For January 12th

Today Daphne had me do yogurt bombs, the toilet paper tubes with yogurt smeared on the inside. I was there from 8 am to 9 am. We are running low on tubes, and I am going to start saving ours at the house. Since there are four of us, we go through toilet paper pretty regularly.

When I came in today, I greeted Mahale and she ran up to the bars and presented her back to me. She wanted to be groomed, so I kinda messed with her hair. I took this as a good sign. I greeted her every time I walked past, and groomed her two more times. Perhaps I was right and last time she was just pissed at me for ignoring her.

Today it was cold (around 30F or 0C) and no one was sent out. They probably went out later as it warmed up. Daphne said the chimps are usually the first ones to want to go out. I know that Fossey is kind of picky about his weather (he does not like anything that even looks rainy) and Chiquita barely wants to go out when its nice out (Rock usually convinces her to go out). Therefore, I didn't put out any enrichment or breakfast. Daphne was still prepping breakfast when I left, she was just going to feed inside.

I thought of something earlier today that I need to tackle on Friday, the next day I go to the zoo. I know everyone's name except for the two adult male chimps. I know Louie and Mikey, Mahale, Judy, and Chance, but I just call the other two the "big males". I am ashamed to admit that it could be due to a bit of a lack of interest, but in my defense I think that may stem from my being intimidated by them. I don't shrink away or act nervous when they are near me, but I am not near them very often. They are just so large and shaggy, which makes them look larger! Of course the gorillas are HUGE, so is Rock, but they seem less threatening somehow. As a matter of fact, I love it when Fossey is up close, and I love it when Brutus tries to intimidate me by banging against the bars when I walk past. Somehow, though, I don't pay much attention to the male chimps. I don't really pay too much attention to Chance, but he is usually palling around with the adult males and Judy. So, I have decided that Friday not only will I learn their names I will also try to watch them a bit, and ask Ann about them. They, along with Judy, are less interactive with me and the keepers, and I wonder if maybe they are more "zoo animals" that haven't been exposed to people as much, as opposed to Mahale, Louie, and Mikey who almost think that they are people...

For today!

I was at the zoo from 8-9:15 am today. Today's enrichment material was monkey chow balls. They get this only 2 or 3 times a year, as its pretty calorie dense. It is made with the dust from the monkey chow (which is the calorie richest part) and moistened with fruit juice. You can also throw in a little cereal if you like, I used Rice Krispies. I just basically molded them into 2 tablespoon balls. It was a lot like making rum balls (without the rum of course!) and they smelled like a very wheat-y cereal. They were pretty fun to make, it was almost like cooking.
It was great seeing everyone again today, I really enjoyed it. One thing that sucks was that Mahale spit on me (and then again, immediately). I should have seen it coming because about 15 minutes before that she poked a stick at me from between the bars. It was my fault entirely because I did not greet her at all, and had talked to Mikey and Louie. I am pretty sure she was just jealous and wanted attention. I felt pretty bad, in addition to the fact that it sucks when a chimpanzee spits water at you. Next time I need to make an extra effort to visit with her before I get started.
Putting out the balls was interesting. They are pretty sturdy, but crumble if dropped or squeezed. When I put them out for the orangutans, I noticed when I came back with their breakfast that a rabbit was munching on one! It was pretty irritating, there were 6 or 7 rabbits all around and they didn't seem frightened of me at all. I actually had to kick at the offending rabbit to get it to run off. The ball it munched on, of course, crumbled. Most likely the rabbits got the whole thing because the orangs are pretty slow about checking out thier enclosure, and Rok is the only one that actually goes to the islet where I left that particular ball. It did spark an interesting bit of info from Ann, though. When I told her about the incident and mentioned the overwhelming population of rabbits in all of the enclosures, she told me that zoos with lots of rabbits will have less rats! Apparently, she has been told this by keepers at other zoos and seen it herself. She said that a zoo she worked for had a rat problem (not a surprising thing in a zoo setting) but as soon as rabbits began to be noticed, the rat population dropped. Pretty interesting, and it would definately be an interesting study (dynamics of a rat population when disrupted by a rabbit population in a zoo setting?).
I especially liked her attitude about it all: "Its better for someone to be looking down into the enclosure and see a cute little bunny rabbit than for them to look down and have a big ugly rat looking back up at them."

For January 2nd!

Finally got to come back today. I emailed Ann last weekend and she said I could come end of this week or early next week, but I emailed again Wednesday and she said I could come in Friday. I worked from 8-9:30 a.m.
I missed everyone, no one seemed nervous that I was there so they all seem to remember me. I was glad to visit with Mikey and Louie again.
Today's enrichment was pretty funny, it was spaghetti with pasta sauce. I heated up about a small box of whole wheat pasta in a bowl of water in the microwave, then mixed the cooked spaghetti with some pasta sauce. I used whatever bowls I could find and dished out a couple of tablespoons worth on each one. It was pretty funny to make them spaghetti, but I was told they really like it. Since it was chilly today, no one was out yet when I left, so I didn't see anyone eat theirs.