Pan bloglodytes: The official blog of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute

Thursday 26th July was Scotland Day at CHCI. For weeks I had been (and still am) amusing everyone with my Scottish accent and so I decided to give Washoe, Loulis, Tatu and Dar a taste of Scotland too. The East Room was decorated with all sorts of Scottish themed items: flags, a velcro map of Scotland, a big Celtic knot design, a (replica) golf-flag and tee and some brochures of the Scottish Borders (where I grew up).

I was very pleased to see that when Tatu settled down to leaf through the brochures she signed BLACK (which she uses like we might use “cool”). I will be passing on the message to all my friends at home.

Dar seemed to most enjoy the golfing area, lying back on the blanket and playing with the flag.

I also noticed him admiring the Scottish postcards along the window on which we had written messages wishing the family a fantastic summer and thanking them for their hospitality while I’ve been here.

Scotland day didn’t end there, for dinner we hand-crafted fantastic green Loch Ness monsters from rice, potatoes and onions.

I just hope everyone enjoyed Scotland day as much as I enjoyed preparing it.

Share This

My enhanced enrichment theme was Jungle Day. It was a combination of my lack of creativity and Shona’s great thinking that led to our choice of theme day.

Once we came up with the theme, we went to work making things. I have always liked to color and it relaxes me so I went online and found pictures of animals that are commonly found in the jungle such as orangutans, gorillas, bandicoots, parrots, and frogs. I then printed them off and set to work coloring them. Once they were all done, I cut them out and glued them to construction paper. Shona and I both made paper chains (you know the ones you made as a kid to put on your Christmas tree) and those became our “vines.” I also drew, cut out, and painted several large leaves. Shona drew a picture of tiger eyes and Angela made us a flower out of cardboard and egg cartons which I then painted. Shona’s tiger eyes were put in the smaller of the two large tires, partly hidden behind my leaves. It looked very cool and very scary.

On the day of my enrichment, I came in early to help set up and to prepare the forage. I decided to use frozen bananas and, at Shannon’s suggestion, sunflower seeds. These we put together in Press ‘N Seal bags and hid throughout the East Room. The rest of the sunflower seeds that weren’t in the baggies we spread around the room, hidden in pockets and in containers.

As the chimpanzees came in, the first thing they did was tip over the tire with the tiger eyes in it. Then they went searching for the food. It appeared that Dar found all but one of the baggies and ate them. (Later, when I was up on berm, it did appear that Washoe was able to get some of the bags, though.) Tatu went around searching through everything looking for sunflower seeds. She sat for quite a while eating while I was filming. I also heard from another volunteer up on berm that Dar had a couple of the baggies and he used his lips to pull part the two halves of the Press ‘N Seal as not to tear it and spill everything out!

Overall, I think that the Chimpanzees had a good time searching to find the bags as well as the mess of sunflower seeds that were all over the East Room.

Share This

For my Enhanced Enrichment day, I chose “Casino Day” as a theme. It was a lot of fun getting the enrichment together. I purchased some sheets that had cards and dice on them. I found posters, too, that had Casino themes and even bought cards, chips, and dice for the chimpanzees to take up a real game, if they wanted to. The poker materials were everywhere at the end of the day so I imagine they had a good time throwing them and playing with them. I guess everybody came out a winner, especially me, as I got to decorate and choose all these fun things for them on this day.

I chose Casino Day because I didn’t think it was a theme that has been done before. I knew it would be fun to investigate, play with, and toss around the dice, cards and chips. Also when I think of casino towns like Las Vegas and Atlantic City I think of lights and fun. I remember my trips to Vegas and Atlantic City as two of the best vacations I have been on — and I don’t even gamble! Casino Day at CHCI was just like being in there except the lights weren’t quite as bright at CHCI as in Vegas, and the dice in Atlantic City aren’t quite as big. However the patrons at this casino were a lot more interesting than what I usually see.

Tatu foraged underneath ALL the signs, and looked in the homemade dice I made for the fruit that we had hidden there. She even checked the purses and each of the pockets in the clothing we put out. (I think she gives us more credit than we deserve for finding good hiding places for the food.) We did hide food in the mouth of one of the stuffed animals. Loulis found the hidden food, and put it his mouth just the way he’d found it in the stuffed animal’s mouth.

Casino Day turned out to be a smashing success! Especially, if you measure success by the mess at the end of the day. Washoe, Loulis, Dar and Tatu were all very enthusiastic, especially about the food. I think the decorations were appreciated too.

Share This

Friday was my choice for enrichment day. I chose India day since I have been there three times. My mom sent four saris (6 yards of beautiful fabric a piece) that she donated to CHCI. I painted the Taj Mahal to put on the wall.

