Recently in Enrichment Category

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.

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!

St. Patrick's Day at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute was a day of celebration! Thanks to a sponsorship by Katie Dobkowski, the chimpanzees enjoyed an elaborate feast of treats in the morning and a special evening meal. The morning's festivities were so exciting, in fact, that neither Tatu, Loulis, nor Dar came in for lunch!

The interns on staff the morning of March 17^th put out decorations and all kinds of treats for the chimpanzees to enjoy. On party days, special food items are scattered around one of the playrooms and hidden in enrichment items to allow the party to last all day! For this party, food was hidden in small envelopes, sealed containers, purses, bags, and even scattered over the high climbing structures! Sometimes the chimpanzees are still munching on morning treats on their way in for dinner in the afternoon! For St. Patrick's Day, Tatu, Loulis, and Dar enjoyed raisins, figs, mixed dried fruit (including prunes, pears, apples, and apricots), peanuts, sunflower seeds, and even some peanut butter-filled pretzels. Some extra-special treats included cheese crackers, some pieces of candy, and apple juice boxes. The feast was met with excited food grunts and squeaks from all three chimpanzees. Loulis especially enjoyed the pretzels with peanut butter, while Dar ate many of the "Fig Newton"-style apple bars. Tatu tasted a little bit of everything, especially enjoying the juice boxes and cheese crackers.

The chimpanzees are always served a carbohydrate-based dinner, and its ingredients vary each day. On St. Patrick's Day, the chimpanzees were served sandwiches with peanut butter and bananas. Sandwiches are a favorite around CHCI, and these sandwiches were served with a side of potato, carrot, and onion casserole prepared by CHCI technician Lisa Schuster-Lyons.

Thank you to Katie Dobkowski for providing support for this celebration! The decorations looked great and the food was delicious! Parties are a very special way for the human caregivers to make captive life more interesting for Tatu, Loulis, and Dar. To find out how you can sponsor a party, please visithttp://friendsofwashoe.org/party_sponsors.shtml.

March fourteen is International Pi day! (Get it? 3.14?) To celebrate, I decided to make the chimpanzees a delicious pit-fruit pie. We had plenty of frozen pitted fruit from the summer (thank you to everyone who donated the fruit from their fruiting trees), so all I needed to make was the crust.

No sweat, I thought. I surfed the Internet, and found a great vegan recipe (since we had no eggs or milk in the fridge). Flour, baking powder, oil, salt, water. No problem. We always have those ingredients, I thought to myself. Well, I was a little "iffy" on the baking powder, but on checking the cupboard, I found a canister almost half full. Great! Next, off to the pantry for some flour and oil. I found the oil all right, but no flour!

Oh no, I thought, no flour. But I so want to make a pie for Pi day! I spied the pancake mix next to where the flour should be. I read the ingredients on the pancake box. Flour, baking powder, oil solids, and salt! Awesome, I thought, now I can make pie crust!

I left out the baking powder and salt, and just added the oil and water, mixed it together, and had something quite close to pie crust. Then I defrosted the apricots and peaches and boiled them down a bit in a pot with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. Into the bottom crust it went (in a cast-iron skillet), and then into the oven. For the top I flattened small bits of dough and floated them on the fruit.

The finished product was beautiful. All the chimpanzees were very excited about the pie while I was baking it. Tatu requested repeatedly that I take the pie out of the oven so that she could smell it. However, only Dar and Loulis came in for dinner, and Loulis ended up eating Dar's serving of pie.

There are plenty of leftovers to serve on another day. Oh well; perhaps next time I will make a pie that everyone enjoys.

Since the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day fell on the same date this year, the chimpanzees at CHCI celebrated Chinese New Year a little early. For Valentine's day, decorations and other related party items were prepared over the three-day weekend and were ready for the chimpanzees to enjoy!



While every day at CHCI there is a theme to the enrichment that the chimpanzees receive, the themed enrichment on holidays is extra special. All of the students and volunteers at CHCI worked together to make hand-crafted decorations for the chimpanzees' RED HUG/LOVE DAY celebration. The East Play Room was decked out in red and white and pink streamers, hearts, and clothes. Cellophane bags held stuffed animals and tasty treats. Perky purses and apparel pockets hid more treats, including lollipops, chocolate-covered marshmallows, peanut butter cheese cracker packs, raisins, sunflower seeds, and 100%-fruit-juice boxes.



Dar collected several of the cellophane bags and sat on the wooden platform to enjoy the spoils: lollipops, raisins, and sunflower seeds. He opened all of the bags with his teeth and peeled the cellophane back like wrapping paper. Loulis went for the treats hidden on the upper wooden platform - marshmallows and fruit juice. Loulis also pulled down all of the streamers one by one, making a colorful mess on the floor. Tatu found all of the peanut butter cheese crackers and ate the peanut butter first, before enjoying the crackers.



After all the treats were gone, the chimpanzees settled down for mid-morning naps. Valentine's Day was a sweet success!

Christmas celebrations abounded at CHCI this morning. Chimpanzees and caregivers alike came together to celebrate with a big party.

There were bags full of meat and cheese, whole pomegranates and tangerines, peppermint candies, sparkling cider, lunchables packs, leeks, and a beautiful gingerbread lighthouse. There were also wrapped toys and plenty of decorations. The chimpanzees had a wonderful party and, after several hours of eating and playing, settled down for a long winter's nap.

