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