I also bought a couple of Hindu-based children’s books. One was a picture book of many of the Hindu Deities. I tore the pages out and glued them to colored construction paper and an awesome staff member (thanks Lynn!) laminated them for future use. I also bought a beautifully illustrated book on the Hindu deity Hanuman, the monkey god.

Hanuman helped Rama defeat the most evil Rakshasa god, Ravana. Ravana asked Brahma for immortality, but was refused. He then asked for domination and invulnerability over all other gods and wild beasts, but because he had contempt for humans and monkeys and already felt superior, he did not ask for the same protection from them. Even thousands of years ago, the Indian scholars believed monkeys and apes were akin to humans! If you take the first “an” out of Hanuman, you get HUMAN! When Ravana kidnapped Rama’s wife Sita, Hanuman was the only being, of monkeys or humans, who could fly across the water to Ravana’s island to rescue her. The monkey and the human armies combined to defeat Ravana.

I left this book out for my chimpanzee friends. When they came out, Tatu peeked inside the book and seemed very curious about it. Unfortunately, I had to get back to work and was not able to stay long enough in the observation area to see any of them pick it up and look at it. When I cleaned up that day, though, the Hanuman book was in another room. I’m guessing they did flip through it, as they do like to flip through magazines and books. The other day, while on the berm, I watched Dar hold a magazine in one hand, hold on to the ledge he was balancing on with the other hand, and flip the pages of the magazine with his lips! Amazing!

The apprentices on duty the morning of my enrichment did an awesome job when they helped me set things up. They draped the saris across the wooden platform, giving the east room an exotic, tent-like feeling.

Tatu loved the saris my mother donated! I watched her drag one of them around with her foot all day. When she would stop to rest, she would bunch it up and hold it. When they were invited into the night cages for dinner and sleep, Tatu dragged in two saris, wrapped them around herself, and slept with them.

I found a large pack of bindis at the college bookstore on their clearance table. I took them in and everyone wore a bindi on their forehead all day. We all enjoyed India day very much!

Share This

Hello everybody! My name is Mark Darrah and I’m one of the 10 apprentices this summer selected to help out at CHCI. Each apprentice was given a day for which it was their job to come up with an enrichment theme. I grew up in Fountain Valley, a city in OrangeCounty that is anywhere from a 45 minute to an all-day drive Los Angeles, depending on traffic, of course. As I grew up so close to Hollywood<, I decided to create a Hollywood themed day for the chimpanzees.

Most importantly, of course, was starting out with a Hollywood sign. I made my version of the Hollywood sign out of butcher paper and black markers. I thought it would only be right if I drew stars all over the paper, so I brought out the yellow markers, too. I asked one of the techs what room the chimpanzees usually stay in the most and I was told the East room. About a week before my enrichment day I was signed up to help clean in the East room, and while I was washing everything down I was able to look around the room and see what I wanted to do with it. I noticed that on one of the walls there is a painting of a farm with some rolling hills and I thought to myself, “What better place to put my Hollywood sign than on these painted hills?”

The ideas started to flow now and I thought that it would be best to give my theme day a sub-theme, and I came up with a movie premiere. I went home and drew two movie posters on poster board, for a movie titled “Look Who’s Signing,” starring Washoe, Tatu, Loulis, and Dar. I also took another piece of poster board and drew a scene from the movie; keeping in the Hollywood theme I drew the 4 chimps having fun at the beach. Washoe and Tatu were playing volleyball, Loulis was surfing, and Dar was relaxing on the sand soaking up some rays.

Since they were now big movie stars they have to have their own stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I made each chimp their very own star with their name and picture on it.

I also thought “What movie premier would be complete without exiting a limo onto a red carpet?” I couldn’t get a real limo into their play room, so I designed my own. I got three pieces of butcher paper and one I drew the back of the limo, on another I drew the top of the limo, and on the third I drew the front of the limo. I put these pieces of paper around the door they enter to get into the East room from the West room, so the door became the door of the limo. I put red colored poster board on the ground so that when they walked into the East room it would look like they were walking out of a limo onto a red carpet. I added nice shoes, dresses, coats, and purses to make the event a little more formal. I even threw some Hollywood tabloid magazines in the room for them to look at.

It was also a food enrichment day so I put out popcorn and dried fruit inside blank CD cases so that the chimpanzees would have to figure out how to open them up if they wanted the treats inside. I made covers for the cd cases that all had a California theme to them: Hollywood Nights, Hotel California, California Love, California Girls, and I Love L.A.

I felt that my enrichment day was a success and I hope that the chimpanzees had as much fun looking at and interacting with their new enrichment as I had in coming up with it and making it.

Share This