I started at CHCI this quarter as a Primate 220 student; therefore I am not allowed to have any type of interaction with the chimpanzees.  The only way that I can interact with them, is to plan an enrichment activity.  I decided to do a food enrichment, which consisted of frozen bananas covered in peanut butter.  I froze six bananas with sticks, and 2 whole ones, which I cut up.  I brought in my enrichment on Friday, and I was able to put it out that same day.  Kelly, one of the techs at CHCI, showed the chimps the bananas beforehand, and they started to get really excited. I threw some of the bananas on top of the human cage, threw some up on the platform, and hid them in various toys and other objects throughout the room.  Kelly and Anna filmed and photographed the enrichment for me, so I was able to see how the chimps reacted.


When they first came in the west room, they started emitting high pitched calls, which Kelly told me they do when they are really excited over a food item. Tatu and Dar seemed to get the most treats.  Dar was finding all the hard ones, even climbing on top of the human cage to get the piece that was thrown up there.  When he first came into the room, he began stuffing as many pieces as he could fit into his mouth. Tatu ate all the peanut butter off her bananas first, and then would suck on the banana part.  Loulis seemed more private about his banana eating.  He found one that had a stick, and also found a piece that I had put into a small cup.  He held everything in his mouth, then went outside, and ate his treats, with his back turned to everyone.  I didn't see that he was able to get anymore treats than just the two.


Doing this enrichment for the chimps, and seeing them react so well to it, was such an amazing experience for me.  I hope to prepare lots more enrichment activities in the future.

1. General Enrichment
2. General Enrichment
3. Ice Cream Dar Day (Dinosaur Themed Birthday)
4. Salad Bowl Day
5. Art Day
6. Fiesta Day
7. Sparkle Day
8. General Enrichment
9. General Enrichment
10. Grass Day
11. Men in Black Day
12. Reptile Day
13. Dar, Tatu, and Loulis's Rockin' Luau Day
14. Prom Day
15. General Enrichment
16. General Enrichment
17. Yellow Day
18. School Day
19. Fun Fair Day
20. Support Our Troops Day
21. Bug Day
22. General Enrichment
23. General Enrichment
24. Hair Day
25. Zoo Day
26. Infectious Disease Day
27. Under the Sea Day
28. 80's Day
29. General Enrichment
30. General Enrichment
31. Africa Day

Last Thursday, Christina and I finally had our enhanced enrichment day. After "Googling" party themes about a month ago, we decided on Fiesta Day. I'd been waiting to have my enrichment day for about 6 months, ever since I learned that I'd be coming for the summer as an apprentice. I wanted to work really hard and for the chimpanzees to really have something to do, so I had a goal of making papier-mâché cacti filled with many goodies. I thought that breaking open a papier-mâché anything filled with treats would be fun for anybody. Needless to say, making a papier-mâché cactus isn't the easiest art project I've came across. Constructing my cactus took several days, a lot of small cardboard scraps, and even more masking tape. After realizing what slow progress I was making, I decided on only one cactus, and a bunch of papier-mâché balloons. Balloons were a much simpler solution. I painted the cactus lime green with pink tissue paper flowers, and we painted the balloons with all sorts of fiesta type designs. We painted a few different posters and bought one of almost everything from the party section of the dollar store.

Thursday morning arrived, and it was time to set up. Well, after a month of preparing, I realized that we had significantly more things than I thought we would have. The room looked good though, like a fiesta should. There were tissue paper flower chains hanging from the shaky tree to the walls. We had chains with plastic chili peppers all over. Fiesta banners and posters were hung in every color. Decorated balloons were hanging on the shaky tree, tied to the platform, on top of the platform, and hanging on the fire hoses. We had a large cardboard Mexican-style pueblo with windows that opened up with treats hidden inside. There were small cardboard boxes that I'd wrapped completely in bright yellow duck tape with treats hidden inside. I'd try to make all the treats double or triple secured to make it a little more time consuming to get to the reward.

My cactus had been hung on the top of the shaky tree, which ended up hanging upside down because the top was heavier than the base, but that was okay; I was just glad that it turned out so well.

When the chimpanzees were let in to the play rooms for the day, they instantly went for the cardboard margarita glasses that Christina had filled with frozen fruit and ice. Loulis went first for the pueblo and ripped part of it off, but didn't find all the treats. They all got to have some balloons. I saw Loulis rip one of them in half. Tatu ripped one of the completely duct-taped boxes open with her teeth and easily got her treat out. Dar took his time unwrapping the single very long piece of duck tape that covered the entire box. It was funny to see Tatu just rip it open and Dar take his time.

No one was getting my cactus, which was the part that I really was looking forward to watching them interact with. So Kelly told Dar to look at the green plant in the shaky tree. It didn't seem to matter much to him, he looked pretty content sitting up on the shaky tree with some treats that he'd found previously. Finally, Tatu went up and ripped the top off the cactus, leaving more treats for later.

Overall, I was very happy with how our enhanced enrichment day went. It looked really good, and I think that the chimpanzees had a good time breaking into everything. They are a lot stronger than we are, and I don't think even layers of duck tape posed too much of a hassle, but they were entertained for part of the morning.