Celebrating LATRICIA’S 21st birthday! – Project Chimps
It’s July 1st and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate Latricia’s 21st birthday!
Latricia is one of the highest-ranking females in her group at Cedar Tree Villa. She marches to the beat of her own drum and has her own style of regulating fights and group dynamics. Although she and Samira can both be considered dominant, Latricia often takes a gentler approach when handling disagreements. Don’t get it twisted though… she’s not afraid to back up the younger girls when the boys get too rowdy!
Latricia is a fair, protective leader who’s well respected and maintains good relationships with the other chimps in her group. She’s friendly, curious, intelligent and focused. She’s also a bit of a trailblazer — Latricia was the very first chimp at the sanctuary to climb a tree!
Since the new Annex habitat opened, Latricia has really been enjoying the new space. Caregivers have spotted her and Gracie spending a lot more time together now that Gracie goes out into the habitat. They hang out on the habitat’s center platform and are usually the last to come back inside when it’s dinnertime.
She loves playing with toys — especially ones that have holes in them — which she uses for nesting! In the past, Latricia built nests by weaving blankets through toys, mesh or any other items she had on hand. She still does this today but now she uses other materials like paper, cardboard and wood wool. One of her favorites to use is the hex ball. When caregivers give the group firehose knots, Latricia takes her time carefully weaving them through the toys.
We hope you’ll help us wish Latricia a happy 21st birthday! If you’d like to send her a birthday gift, please consider some applesauce or nesting materials from our Amazon Wishlist!
Latricia is also one of the featured chimps you can sponsor monthly or annually here at the sanctuary. To support her continued care and receive bi-annual email updates about her, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Happy birthday, “Trish!” We hope today is filled with all your favorite things!