Last Week's activities

Last week I worked on Friday the 15th from 8 am til 10 am.

I am just now getting around to posting because my computer is broken, and I have been swamped. Dr. Yanoviak cancelled class again so I got to spend extra time at the zoo, which was nice. I made the fire hoses stuffed with alfalfa again, but instead of cereal the apes got dried cranberries and raisins. I'm sure they enjoyed that a lot!

Mikey and Louie are adjusting great. Ann said that they are wanting to install a rubber "doggy door" type window so that if they and the other chimps decide to they can lift it and interact through the bars. This will be good, as they are going to need to be integrated soon. Sadly we will need to cut down on our interaction with Mikey and Louie as they prefer to interact with us and will ignore the other chimps if given a choice. Obviously, this will not help their social standing.

I wanted to watch the Orangutans this time, but they grabbed their hose and wandered around the corner out of sight. I did watch the aftermath of the chimps, and saw Chance trying to find the last morsels of fruit in a hose that someone else had already processed. I also saw Mosi with a hose, and he has improved his dexterity a lot. Before he would just play with the hose, but now he is starting to shake it and pull the alfalfa out. Of course, he still put it on his head at one point. So silly!

I am going to try and go tomorrow morning before Archaeology. I have to work tonight so I'll see how I feel when I get up. If I can 't go tomorrow I will have to put it off until this weekend or next week, which is Thanksgiving. This semester is flying by.

Went last Friday, and Today

But I will just write about last Friday for today. Today will be posted tomorrow. You get it.

October 10, 2008

8 am to 9:30 am

Today Jeff Wright came and took pictures. So finally, pictures! Please do not use the pictures without permission, email me if you need it. They are his pictures and I am using them with his permission. Here are some pictures of me doing the enrichment. On one I am walking back to the staging area where the enrichment stuff is kept. In the other I am showing Jeff the schedule on which every day's activities are recorded. This ensures that the primates aren't given the same enrichment day after day. Unfortunately, Jeff didn't seem to take any pictures of the silverbacks. I will have to take pictures of JJ, Fossey, and Brutus. They are magnificent, I don't know how he neglected to get pictures of them, they must have been out of sight. I know that he started to take a picture of JJ, but the poor guy was nervous and grinding his teeth so Jeff just left him alone.

Here is Mosi and his mom eating some of the forage, which includes popcorn. This is the only picture I have of Mosi, I need to take another picture of him on the inside of the building, so you can see his sweet little face. Today was the day before his 2nd birthday! The next day the zoo had a "birthday party" in which people could come and eat a cake donated by a bakery. Even the gorillas got a treat, Ann told me they were given some gorilla-friendly muffins. You could even bring Mosi a birthday present, such as juice. It was so sweet.

So the enrichment for today was fire hoses, stuffed with alfafa and cereal. Actually, the Enrichment for today was "nothing", but since the next day would be super busy with Mosi's birthday, I did the next day's enrichment instead. Its good for them to have "nothing" days as well as enrichment days, because the point is to break up the monotony. Therefore, no enrichment every couple of weeks is a change! Ann also gathered some forage for them, so you can see the gorillas with the forage. Its basically cut bamboo from near the chimp yard, behind the lemur enclosure. The picture to the left is Catherine and Sekani (Mosi's mom) getting forage and the cereal from the fire hose.

Here is Catherine when she first came out, inspecting the fire hose. I liked this enrichment activity in particular. Basically, strips of old fire hose have been donated by the fire department. They are cut into strips between 1 and 2 feet long. When they are constructed, you have to make sure they are shaken out because they are kept in piles, and we don't want the apes being bit by spiders. Some alfalfa is stuffed in, then a little cereal is thrown in, then more alfalfa. It was great to see the apes processing them. The gorillas mostly pulled the alfalfa out themselves. The chimps, however, just picked up one end and shook them. Some of the chimps were as meticulous of the gorillas.

I didn't really get to see the orangutans process the enrichment, but I have pictures of Chiquita with cereal in her mouth! The chimps and orangutans got a cereal that looks a lot like Cheerios. The gorillas, with their special diets, got a different cereal. It was something with whole grain flakes and dehydrated strawberries.

It looked pretty good! Here is old Trudy, eating her forage. I don't see her and Brutus much, they are in the more overgrown area and I almost never see them as a visitor. Brutus is a very young male, and I think Trudy is the 3rd oldest gorilla in the United States. She is always very sweet to me, and the first time I ever talked to her she was laying on her back holding her feet, just looking at me.

Here are the chimpanzees with their enrichment. They were funny to watch. Chance, ever the antagonist, was chasing Judy around with a hose, and actually threw it at her at one point. He is a mischievious guy. This is Chance with his hose, before he started tearing around after Judy. I wish we had gotten pictures of that!

