The greatest staff meeting ever
March 7, 2013 by Debbie -
Today at the end of our staff meeting, Jamie started stomping in the playroom loft. As we’ve figured out, this seems to mean “please put on one of my boots and chase me around the hill.” We thought it would be fun if we ALL played this game with her. As we all started walking out there, Jamie’s hair stood straight on end and she ran so fast out to meet us—she was so excited! It was a lot of fun, and probably the best staff meeting we’ve ever had. I think Jamie would agree.
11 Comments
Subscribe to the Blog and
Get Notified of New Posts First!
If you like what see, be sure to subscribe. Personally written by the caregivers themselves, 365 days a year, you’ll get an insiders glimpse of all the goings on at the sanctuary. Follow us!
Chimp-ercize!!
P.S. Jamie is quality control supervisor and now she’s director of group fitness — heavy workload!
I can just hear her thinking….get a move on, you guys!! This was so fun to watch! If only the rest of us could have so much fun “Chimp-ercizing! 🙂
Jamie is brilliant, she just got herself promoted to staff!!!!
Hilarious! Hope you didnt’ get blisters from running in the boots…lol. And who is in charge did you say – Jamie or the staff.
Was she laughing or smiling while she was running with you, or was she still serious and business-like? I love that you guys did this with her.
She was definitely super excited to head out with all of us, but it’s very serious business. No laughing. But I know Jamie was really enjoying it 🙂
As this becomes a daily routine you will certainly all be in great shape! What a fun way to keep
svelte!
Jamie is great motivator..huh! You folks truly made her day, ,,she must been so stoked to have you all to herself,, way to go Jamie,
Debbie,,
When you said,
Jamie’s hair stood straight on end,,
is that philo erect,
Is it safe to assume philo erect, indicates an excited state??
be it for fun ie excited, to see someone,
and is hair on end… also used for display rituals…
to show who is THE BOSS ?
and is philo erect, also used prior to fighting, and attacking,
another chimp or human or other anyone or thing that feel poses a threat?
that poses a threat,??
Rita, yes it is called “pilo erect” (no “h”) and it does indeed indicate an excited or high arousal state. That can mean excited-happy or excited-upset.
All the caregivers are trained one when to recognize if the pilo erect reaction is due to some sort of happy excitement or if it’s just a high arousal response when they’re threatened or being aggressive. Most of it is about context. Threatening displays contain three or more high arousal behaviors, so if Jamie was pilo erect, swaggering, and banging on her barrel, we would say that was an aggressive threat display. If she is pilo erect, head bobbing and stomping as she runs, we would say she seems to be excited-happy that we are playing chase with her boots on 🙂
And just with humans, there’s individual variation. Burrito is pilo erect a lot of the time, even when he doesn’t show any other signs of high arousal behavior. But he loves food, and sometimes that is enough to get him excited to the point that his hair stands on end 🙂