Boy Meets Girl – Entry #3

Missed the earlier entries? Start here.

During howdies, high-ranking female Lindsey wanted to make sure that high-ranking male Luke understood that she was the boss so she tossed some, well, a really nasty handful of debris, at him through the mesh. Luke decided that he couldn’t let that pass but chose a bit of a milder approach and just gave her a good stream of spit. 

A bit of back and forth and they decided to call it a draw. They both approached the mesh to poke fingers through and groomed each other nicely instead. This is the type of response we want to see in these early stages. Each chimp sets their boundaries and once they establish their position and acknowledge the other’s, they will, hopefully, engage in cooperative and positive interactions.

Unlike Lindsey, low-ranking Kyrstin chose a spunky way of greeting Luke. She came at the mesh quick and gave it a good, loud smack. Luke tried his spitting tactic on her but quickly found out that she thought it was a cue for a good ole play session. Luke seemed to catch on pretty quick and an exciting spit-pant-poke game of silliness ensued. 

Luke and Kyrstin will be getting the chance to have as many silly play seasons as they want very soon because the next step is to open the doors and start letting these chimps meet in the same room! It’s exciting, and sometimes a little frightening. I best get a lot of sleep tonight to prepare for the next stage of introductions!