Celebrating THOMAS’s 18th birthday!
The celebration is still going strong at Project Chimps in Laurie and Carlee McGrath Chateau! After celebrating Chloe’s birthday yesterday, today we’re focusing on Prince’s group as we wish Thomas a happy 18th birthday!
Thomas is more of a “chimps’ chimp,” meaning he typically prefers interacting with his fellow groupmates rather than humans. However, he will sometimes engage in a play session with his caregivers. Although he may be one of the youngest chimps in his group, he’s also BIG. He has especially long limbs, which make him appear tall and somewhat lanky. In fact, he’s so tall that Lancelot can nearly pass underneath him when they’re both knuckle-walking! His mother, Kassie, is also a big lady, although in her case caregivers say it might be more weight-related.
Thomas is a pro at training. He loves when Kris, our Behavior Coordinator, stops by for positive reinforcement training and picks up new behaviors extremely quickly. Over the past year, staff worked with him on laser pointer training so he could learn to pull blankets or other obstacles out of doors, which was a success! He isn’t on Jacob’s level of expertise yet, but he’s become very reliable.
Thomas loves any toy that makes a loud noise when he throws it. Typically, he prefers hard plastic toys to rubber ones because they make a much more impressive sound when he throws them during displays. He’s also a big fan of juice and Kong enrichment, which are Kongs filled with a wet mixture of ingredients like peanut butter, honey, oats, pumpkin, and spices and then frozen.
He’s a high-ranking member of Prince’s group and is known for stealing food items and enrichment from lower-ranking girls. To combat this, staff station-trained him to stay in one spot during meals, which has significantly reduced his stealing. However, one female chimp he never steals from is Dawn! She’s one of the older ladies in the group who Thomas seems to be smitten with. He always lets her take her food before him and helps her come off the porch in the morning with a reassuring head nod.
Today on November 30th, we hope you’ll help us wish Thomas a happy 18th birthday! If you’d like to send him a birthday gift, please consider a new Kong or toy from our Amazon Wishlist!
Thomas, we’re so happy to celebrate your 18th birthday with you at Project Chimps! We hope today is filled with all your favorite things. Happy birthday!