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Penny's Team Journal (Photo
Blog)
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Oct 30, 2009 |
Koko Hosts Pumpkin Design Contest for Students |
Koko sitting next to the winning pumpkin, lit from within |
e Design Contest and invited students at Kings Mountain Elementary School in Woodside California to participate. About 80 students submitted their most creative pumpkin face designs for Koko, and some were quite fantastic.
The winning design (shown at left) was selected by Koko herself and carved onto a real pumpkin by Gorilla Foundation Enrichment Specialist, Adrienne Mrsny. Note that the winning design was particularly intricate, with many teeth, eyeballs and even ears (in fact it was the only design with ears), but Adrienne was more than up to the challenge and did a fantastic job with the carving.
On Friday, October 31st, the Gorilla Foundation conducted a brief award ceremony at Kings Mountain School, as part of their annual Halloween celebration. The winning designer, Kyle Nierman (3rd grade) received a glossy photo of Koko picking his design — signed by Koko herself — and a Koko plush companion. The two runners up each received a copy of the book Koko-Love (Conversations with a Taling Gorilla) and an 8x11 glossy version of the photo at left.
Koko enjoyed the contest immensely, and the students were happy to have made this year one of her favorite (certainly Read More... |
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Aug 30, 2009 |
Cardboard Feeders: Green Enrichment by Adrienne Mrsny |
Ndume opens one of his new cardboard feeders |
Read More... |
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Nov 4, 2008 |
Mission Ndume by Adrienne Mrsny |
Ndume was in awe of his celestial birthday celebration |
to give the gorillas a day out of the ordinary. With a bit of imagination and a few key enrichment pieces, the yard and bedrooms can be transformed into a different world. For Ndume’s birthday this year (Oct. 10, 2008) we went as far out as you can get, we went to space.
The large yard was transformed into a lunar surface. The ground became a silver terrain with large craters, created with silver tarps and large plastic buckets beneath. To the right , there was a large waterfall of cascading green ooze that bubbled in a lake (made of green tarps) below. Bubbles were made with green paper origami balloons, filled with popcorn and nuts (100% edible). The “lake” was complete with large floating branches and a huge mutant turtle.
Further down the yard was the “rocket ship” that would get our brave interplanetary gorilla explorers home. The ship’s facade was made from a very large corrugated tube with sturdy pieces of paper to form the fins and the nose cone. Ndume eventually discovered that the only way to get into the rocket was (unfortunately) by knocking it on its side, and pulling out all the toys and treats inside.
To complete t Read More... |
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Jun 25, 2008 |
Making a New Friend ...by Tyler Robertson |
Silverback Ndume can be both intimidating and charming. |
to know what to expect from the first few months of training. You understand your job title (gorilla caregiver) and your supposed role, but there’s really no way of understanding what you’ll really be doing until your training begins.
For the first few weeks you have to tread lightly on the facility grounds making sure to keep your distance from the gorillas. Though you rarely see or hear the gorillas, they are constantly watching you. Half intrigued, half suspicious, Ndume kept me in my place by barking or chest slapping at me to show me who the real silverback of the property was. But as he became more familiar with my presence, and the fact that I would be sticking around for quite some time, he allowed me to move closer to his yard. It had taken me about a month, but I was finally able to spend some “quality” time with Ndume just yards away from his outdoor enclosure. This didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned. For the first week or two he would gallop past me in a display and show his aggressive stance while I had to do my best to remain calm, not make eye contact, and to act as if there wasn’t a 425 lb. silverback gorilla (wit Read More... |
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Mar 19, 2008 |
Ndume Weighs In by Adrienne Mrsny |
Ndume sits on a comfortable rubber mat. |
health-related tasks is an enjoyable and challenging job that I feel lucky to have. I have worked with him on big tasks (sitting in the Gorilla Bungalow building and letting me close him in, to prepare him for spending the night there) and small tasks (opening his mouth on cue so we can inspect the color of his gums and condition of his teeth).
Recently I was presented with this challenge: obtain Ndume's cooperation with being weighed on a portable scale. I was given a large platform scale that Koko used to use, and placed it at the mesh in the caregiver area of his building. From here, Ndume was able to inspect the device by putting his fingers through the mesh to touch it. As this point, I began researching similar situations and how zoo keepers have approached comparable challenges. I came across an article where staff at the Baltimore Zoo trained a white rhino to approach and be weighed with a mock scale that was later replaced with the real scale (Pill & Hange, 2000*). Their approach seemed to be the perfect fit for working with Ndume. He would be introduced to the mock scale through the mesh and then, when he was comfortable, it would be placed in his room. After get Read More... |
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Oct 28, 2007 |
Ndume's Birthday "Camp" by Adrienne Mrsny |
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are universally fun for humans and can be successfully translated to be just as fun for the gorillas. This year’s birthday theme for Ndume (Oct. 10) came from an idea I had for a simple daily enrichment event. Upon thinking about it further I realized the only way to make this enrichment idea work for a birthday party was to make it really, really big. With our favorite outdoorsman Ndume’s birthday coming up, it seemed like a perfect fit: we would give Ndume a day of camping for his birthday.