Sometimes Mahale is a spoiled brat, and doesn't want to go out with the others. Today she ran out as fast as she could, grabbed her enrichment materials and some forage, and ran back in. So while she was in there, I talked with her and Jeff took pictures. Isn't she beautiful? She has so much intelligence in her eyes. I tried to get her to play tug of war with a blanket with me, but she just looked at me like I was an idiot. However, she seemed to really like Jeff. Ann said that she likes guys. You could tell! She was so relaxed she was letting her lip hang. She is so cute.

Ann was talking to her at one point, rubbing her lip. Mahale opened her mouth and showed her teeth and Ann explained to us that she was trained so they could check her teeth and ears, as well as administer shots. Ann asked for her to show her teeth and she did, and asked to see her ear, which you can see she did in the photo. She asked for Mahale's arm, and Mahale turned and pressed her arm to the bars. Such a smart girl! Its probably a very good thing that it is so easy to do checkups on her, its much easier on everyone than having to sedate. Sedation, while not really too dangerous, is just stressful for everyone involved and saved for necessity. Of course, there is the added bonus that she got a piece of monkey chow from Ann for showing us that she knew what "arm" "ear" and "teeth" means!

Last but not least is the orangutans. Jeff got a couple of pictures of them, this is one of my favorite overall. You can see Chiquita's success with the enrichment activity, apparently she had no problems. Look at the cereal in her mouth! Jeff got a picture of both of them. I am pretty excited about it, since it shows their sexual dimorphism. Rok is obviously the huge guy! Rok is sitting over one of the fire hoses. A little in front of them you can see one of their sheets. There is one beside Chiquita as well, in the picture to the left. Apparently, Orangutans love fabric. The gorillas and chimps like fabric too, but if you put it out daily they quickly tire of it and start to ignore it. The Orangs, however, will use it every day. They mostly either drag it around or wrap up in it. I see Chiquita put it over her head sometimes. Ann postulated that it may have something to do with the fact that in the wild Orangs will use large leaves to shade themselves, and have been seen holding large leaves and dragging them around. Who knows.

And now, I will leave with a video of Fossey and Sekani playing, when Mosi was about 4 months old. You can see how massive Fossey is, yet he can play with Sekani without harming Mosi. Its so amazing how something so incredibly strong can be so very gentle. Here is another of Fossey and Mosi playing around that same time. Now they play a lot, and a lot rougher, but its mostly Mosi trying to beat up on Fossey while Fossey just rolls him around like he weighs nothing. Pretty much like any human father and his little son!

Late Post!

Well, the my last visit was actually Tuesday September 23rd, but I am just now getting around to posting. I worked from 8:15 am to 9:15 am. I was late because I forgot the ridiculousness of morning traffic at 8 am, I usually don't have to be anywhere until 9 am at the earliest.

Anyway. So this time we did "forage". We basically cut some bamboo down from behind the lemur enclosure and put some pieces in the enclosures. We had to cut them in half, because Ann said that anytime the Orangutans get long sticks or branches they break the light bulbs above their enclosures. Chiquita has even blackmailed Kristin by threatening to knock a light out when she wanted a treat. They are so clever!

Mahale spit on me again. I am going to have to just ignore it, and not try to avoid it. If I try to avoid it (or her) it will just exacerbate the problem and I will have a miserable rest of the semester. JJ didn't crash and bang around this morning, so I guess he is getting used to me.

Fossey showed some temper today. After I first got there, Ann gave Mosi and Cat (the other female in Fossey's group, Mosi's "auntie") pieces of Monkey Chow, but not Fossey. She said he had just had several pieces. Of course he held out his hand and she said no. He slammed his palm into the cage and held out his hand again. Once he figured out he was out of luck, he slammed the cage again. He is so very strong, It sounded like an elephant was slamming into the cage.

Mosi is so cute. He reached out and grabbed the bucket of food near his door, and pulled it to him. He started grabbing the popcorn and stuffing his face. I pulled the bucket back, and he is STRONG. He is probably smaller than a one year old human, but he was definately out pulling me! Ann told me to be careful with things like that, since if his mommy saw me take something from her baby she would FLIP OUT. Later, Ann looked over and Mosi's dad, Fossey, was doing the same thing. Mosi had pulled the bucket back over, and Fossey shoved him out of the way. He started to delicately pick up pieces of popcorn (his fingers just barely fit through the bars) and eating them. Ann couldn't pull the bucket back, even though he was only holding on with two fingers. She tried to distract him with pieces of popcorn, but he wasn't impressed. She eventually wiggled the bucket out of his grip and out of his or Mosi's reach. He was fairly pissed, and slammed the bars a few times. These guys are so amazing.

