and happy chimpanzee face.

Dar with one of his favorites . . . juice, of course!

Tatu discovers the piñata treats.

Tatu & Loulis in the party room enjoying their respective treats.

The party continued later with pizza, fruit tea, and a fruit platter for dinner.  All and all it appeared a satisfying party for these three chimpanzees.  Thanks again to Brandon & Deanna for making it possible.

This morning's party in celebration of the 4th of July was a laid back affair. Decorations and forage treats were provided for the daytime enrichment that all three chimpanzees relished; these included saltine & peanut butter sandwiches, raisins and red licorice. After the initial rush for the forage, Dar and Tatu headed outside to enjoy the morning sunshine leaving Loulis alone in the East playroom. Loulis took this opportunity for play (with the human taking pictures!) and for finishing up the leftovers.  A little while later, Tatu joined Loulis in East and settled down for a post-party nap.  

Thanks to the generous donations from both the Groves Conference 2010 and FOW member Evelyn Tulloss the party in honor of Washoe's birthday this year was quite a success.  The funds were used to purchase decorations and treats for the playrooms as well as a Dairy Queen dinner later that evening. 

While filming the festivities I was witness to much chimpanzee excitement, expressed in food-grunts, squeaks and even a pant hoot or two, and what seemed to be general contentment in a well orchestrated party.  Two events stand out in memory that I'd like to share. 

First, Loulis, in his quest for treats, happened upon a large plastic mirror hung on one of the rungs in EAST playroom. Often Loulis pulls things down or off of the walls and platforms during his food forages and I expected to see much the same on this day. Instead, Loulis used the mirror to watch Dar who was engaged with a frozen juice bottle across the enclosure. Loulis appeared to be entertained in this way for a short while as he enjoyed his own treats at leisure.
 
Second, Tatu encountered a new and different toy in the shape of a large syringe-like squirt gun filled with water.  What I found so interesting about this encounter is that it slowly unfolded throughout the mornings activities.  When they first entered the EAST playroom Tatu found the squirt gun lying across a large tractor tire. She picked it up at this time, examined it briefly, and then laid it back in the same spot.  Following this introduction she came back to it again and again as she foraged for treats, each time touching it or picking it up but subsequently replacing it on the tire.  Once the foraged treats were consumed and the "party" portion of the morning was winding down, Tatu casually approached the tire, picked up the squirt gun, and continued on to a safe spot in WEST from which to thoroughly examine this new object. After initial defeat, having first tried to bite the end off, Tatu quickly figured out the real mechanics of this toy and squirted the water out onto the floor. This sudden pool was quite a surprise to Loulis who had been closely food-peering as Tatu finished her treats!
Unfortunately, I don't have pictures to show you of these events. However, I hope you enjoy the ones that did turn out.  Thanks again for helping us to enrich the lives of Washoe's family in so many ways!

It's summer time, and the garden is beginning to grow! Here are some pictures of what Tatu, Loulis, and Dar see from their outdoor enclosure.

Onion Flowers

Sage Flowers

Dandelion by Raspberry Brambles

Baby Peaches

Strawberries Ripening

Tomato Blossoms

Blue and Pink Forgetmenots

Baby Apples

Black Violets

New Raspberry Leaves

Spearmint in between Raspberry Brambles

Sweetmint Leaves

Celery Plant

The berm garden looks beautiful! Thank you to everyone who helped to make the garden grow!

Being involved with the docent program is rewarding on many levels! One of my favorite experiences as a docent is the opportunity to introduce young children to the wonders of chimpanzees. Spring is a particularly busy time for school groups visiting on field trips; last week we hosted 1st graders from a local school. After the trip the teachers, Debi, Lisa & Sherrie, sent us thank you letters from their students. I've included some of the pictures and a few of their comments below. Click on each link to see each one.  This is what being a docent is all about - educating and, hopefully, inspiring a new generation to care about chimpanzees. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!
Abe ThankYou.pdf

Loulis's  birthday is May 10^th.  Often his birthday falls on Mother's Day and, even when it doesn't, it's so close that the celebrations have been combined together into one big party.   This year's party was sponsored by the generous donation of Pamela Farr in memory of her mother, Helen Balich Farr.  Pamela's donation provided a fabulous luau themed party with plenty of treats for the chimpanzees.    Treat bags included any combination of the following items:  granola bars; pretzels; ranch-flavored sunflower seeds; chewy fruit snacks; strawberry newtons; peanut butter sandwich crackers; apple juice boxes and raisins.  In addition to the treat bags, Audrey Johnson, one of CHCI's current volunteers created home-made frozen peanut butter banana pops as a special surprise.  Decorating was fun and accompanied by the excited breathy-pants & occasional pant-hoots of the chimpanzees as they watched the preparations. 

Loulis with a banana pop from the top of the platform in the East playroom.

Tatu (foreground) and Loulis (background) foraging for treats.

Dar in action (in the shaky tree) snagging a treat bag from the wall.

Loulis on his way out to enjoy both the sunshine and more banana pops.

On Wednesday, Cinco de Mayo, we created a fiesta for our chimpanzee friends in celebration of the day.  Although this holiday has limited significance in Mexico, it is currently widely observed in the United States as a day to celebrate and honor Mexican heritage in much a similar fashion as St. Patrick's Day honors Irish heritage. For those of us at the Chimpanzee & Human Communication Institute it offered a good opportunity for enriching the lives of the chimpanzees that live here by getting creative with the dinner options!  The caregivers made an enviable spread that included vegetarian tacos, home-made Spanish rice, Rosie's secret recipe guacamole, and stuffed bell peppers.    The feast was well received by Tatu, Dar & Loulis who appeared to appreciate our efforts! 

Here's the majority of the feast.

And the delicious looking tacos.

Dar enjoyed  the lime seltzer forage.

And he shared his tacos with Loulis up in the tunnel.