Ndume's indoor yard is converted to a"campsite"
The day of October 10th brought a cold morning and soggy ground from a storm that hit the night before. There was some concern that the gorillas would not want to go out, so we decorated the large yard sparsely, and focused our effort on the enclosed areas, like the small yard and “gorilla bungalow” which were decorated in more detail. We transformed the yards and bungalow into a series of “campsites,” giving Ndume the chance to look into each one. He found tents made of bed sheets, and sleeping bags containing Read More... |
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Aug 5, 2007 |
Koko's Birthday Getaway by Adrienne Mrsny |
Click here to see more photos of Koko's 36th birthday |
e for celebration, a chance to relax and often times a reason to get away. For Koko’s birthday we weren’t exactly able to get her a first class ticket to a tropical isle. So, instead we did the next best thing, we brought paradise to her.
On the morning of Koko’s Birthday Luau, when the gorillas exited their rooms into the small yard, they stepped into a tropical beach scene. Fifty feet of 4 -foot high panels graced with palm trees, parrots and sand lined the yard walls. Flowered leis adorned the stuffed animals that greeted them, and brightly painted tropical fish dangled from the ceiling. As they stepped through the west gate to the large yard a larger expanse of tropical paradise opened before them. Grass skirts hung on a nearby cement cylinder, leis were placed around the yard, plastic kiddy pools floated fun toys and large cloth streamers hung across most of the yard. Three large sheets read “Happy Birthday Koko” and were surrounded by paintings of exotic tropical flowers. Just beyond this were the treats for the morning.
More brightly colored fish hung all over the yard. These were made of cardboard and once they were pulled down Read More... |
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Mar 22, 2007 |
"Eat Like a Gorilla for a Day" by Betsy Herrelko |
A Sample Day of Koko's Meals |
llas are often on the move looking for food. Eating from at least 97 different species of plants and trees, an adult male can consume over 40 pounds of food in one day. At the Gorilla Foundation, with selections from a variety of 190 different foods and more than 20 people spending many hours over the course of a week planning and preparing meals, Koko and Ndume don’t need to exert as much energy making sure they have enough to eat. Even though we hide food for each of them to search for and find throughout the day, the energy they expend is less than their free-living cousins and so the amount of food they require is less.
In addition to this difference, we have discovered certain food sensitivities that influence the way we prepare meals. For example, Koko’s diet does not currently include nightshade vegetables– tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes¬–and Ndume’s diet is gluten-free.
Caloric restrictions also help shape the meals. Still, we are able to be resourceful and creative with the produce and presentation. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to eat like a gorilla? We invite you to eat like a gorilla for a day with a sam Read More... |
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Dec 15, 2006 |
Party Animals by Adrienne Mrsny |
Ndume enjoys his birthday feast |
panion animals were always treated as part of the family. When being reprimanded, they were referred to with our surname. “Toby Dog Mrsny, get over here!” was a common response when we would find our Australian Shepard mix in a pile of the half chewed contents from our recycling bin. When Christmas came around, each animal had a stocking hung right next to our own. Their birthdays, though sometimes arbitrarily designated, were always celebrated. Both birthdays and holidays brought them presents and an extra treat, even if it was only an extra dash of fish food or a new chew bone.
That’s why it didn’t seem like an odd request when Christa asked me to put together Ndume’s Birthday Party. Our companion animals had always been thought of as sentient beings, so a party for the gorillas (though much more intelligent and quite a bit larger than our goldfish, rats, rabbits and dogs) did not seem Read More... |
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Nov 23, 2006 |
Ndume’s Kitten – Friend or Foe? by Christa Nunes |
Ndume (left) and curious kitten (right) |
May 2006, senior gorilla caregiver Jill Firstenberg brought a fluffy grey kitten to the Gorilla Foundation so Koko could have a visit with one of her favorite animals. After Koko’s visit with her new little friend, Jill and I thought Ndume might like to meet the adorable kitten as well. I scooped up the tiny ball of fur and headed into the building where Ndume was resting. Ndume immediately stood up and ran by me from one room to another, clearly unsettled
“It’s ok Dumes, I have a cute little kitten,” I reasoned. Ndume wasn’t so sure; he ran back across the rooms
“Ok, let’s go to the window first,” I said. I stepped outside with the kitten and stood near the window. Ndume climbed on top of a barrel and sat looking out at the kitten. He knocked on the wall. “Do you want me to bring the kitten in?” I asked. Ndume responded with a kiss and a knock, showing h Read More... |
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