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Archives for January 29, 2011

New benches! + What’s with all the reassurance?

January 29, 2011 by Diana

J.B. has already applied his new welding skills by fabricating two new awesome benches for the playroom. Thanks to Barb from Ohio for aiding in the project by “adopting” J.B. and purchasing the workshop heater from our amazon.com wish list.

The video below mentions reassurance, which is really common among chimpanzees. This simplifies what can be complex behavior, but, in general, asking for reassurance can be a submissive or peacekeeping behavior, or it can be a way to ask, “are you on my side?” Giving reassurance can be saying, “everything’s okay between us” or “yep, I’ve got your back.”

In the first instance in the video, Jamie is submitting to Burrito and Burrito accepts her submission by doing a quick arm over gesture as he runs by. Looking at this 2 sec interaction in isolation, you might suspect that Burrito was dominant to Jamie, but looking at their interactions overall, that’s not the case. It could be that Jamie just wanted to acknowledge Burrito’s display but let Burrito know she wasn’t interested in starting any trouble with him, so she could get to work looking for food.

In the second instance in the video, Foxie is being submissive to Negra, probably not because Foxie thinks that Negra is going to start something, but because Foxie is respectful of those who are higher ranking and often plays the role of peacekeeper, keeping the group calmer by giving reassurance to whoever seems excited.

Chimpanzees are a bit tightly wound in general, and a high arousal situation such as a great food forage can quickly turn into a fight. So, in any high arousal situation, chimpanzees will be doing a lot of asking for and giving reassurance, even if the situation is a happy occasion. Sometimes the exchange of reassurance is more just a sharing in the excitement of the moment than a submissive or dominant behavior.

Filed Under: Burrito, Chimpanzee Behavior, Foxie, Jamie, Negra, Sanctuary Tagged With: behavior, Burrito, chimp, chimpanzee, Chimpanzee Behavior, csnw, Foxie, Jamie, Negra, northwest, reassurance, Sanctuary

Adding a photo to your comments

January 29, 2011 by Diana

Hey regular blog commenters – did you notice when I make a comment on the blog now there’s a little photo of me and Missy in the corner? You too can upload a photo of yourself so other regular commenters can see what you look like, who your favorite celebrity is, or whatever else you want to show. The first step is to sign up through Gravatar. Go to this website: http://en.gravatar.com/ and click on the “Get your Gravatar today” button. Be sure to use the same email address that you use when signing into the blog to comment. Then follow the steps for confirming your account and uploading your chosen image. Once Gravatar says you’re done, the next time you comment on this blog, your image should show up next to your comment. At least that’s how I remember it working. Let me know if I missed something.

Filed Under: Sanctuary

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