July 2010 Archives

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!