In all honesty, I don't have much to report from this Monday's chimp shift! I picked up produce to deliver to the chimps so I didn't get to the sanctuary until 12:45. And was, of course, greeted by Jamie who was ready for a walk around the hill.
After our walk Jamie did some grooming of me and the boot. She likes to check out the hair on my legs, probably wondering where it all is (compared to her lovely black leg hair.) Jamie is lip smacking in the video, chimp grooming noises, mimicking eating bugs out of a friends hair.
Jamie is very independent, as I've said before. If she wants to groom me all I usually say is, "you have to get a tool" and she'll take off and come back a few minutes later with a big plastic straw or a stick or comb and is ready to go. Sometimes I help her by getting a stick from outside, like in the video. I grabbed a small piece of bamboo, gave some of it to Jody who was very interested, and gave the rest to Jamie to shape down to the appropriate length to reach my leg/knee and she was ready!
Shockingly, Mondays lunch was the quietest meal I've had in a long time. Normally when I walk out to serve lunch, I food grunt to let the chimps know its time to eat and they respond with grunts and usually come to where I am to see what we are having. Monday, everyone was already in the green house, and my food grunts were met with blank stares. Foxie, Missy and Annie didn't even come over to the caging to have lunch, until they saw the tomatoes. Burrito even denied the asparagus! (which doesn't inherently sound weird, but if you know Burrito's love for food, you would stare in shock.) All I could say was "Really B? You don't want food?" Negra didn't eat anything. Not one bite of any of the food pictured below. She took her chow bags at the end of the meal, but didn't eat anything else!
As worried as I was about Neggie not eating a bite of anything, it's her choice, and that's the beautiful thing about sanctuary. The chimps can choose what they would like to eat. Neg wasn't a fan of anything on the menu so she chose not to have any. Foxie only ate the tomatoes and a few carrots. Missy didn't want asparagus. They all chose what they wanted to eat and passed on things not as delicious. (Fear not, Neggie ate everything at dinner including a carrot and almond milk soup/puree and loved it! Which is also abnormal as she usually passes on smoothies and/or drinkables at breakfast.)
Some meals are high arousal. Whether its because of the food or a prior fight/squabble, some meals are just full of pokes from B or threat barks from Neg. And some meals are quiet and uneventful. Dinner was VERY high arousal with the soup, everyone was excited to have some, which made it slightly more difficult to serve. The hardest part about serving meals is there is one of you and 7 chimps. Someone is always waiting and annoyed to be waiting. For the most part the chimps are forgiving; they understand that you are only 1 person and you don't have 7 arms. When there is a high prized item on the menu, patience isn't always a priority.
Lunch for the chimps: Tomatoes, Fennel, Asparagus and carrots. Overall, underwhelming.
Jamie was a fan of the red socks and her black boots.
Post hill grooming.
Burrito (top) and Jody (bottom) twin resting.
Another wonderful monday with my dearest non-human primate friends! <3
Also on Monday: a good round of chase with Burrito and a few moments of tug of war with the shy Missy. Don't worry, Jamie threw sand at me to let me know that we were done playing. Someone has to keep us in line right? RIGHT.
I'll be back in a week!
b
No comments:
Post a Comment