Usually, when we serve the chimpanzees a meal the food disappears right away. With some food items and some individuals, however, the food is not eaten as quickly. This is often the case with Jamie and carrots.

Today, Jamie brought her large carrot from lunch into the playroom. In the process of eating this carrot, several pieces dropped to the floor.

It was unclear if these were discarded pieces or if Jamie intended to eat them later:

Missy decided to find out, but she knows Jamie probably better than anyone, so she proceeded with caution. Her first movement toward the carrot pieces turned into grooming Jamie’s hand instead.

Several minutes later, she made another very slow move towards the pieces of carrots as Jamie watched:

This was Jamie’s reaction:

So Missy immediately reached to groom Jamie to reassure her that she didn’t intend to overstep her bounds and her respect for boss Jamie remains at the highest level:

Jamie responded by reciprocating the grooming, letting Missy know that all was forgiven:

Annie was interested in the carrot saga too, and watched as Missy continued to groom Jamie:

I kept my eye on things for 20 minutes or so, but I’m not sure how the saga ended. Jamie may have decided to let Missy or another chimpanzees take the pieces she had left, or she may have continued to guard them and ate them herself. This is the delicate treading that we all do with boss Jamie, as J.B. eloquently described in his blog post “The Power of Personality” yesterday.