Jody and the toy chimpanzee
March 14, 2009 by Diana -
Jody didn’t quite know what to make of the plastic chimp toy we put out for enrichment the other day. She decided to take things into her own hands and threw a “car” at the toy.
She got out of the way in case the toy retaliated.
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I guess they think it’s another chimp? I’d be interested in know how they continue to react to it and if they “accept” it as something to play with or if they continue to leave it alone.
Thanks for a Jody post, she’s often illusive and, it seems, overshadowed by the extroverts!
I loved the way Jody thought about using the car to check out the other “chimp”. She knew that pushing the car, from a few feet away, would give her enough time to get out of the way in case the toy chimp did retaliate. Amazing, Diana, chimps really do have purposeful thoughts. (I wasn’t sure if “purposeful thought” was correct, so I looked it up on the internet and came upon this definition: Purposeful thought is nothing else than the act of sitting down and THINKING about how to deal with whatever challenge you need to solve.) Primates are truly amazing animals.
I do believe that Jody is coming out of her shell a little more with this act and the striped sock on her foot earlier this week. Way to go, Jody!
Smart girl Jody!
The chimps are always doing such interesting things and this is certainly no exception.
I would like to ask a question that might be a little delicate. I noticed in the Jody video (I am her Pal, so thanks for the video!) that Jody’s genital area was very enlarged. I looked at some previous pictures of other chimps and they all seem to be different sizes.
Can you explain why this is? Do you see the genital areas change in size over a period of time? Are they painful?
Will you ever allow your chimps to mate naturally, if they choose to?
Thanks for educating us slightly embarassed novices. 🙂
Shari
Shari – the pink bottoms of the ladies, referred to as swellings, change over the course of the month. When they are at the peak of fertility is when they are the largest – a very obvious indication for male chimpanzees.
They are not painful. Some chimps have much larger swellings than others, and Jody’s is the biggest of our group. Negra no longer cycles and Foxie and Missy do not because they had hysterectomies before they came to the sanctuary due to the presence of uterine tumors.
Burrito has had a vasectomy. It our view, it is irresponsible to purposefully allow chimpanzees to be born into a life of captivity at a sanctuary. They are free to follow their instincts to mate, although we don’t see much activity in that regard.
Sara – Jody inspected the toy chimp a few minutes after this video was filmed and then decided to leave it alone. I didn’t notice any of the others paying attention to it at all.
Diana — If that toy chimp causes Jody or any of the others any trouble, you just let us know and we will descend en mass to beat it up. Nobody bothers our chimp people and get away with it!
Diana, I know that Foxie and Missy had hysterectomies, but what’s going on in the photo from June 17th, Nests and Grooming? Burrito and Foxie grooming on a bench; is that Foxie in the photo and is that a swelling?
Just getting around to responding to Tamela’s question. Geez, Tamela, you have some memory and/or are really observant! I don’t have a definitive answer about Foxie’s swelling from that June 17th photo. My guess is that at that point she may have still had some hormone’s that affected her appearance down there. I haven’t seen a swelling like that on Foxie since.