Gossau, 15 September 2014
Pili, Mojo, Balima, Digit, Petiri, Cess
Digit takes the brush and leaves
Petiri takes the brush and strokes carefully on the sheet of paper
Elisha strokes while lying on the floor, but does not seem to be very motivated
Blacky sits down and strokes
She often eats the paint, but she also strokes on the grid
Cess shows no interest
Elisha strokes a little through the grid; we slide the board underneath the grid
She strokes, but seems unmotivated
Madschabu strokes
Mojo throws a branch, then takes the brush but returns it again
Madschabu takes the branch
Mojo comes close
Madschabu wants to take the board
Mojo carefully examines the board with his foot, then knocks on the board
He takes the branch and dips it into all the paint pots, one by one, then wipes the branch off on the sheet of paper before starting over again
Tzippi takes the brush and leaves
Brigitte eats the paint
Pili wants to take the brush
Petiri takes the brush and gets distracted by Pili
Today the atmosphere was very relaxed and productive. Petiri made a few strokes on the paper, but it seems to be difficult and tiring for him. Elisha joined in today and made a few strokes while lying on the floor. After Chicca, she has been the second one to adopt this body position. Chicca did not come close at all today. It seems she is not so well at the moment. Today, she did not even show up for breakfast in the morning, which is very unusual. Blacky joined in again today and stroked. Today she ate the paint several times and we had to direct her attention towards the sheet of paper. She also stroked with white paint on the white sheet of paper. Madschabu stroked relatively intensively. As we attached the paper around the whole board today, he was not able to tear it off and did not even think of it. It seems to have a positive effect on the activity of stroking. The big surprise was Mojo today, who first entered with a small branch wanting to distract Madschabu. As Madschabu went away a distance, he then came close to us very cautiously and examined the board with his foot, making some careful knocking with the hands. He then took the branch and repeatedly dipped it into all the paint pots, observing exactly what he was doing and what happened with the color. Finally, when Angela asked, he wiped off the branch onto the paper, not really reacting to the traces left on the sheet. Nonetheless, Mojo shows a unique behavior and a caution and gentleness, which are outstanding in the group. We are very excited to see how Mojo will continue to develop and are aware that it can take a long time until he will make his first conscious stroke. The hope of this extraordinary event, however, remains with us since we are dealing with an extraordinary chimpanzee here.
