Bowls and straws

September 19, 2009 by J.B. -

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For today’s afternoon enrichment, we filled bowls with tea, soy milk, soy yogurt, peanut butter, and ketchup, and placed the bowls on the outside of the chimps’ enclosure. Then we gave them tools to fish for the food.

Its fascinating to watch the different personalities in action. Burrito has no patience, and he’s not a very adept tool user either. Negra will use someone else’s straw once they’ve fished it into the bowl, but she won’t do it herself. Missy, Annie, Jody, and Foxie are all very patient and skillful. But Jamie is by far the best. I didn’t catch this on camera, but Jamie found a clever way to get the last bit out of her bowl. After she had gotten all of the yogurt that she could, she went to the water fountain to get a mouthful of water. She spit the water through the caging and into the bowl, diluting the remaining yogurt. Then she fished her straw through and drank the liquid.

YouTube video

7 Comments

  1. Candy (Tyler, TX) on September 19, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    Truly amazing! I sound just like they do at the bottom of my cherry Slurpee, good to the last drop.



  2. Sara Lissabet on September 20, 2009 at 9:01 am

    Its funny how you can see Burrito to the side, rather anxious about everyone else slurping away. Interesting how the oldest and youngest are least proficient tool users. It will also be interesting to see if they learn and adapt to being better tool users by having Jamie, Foxie, Annie and Missy as examples.



  3. Avatar Theresa on September 20, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    Slurping through the straw makes it taste that much better. Love this video, J.B.!



  4. Avatar Gayle on September 20, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    Jamie…..what a smart girl!!!



  5. Avatar MS on September 21, 2009 at 10:32 am

    Facinating!



  6. Jean Goodrich on September 21, 2009 at 3:48 pm

    Thanks for the video JB. It was fun to hear the slurping! I know I like that last drop, too. Annie was so intent on watching Missy. And I could hear Burrito’s dilemma sounds in the background. Great one to watch.



  7. George on September 24, 2009 at 12:20 am

    Thank you so much for doing this – I’ve enjoyed watching all the videos. Do any of them blow into the bowels and create bubbles?



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