Students create toys for chimps

Winter can give any Central Oregon resident a case of cabin fever — even a chimpanzee.

The chimpanzees at Chimps, Inc., a sanctuary in Bend, have to spend most of their winter indoors and they get bored. Enter Sisters Middle School students working on special projects with Carol Packard.

“One of the projects we do is showing concern for animals,” Packard said.

Over the past couple of weeks, the students have created enrichment toys for the chimps. They are boxes containing hidden peanuts and raisins, carefully crafted to provide a challenge to the treat-seeking chimp.

“They are difficult to figure out how to get open,” Packard said. “The kids are trying to make them challenging.”

Making a challenge for a chimpanzee is a challenge for the students and keeps the students interested.

Packard said the students “are very, very excited about figuring out how to make it challenging.”

They use recycled packaging, styrofoam, cardboard, coffee cans — all kinds of “junk” to craft their containers. They also decorate the containers with collages, especially of animal pictures, because chimpanzees love to look at pictures of other animals.

“They’ll give (the chimps) one project at a time and then film it,” Packard explained.

The film will be put on a DVD and sent to Sisters Middle School.

“The kids get to see how the chimpanzees react and interact with their projects,” Packard said.

The students won’t actually get to visit the six chimpanzees whose winter they have enlivened. Because it is a sanctuary, Chimps, Inc. is not open to the public.

For more information visit http://www.chimps-inc.com.