On a more serious note, there are some things that are starting to bother me about the great apes. I am going to stick with the program until the end of the semester (it is for credit, and I did commit to it) but I think I may drop it after this semester is over. I know that I am helping the apes by creating enrichment, but I am starting to feel moral "twinges". I have always realized that although the great apes are not quite "human", they are definately not just "animals" either. However, the full implication of this fact has never materialized until now. When you look at their faces and especially those eyes, you wonder why we have the right to keep them as we do. I feel like I have wandered into some kind of strange limbo. I think that the apes are well treated at the zoo, the staff genuinely care for these creatures, and do everything in thier power to provide them with good lives. However, I feel very uncomfortable with the fact that apes are in captivity. I know that its important for the public to see the apes so that they may empathize with them, care about them and their welfare, and their future in the wild. I also know that releasing these captive apes into the wild would be a disaster, and they would not be able to survive on their own. I feel a sickness when I think about it, though. It just doesn't feel right. I went up to watch the chimps eat, since the last time I only watched JJ. Ann suggested I would be able to see them all, and see them better, if i went up to the top where the public views them. Of course I did so, and I watched the chimps. After a while I walked to the other side where JJ was and watched him. Just then a couple walked up and began watching JJ. I realized at that moment that I felt like a creepy spy. I squatted down and watched JJ, and later Brutus (the third male gorilla) when I walked down to where he is kept. I don't feel right being higher than they are (this is a dominance threat to them) and I am starting to feel uncomfortable looking directly at them (also a dominance issue) even when they aren't looking up at me. It feels so strange, and I don't know how to reconcile it.

Either way, I will be there tomorrow at 8 am. I hope I'm not late. I will also bring a change of clothing, who knows what that naughty Mahale will do. I told Dr. Hartmann that she doesn't like me, and he said "What, sweet little Mahale?" Oh Dr. Hartmann, she is now hormonal teenage Mahale. I'm sure she will get over it though. I believe him when he says she is sweet, and I know she is a very beautiful and intelligent girl.

Today was my second day of orientation. Tomorrow will be the third, then I'm on my own. I hope I am ready!

Day One

09/18/08
8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Although I had been to the great Ape enclosure a couple of weeks ago, Friday was my first official day. It was the first of three orientation days I have to do, so I mostly followed Ann around. I have met everyone in the enclosure, and so got a re-introduction. Mahale does NOT like me, and let me know it. She spit at me, mean girl. Ann said that Mahale doesn't like any young women, so don't feel bad. JJ also tried his best to scare me. Didn't work, I am always ready for his banging and crashing. I got to see Mosi playing with Fossey, his dad. Mosi is such a little cutie. I wish I could have seen him when he was a little baby, but he's still pretty small.

Today on the schedule was "yogurt bombs". Ann showed me how to make them and made quite a few herself. We used sugar-free low-fat mixed berry yogurt. About a tablespoon was spread on the inside of a cardboard tube (it looked like a toilet paper roll!) and then the ends were folded up. Ann said they used to tape the ends, but it takes longer to tape the ends than it takes for the apes to get into them. I saw what she meant when JJ lit into one. He basically ripped it in half. Hopefully it took the chimps and the orangs longer and more thought to open theirs.

I need to either watch the chimps or the orangutans next time. I love watching JJ though! Because he has a heart condition, and had decided to leave the "family group" he was in (Fossey & Co.), he is only out first thing in the morning and then stays inside the rest of the day. Apparently this makes him pretty happy. He is really mischievious. He tries to scare people in the enclosure by watching you and, when he thinks you're not looking, banging on the walls of his cage. Ann and Kristin said that when he succeeds in making you jump he laughs. A gorilla laugh is like a low, breathy chuckle. He tried to scare me again when he was outside. After he ate a little , he charged the metal doors that Ann and I were behind. I stepped back but Ann just kept leaning on the doors. She told him "Yep, you got us JJ". Then he tried to be sneaky, and slowly sidled up to the doors. He kept looking out of the corner of his eye at me, and then he'd look away really fast. Finally, he sprang at the door and slammed into it with his left side, and then ran off. It was pretty amusing. He's a beautiful gorilla as well. This was the first time I could see him clearly since he wasn't in his enclosure. Ann said he could be a gorilla model, and I know what she means. He has such a beautiful gorilla face. I hope to get some decent pictures of him later on.

I don't know many of the chimps names. I know Mahale, of course. Chase is the youngest, his face, hands and feet are still so pink! Poor Jodie, the oldest and a female, died last week. She had a check up but when they brought her home and brought her out of her anesthesia, she just died. She was very old, but its still very sad. Ann said that you could feel that her group had been very subdued since she went.

Since there are only two orangutans, I know thier names already. Rok is the big male, and Chiquita is the petite female. She is so small, she looks like she is smaller than the adult female chimps. She is quiet and seems pretty shy. Ann said she doesn't much like her yard, and is usually coaxed out by Rok. Rok is amazing. His fingers are enormous, about the size of a banana each. He has long red hair and the large cheek pouches dominant males develop. He looks so enormous to me, but Ann said he is average sized for a male orang, and unlike many he isn't even overweight. He is an amazing creature to see up close. When I first came in, he began vocalizing and showed off who was boss by going at Chiquita. Ann said he did that to show dominance. His vocalizations are pretty loud, and deep. You can imagine a voice like that echoing through a forest for miles!

Next day to work is Tuesday at 8 a.m. I have to be in class by 9:25 a.m., so here's hoping Mahale doesn't spit on me again. I should bring extra clothes...