December 2008 Archives

For those people who celebrate Christmas it is true what the song by Eddie Money says, "Everybody loves Christmas, everybody has fun. That time of the year, that holiday cheer, a good time for everyone!"

Here at CHCI we try to celebrate every major holiday with the chimpanzees. This year, like every other, Deborah and Roger Fouts, Mary Lee Jensvold, and several CHCI graduate students and volunteers celebrated Christmas with the chimpanzees on December 24th. The song is also appropriate for the chimpanzees as well.

Right after Thanksgiving we put up the tree for the chimpanzees to see and covered it with decorations and sweet treats (strings of various cereal and candies). From this moment on, the requests for sweet treats did not stop, and the excitement of Christmas day, when they finally get to have the sweet treats, began.

Their Christmas started out early in the morning with friends and family greeting them with a cornucopia of food and gifts. Their enclosures were decorated with streamers, gift bags filled with meat and cheese, presents, and a picnic set up with plates filled with cookies and cups filled with apple-grape cider. Breakfast was put on hold that morning in anticipation of the goodies to fill the enclosures. Besides meat, cheese, and cookies, they also had lunchables, nuts, pomegranates, pineapple, Clementine oranges, cranberries, and sweet treats. Their Christmas forage was enough to keep them satisfied through lunch and dinner until the following morning.

There were many gifts from Dr. R. Allen Gardner of which included a train whistle, a Christmas wine bag (of which we filled with treats and Tatu gladly ripped into, literally), and a fancy feather duster. They don't sound very exciting but indeed all gifts were much appreciated.

Rather than an overly excited day of crazily ripping open gifts and stuffing faces full of food, Christmas this year was more of a mellow get together to enjoy what was given. Loulis was excited to see the yearly gingerbread house and quietly took it into a corner where he slowly had at it, first eating the hard candies followed by the icing and then some cookie.

The mellowness was broken for just a moment though when Tatu decided she wanted some of the gingerbread house and politely stole it from Loulis. Dar was happy to have some lunchables, complete with juice and a candy bar. He also went around the enclosures finding all the cups filled with cider and drinking them in a very sophisticated manner, pinky finger up! Tatu was a bit more active, searching out all the bags (even the ones taped up high on the walls and in the climbing structure) filled with meat, cheese, fruit, and nuts. It seemed like a never-ending party, until the next morning that is.

The holidays have always been a time for eating to excess, and around here, it's no different. The chimpanzees have the ability to splurge, however, because during the other parts of the year they eat a balanced, healthy diet. When it comes time to make those New Years' resolutions, why not make a resolution to switch to the "chimpanzee diet"?

The chimpanzees here at CHCI eat three well-balanced meals during each day, supplemented with a number of healthy snacks in between. Before each meal, the chimpanzees are served an appetizer of what we call CRACKERS in ASL. The crackers are protein-based biscuits that contain all the nutrients a chimpanzee might need. The chimpanzees are also served vitamins in the morning before their breakfast. The chimpanzees take one multi-vitamin and two calcium supplements each day.

 

In the morning, interns at CHCI serve a fruit-based meal: on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays that consists of a bowl of sliced fruit, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays it consists of a fruit smoothie. Based on the season, our current supply, or the chimpanzees' own likes and dislikes, interns can select from a wide variety of fruit ingredients. Dar and Loulis are currently enjoying pomegranate arils in the fruit bowls, while Tatu seems to enjoy smoothies made with apples.

At noon each day, the chimpanzees at CHCI are served a bean-based soup. To make the soup, interns chop up various vegetables (particular favorites include onions, broccoli, and potatoes) and put them into a large pot with one and one-half cup of beans. The type of bean used for the soup changes each day, and includes kidney beans, black beans, navy beans, and even garbanzo beans. The beans are soaked overnight and placed in the pot with the vegetables and a little added water. The soup cooks from eight in the morning until noon when it is served. Before the soup is served to chimpanzees, it is ground up to ensure that the chimpanzees eat all of the nutritious vegetables and beans in the soup. Otherwise, they would pick out the vegetables they dislike! If the chimpanzees eat enough soup, they are served one or two fresh vegetables.

In the afternoon, the chimpanzees are served a carbohydrate-based dinner. This can include basic carbohydrates such as rice, oatmeal, or farina, but can also be more elaborate. Some dinners have included multigrain breads, pancakes, tortillas, or pasta as their carbohydrate base. Dinner is a time for interns to be creative with the chimpanzees' meal, adding fruits, vegetables, or other items.

 

A balanced diet allows the chimpanzees at CHCI to live happily and healthily!

Bird Meat Day was a festive and joyous occasion for all the primates of CHCI again this year. Lisa Schuster Lyons and others spent most of the day cooking a three-course feast. The chimpanzees were in a playful mood as they groomed, relaxed, and watched the caregivers cooking in the kitchen. The kitchen door stayed open all afternoon so the wonderful smells of Thanksgiving could waft into the chimpanzees' enclosures. When dinnertime finally arrived, the chimpanzees quickly came into the night enclosure area, where they excitedly began their first course: a sparkling cider and nut forage. Anne Johnson and Robin Potosky served the meal. They offered crackers as usual but, not surprisingly, the chimpanzees declined their offer and held out for all the good stuff to come. Their main course included all the Thanksgiving standards:  turkey (a.k.a. bird meat), stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, cranberry sauce, and rolls. Tatu, Dar, and Loulis contentedly enjoyed multiple helpings of everything, especially their favorites. Tatu ate plenty of bird meat, Dar particularly enjoyed the rolls, and Loulis loved the cranberry sauce. Eventually, everyone was nearly full so they passed back their bowls. The time had come for their third and final course--dessert. Everyone enjoyed a cup of soy milk followed by pumpkin pie. By this point, the chimpanzees seemed to be experiencing that contented post-dinner torpor we all feel after a big, delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Thus, it was time for clean-up followed by blankets, nighttime enrichment and toothbrushes. Having brushed their teeth and collected their blankets for nesting, Tatu, Dar, and Loulis were ready to settle down and sleep for the night. Just as we human primates enjoy good food and time with our friends and family on Thanksgiving day each year, so do the chimpanzees at CHCI. Bird Meat Day is always marked by not only a delicious feast, but also a festive, playful atmosphere for all the primates at CHCI. This year was no different.