Boy Meets Girl – Entry #6

Missed the earlier entries? Start here.

With our now united group of 6 chimps (Lindsey, Roxy, Kyrstin, Luke, Kirk, and Greg), it was time to bring in the enforcer, Armond. Armond is, well, the bouncer, the tough guy, the one you don’t want to mess with. It was important to get him into the mix and accepted by the small group of females before we add any more.

Knowing Armond, I was expecting it to be total chaos.

And chaos there was! But not in the way I expected.

There was a little running around and a bit of screaming and pant grunting, but Roxy quickly showed Armond her special way of mediating – rough play! Armond excitedly accepted the invitation and a robust play session began. Kyrstin focused on seeing if she could manipulate anyone into chasing Greg, Kirk or Luke with her. Armond settled into his enforcer position backing Kirk up and trying to keep Kyrstin from picking on Greg, who was by now, quite ready for a nap again.

After they settled into a routine and those that needed a nap had done so, we invited Tabby to join the mix.

She was a bit demanding and chased the males around while the other females sat back and watched. Eventually things were sorted out and Tabby found that she liked Armond and began smacking him. Armond seemed to understand what she was up to and played with her too. 

This group of males seem to think water spitting is a way to meet girls. Armond seemed to think that the best way to make friends with Lindsey was to fill his mouth with water and try to get Lindsey to let him spit water into her mouth (I know, super gross!). She was very confused as he kept giving her little squirts on her nose because she wasn’t opening her mouth. Kyrstin however was following him around asking to play spit catch!

With eight chimps together now, we are almost halfway to our goal of getting all 19 together! I think it won’t be too much longer before we can let all the rest in. But everyone needs a nap now, myself included! It’s been quite an experience so far to see these chimps connected now in such a natural and yet special way at our sanctuary.