Posts by Chad de Bree
All Play and No Work Makes an Interesting Day
A recent study conducted by researchers from Tufts University and Harvard University analyzed play and its importance in wild chimpanzees from Kibale National Forest. They found when food is scarce, adult chimpanzees cease to play with other adults. Adults in the wild are not inherently prone to play as is, so this finding wasn’t too…
Read MoreChampion Among Apes
The fact that the apes exist and that we can study them is extremely important and makes us reflect on ourselves and our human nature. In that sense alone, you need to protect the apes.” We join the primatology world in mourning the loss of researcher Frans de Waal. Frans was one of the bigger…
Read MoreThe Big 3-4 for the Big Guy
Today, we celebrated Cy’s 34th birthday! For his birthday, caregivers set up his own personal library in the mezzanine. For lunch, Cy and friends were treated to a forage of pineapple bowls filled with cherry tomatoes, purple sweet potatoes, and pears on a bed of napa cabbage. Cy is a gentle being with such a…
Read MoreForever Be Mine, Jody
I apologize in advance if I’m going to sound like a bumbling fool in today’s blog. This one isn’t going to be easy for me. My dearest Jody/Jo/JoJo/Joji/Farmer Jo. It hasn’t even been a full year since you left, and my only hope is to be able to formulate my thoughts in a coherent way…
Read MoreHoney B My Valentine
With Honey B recovering from her eye injury, we felt it would be nice for her if she got first dibs on a brand new enrichment toy before the rest of her group. The Round Thingie from the Wildlife Toy Box was one of the items in this past Comfort & Joy auction. A huge…
Read MoreMemento Vivere
Lately I’ve been inundated with targeted ads on social media, which I’m sure those of you who are on social media know what I’m talking about. Now, I’m not saying the work or don’t work, but one in particular keeps grabbing my attention. It’s an ad of a coin with “Memento Mori” on one side,…
Read MoreA Path Out
We finally have a decent break from the snow and subfreezing temperatures. Though there are some more winter storms in the forecast, at least most days are going to be fairly mild in regard to temperature. In fact, for the first time in a long time, the sun has broken through the clouds to grace…
Read MoreRiders of the Storm
Like a good chunk of the United States, we are going through one doozy of a storm. When caregivers arrived in the morning, this is what we had waiting for us: With most of the residents deciding not to venture too far outside (if at all), how do you try to stave off cabin fever?…
Read MoreI Love Lucy the Bonobo
Jamie is a person of particular tastes. She knows what she likes, and what she likes she really likes. One item that she really likes is the book series of Lucy the Bonobo. You may have seen these books in the blog, when we do a shameless plug for our Amazon wish list (which this…
Read MoreSnow Toes
If you watched yesterday’s video of all the celebrations, you may have noticed we did have the whitest of Christmas this year. We did, however, receive some albeit lite, snow over night. It was just enough to glance a peek at who has been visiting the sanctuary during the night. As caregiver Amanda and I…
Read MoreA Trip to the Clinic for Honey B(‘s skateboard)
*Right off the bat I want to apologize to anybody who became worried after reading the title!* (The alternative was “Honey B is Wheelie Excited,” but that crossed over into a threshold of cheesiness even I didn’t want to cross into.) If you have been following our blog for a while, then you know that…
Read MoreWord Around the Scuttlebutt
You may be asking yourself, “What is a scuttlebutt?” Scuttlebutt is a U.S. Navy term for rumor or gossip. When on ship, a sailor’s water source was a “scuttlebutt.” “Scuttle” meaning drill and “butt” meaning cask. In layman’s terms, a scuttlebutt is a water fountain. This was just a long about way to say “water…
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