With the Cle Elum 7 it's the same way. Lars and I had overlapping shifts at the chimp house, and while watching me serve dinner Lars asked "How can you tell the difference between Annie and Foxie?" Lars is still a level 1 volunteer so his shifts consist of doing laundry, preparing enrichment and making meals and no interaction with the chimpanzees.
I really had to think about it. The obvious answer would be that Annie is a larger bodied chimp than Foxie, Fox weighs about 90lbs and Annie weighs around 105lbs. It doesn't sound like a huge difference, but they don't wear clothes like humans so you can really see where they are slender and where they are wide. Annie has broad shoulders and has a chunk of her ear missing, and Fox is a slender little lady with a white beard.
I had to think about it because over the past 3 years getting to know these chimps, the way I distinguish them has almost nothing to do with physical characteristics. I suppose human friendships are that way too, we start to recognize and associate people with what they like to do not what they look like. What I wanted to tell Lars was that Foxie is the musical one, the loud banging sounds her and her troll babies make are different from the bird noises Annie makes while she washes her face. Annie stands with her feet turned in more than Foxie, and is usually running around playing with Miss. But Lars couldn't know the bird noises I was talking about, at meals it's usually too loud, and Annie is more concerned with eating than washing her face.
Jamie has a few quirks I love. For instance, when she is ready to walk around the hill, sometimes (most times) she beats me out there. As I'm running in (most times) an ill fitting pair of boots that are (most times) wet, she stomps her foot at me, as if to say "COME ON I'VE BEEN WAITING FOREVER." I can't help but run as fast as I can while saying "Sorry James I'm coming!"
Jamie also has a "sweet spot" for getting upset with us, which is more than upset but not quite to feces throwing, and often it involves alfalfa cubes. Jamie will pick one up, and non-nonchalantly, as if it's an inconvenience to her, drop them out of the caging at us. Not throw, but poke them through the caging so they fall on or near us. You can almost fell her eyes roll as she seems to say "alright I guess I'll drop a little alfalfa on you."
I know B but the laughing and stomping alone. Playing with B is genuinely one of the best times of my week, and I can't help but laugh with him when he's running around stomping and pounding on everything.
My favorite Jody quirks have to be her "creeper" hand and her lip. Jody has very thin hands, much like Foxie and can reach through and under the caging farther than the other chimps. When Jody wants more of a certain food or wants something you have, she will stick her first three fingers through the caging and wag them up and down, almost like she's waving, but because her fingers are so skinny it's a little skeletor looking. In a good way though. Is there a good way to look like skeletor? Also, Jody has the best lips for serving. She can stick her bottom lip out so far through the caging that serving her food is almost the easiest. Missy especially is almost unsure of her full potential for her lips, so she barely sticks them through the caging or will often ask for food in her hand. Jojo just sticks her lip through and waits, and can catch just about anything.
The picture that originated the "Creeper hand" status. Jody was sitting with her upper body under the platform and her hand just resting like this. We were all laughing at how random her positioning was.
Missy's indifference to playing is a good quirk, and I can't help but laugh every time we play. Missy's version of playing involves you moving a great distance, often through doors or up and down stairs while she moves a foot or two. She laughs occasionally but is mostly stone faced while playing, which also makes it hard not to laugh.
And of course, Queen Neg. As I've said before, Negra is usually napping. Unless it's meal time. I love when it's between 4-415 and Negra comes to the corner of the chimp enclosure where they can see into the kitchen, and she just starts clapping. Her way of saying "It's time for dinner now! I'm ready now!" It's like an alarm you can never forget to set.
Each of the chimps have many more quirks and characteristics that I'm sure I'll learn more about as time goes on. I'm just so happy to know them this long, and I treasure every moment I have with them. <3
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