One of my favorite stories from Jane Goodall’s book In the Shadow of Man was the story of Mike.
Mike was a small, low-ranking male who was continually threatened and attacked by higher ranking chimpanzees until the day he discovered a pair of empty kerosene cans at the research camp. By banging the cans together, Mike’s displays made a sound that none of the other chimpanzees had heard before. Imagine hearing the clashing and booming of metal on metal, when even the toughest chimpanzees were stuck shaking branches and throwing rocks. Mike may not have had the size and strength of Goliath or David Graybeard but he was clever – clever enough to rise to alpha male and remain there for six years after his first kerosene can display.
I see a lot of Mike in Jamie. While Jamie is by no means small, she clearly knows how to use objects in her displays to her advantage. While Burrito runs around clapping his hands, Jamie shows him how it’s done.
This is one of those times when I envy chimps. Wish I could display like that sometimes. Not quite sure hot it would go over in my office, though… 😉
Oooh, that last one was a good one!!
Wow, scary Jamie!
I loved the story about Mike. I love the brains over brawn outcome (says a non-confrontationalist with geek tendencies 🙂
If I didn’t know anything about chimps, I would say Jamie’s trying out to be both the singer and drummer in a band.
Jamie has wonderful rhythm!
I know that you play videos of chimps for our chimp people. Have you ever played videos of people drumming on hand drums? They might enjoy seeing that.
I’m not sure that we’ve shown them people playing hand drums specifically, but we’ll be sure to try it out someday.
I actually have! I played a video of a guy playing the djembe for Negra once and she really liked it! She lost interest fairly quickly, but definitely seemed to enjoy it. 🙂
I think Jamie has one of the most usual display styles I’ve seen in a chimp. i have yet to see any chimps with her “musical” range.
that is what i call ‘going all chimpanzee on it’ … with rhythm.
Bang………. bang…… bang…bang.- then it becomes bang, bang, bang, as she gets into the display. I miss her.
Love, Love, Love! I found myself pant-hooting along with her! I love when she decides to use the barrel over the black tube.
Do you know what set her off? Do they just do this periodically? Is it just a release of pent up aggression? She was fine until she started panting and throwing things. Just my observation. Thanks.
Dominance displays are a routine part of chimpanzee life. Almost all chimps display on occasion, though the more dominant chimpanzees tend to display more often (both because they use their displays to maintain their dominance and because they are at less risk of being attacked by other chimpanzees for displaying).
Sometimes there is an obvious trigger for a display, but most displays don’t have an observable proximate cause. You could view them as a release of pent up aggression, and perhaps that’s what it feels like to the chimpanzees performing the display, but they serve the function of signifying and reinforcing that chimpanzee’s position within the group. Since rank is determined and maintained at least in part by force, the displays tell the rest of the group “Look how strong and powerful I am, and remember this the next time you think about getting in my way.” As I mentioned above, some chimpanzees “cheat” on this part, making themselves out to look and sound more impressive than they actually are. But regardless, the displays are very effective, After watching Jamie in this video, would you ever think about challenging her?
Chimpanzee displays made more sense to me once I started thinking about similar behavior in humans. In high school, at lot of kids my age would hang out in fast food restaurant parking lots at night. Almost every night, some group of kids would peel out in the parking lot and smash beer bottles on the ground. From a primatologist’s perspective, these were the dominant kids displaying towards us. As a low-ranking male, I learned to keep my distance from them. Of course, like Mike, most of them were probably “cheating” a bit, too.
Like most chimpanzees, Jamie usually displays at seemingly random times, but you could set your watch to some of her displays. Each day, after we clean the playroom, we spread out a forage of nuts, seeds, dried fruit, alfalfa cubes, or some other food. When the chimps are released into the playroom, they rush out to gather all the food that they can. After they finish eating, Jamie almost always displays. Why then? I can’t say for sure, but captive chimpanzees often display when entering a new area. Perhaps it is like reestablishing territory each time.
One other thing about displays – they allow chimpanzees to size each other up without having to fight. Imagine if each chimpanzee had to fight every other chimpanzee in order to establish a dominance hierarchy. Many animals have ways of establishing order without risking injury and expending unnecessary energy. A display is a low-cost (biologically speaking) way of determining relative strength.
Thank you J.B. for all the information. Very informative. I enjoyed reading it and taking in all the knowledge. I realize from all the posts and videos that Jamie is the dominate one and seems to be the most intelligant.
OUTSTANDING! Great way to talk about displaying (Burrito, please take note, honey), great tie-in with Jane Goodall and great photos and video!
You go girl!
Wow, what a amazing display,,she certainly made her point,,