Blog Post

Wow! That was amazing to watch them out in the yard today. This group is such a quiet, calm bunch of apes. No one was quite sure who should be in charge of the patrol this morning so there was a bit of a pile up in the tunnel at first, but then Maverick, Justin and Rocko maneuvered around everyone to take the lead and Roxy, Arielle, Tabby, and Moonie joined them. But Lindsey pushed ahead and was at the helm as this group of eight took a stroll to visit the residents in the DJ&T Villa who were watching with amusement from the safety of their outdoor porch.

The group is ready to go outside for the first time together! I wonder if Rosemary will finally be brave enough to go into the habitat with the support of the boys?

Waking the villa up after their first night fully together is another one of those moments that you aren’t ever quite sure what you are about to walk into. Will they have slept peacefully, or will they have stayed up all night getting to know one another and investigating other’s nesting habits and nighttime behaviors

The day started off with much brainstorming and reflection on how the introductions had gone so far. To recap, we have one group of mixed chimps and two groups of unmixed chimps. We could keep going by adding individuals to the mixed groups, but that could have resulted in anxiety in the separated groups as their numbers dwindled and all the higher-ranking chimps departed. Without the democracy of their leaders, the remaining chimps could have gotten out of hand – like unsupervised teenagers.

Missed the earlier entries? Start here. Eight chimps are happily living in a mixed group now– Lindsey, Roxy, Kyrstin, Tabby, Luke, Kirk, Armond, and Greg! Our next goal was to get Rocko added in. The chimps had other ideas. Rocko was not sure about coming into the mix. All five of the remaining males were…