Served lunches at the sanctuary are generally quiet affairs, with each chimpanzee waiting somewhat patiently to collect their proper portions of fresh vegetables and primate chow. Every now and then though, we have someone that gets it in their minds that they want to steal more lunch. Usually that someone is Jamie or Jody, and sometimes Negra (who seems to steal mostly from Missy). While caregivers can’t really stop this behavior from happening, we can ask the chimpanzee that is collecting their lunch to move away from the thief for a better chance of getting their portion.
Here JB asks Burrito to shift a little ways away from Jody (below him), who is eying his portion of primate chow.
This technique doesn’t always work though. Jody was particularly persistent this afternoon and she knows that agreeable Foxie will usually give up some of her lunch without a fuss.
This kind of behavior is normal in chimpanzee group dynamics. Higher ranking chimpanzees can assert themselves over less dominant individuals with concern to food, grooming, enrichment, etc. As caregivers, it is our job to respect the hierarchy, while making sure there is plenty to go around for everyone.
I think this is just a photo of Jody mid-blink, but I’m pretty sure she enjoyed her spoils.
Nancy says
So interesting, especially that care-givers don’t interfere in the group hyarcy. Thanks again for further enlightenment.
Kathleen says
This is a new side of Ms. Jo Jo that I was unaware of. ; ) I always think of Jody as being quiet, independent, and a natural forager….. now I see she is savvy forager too! As a caregiver it must be hard at times to remain uninvolved.
Carla René says
As the sanctuary ”manager”, you’d think Jody would want to keep the peace more than she would want to disrupt it in such an eggregious way. Gotta say, as much as I’ve always loved chimps and always loved these guys, that is the ONE quality in the species I just can’t seem to stomach too well. (Which is okay, seeing as how I hate it in other species, too. ????)
How do you guys decide how such situations are to be handled? As primatologists, I’m sure Jeeb and Diana have learned through study, observation, and laboratory settings what works and what doesn’t, and most of the possible situational outcomes. But, for instance, you asking Burrito to cheat away from Jody was a form of interference. Have you tried others, such as vocalisations or even clicker training, in an attempt to show Jody that is unwanted behaviour? I know, the idea is to let them go and be as ‘natural’ as possible, but that isn’t really the case, either, since they will always be habituated. Would teaching them this is undesirable behaviour send them mixed signals since their natural instinct is to work everything within established familial hierarchies? How do you determine where the line is and in what situations you might need to cross it? And if you decide you want as mimimum interference as possible, why? Why have you arrived at the conclusion that this is a good/bad thing either way? I’m fascinated by the factors that helped you arrive at these types of decisions.
Srry for all the questions lately, but these blog postings are good and I love it that I don’t think I’ve seen these topics touched on before. As always, thanks for your interaction with us. Most EGGScellent! ????????
Anna says
Hi Carla,
Generally speaking, caregivers stay out of a situation unless we can subtly preemptively prevent a problem from happening, i.e. asking Burrito to move around a little bit. Really, we can’t interfere with their hierarchy without somehow inserting ourselves into a situation and generally that could just make things worse, often for the lower ranking individual or the safety of the humans. I suppose if it became a big problem, say Burrito wasn’t allowed to eat at all, we would try to rectify the situation by positively reinforcing the other chimpanzees when they allowed us to serve Burrito. So I guess the “line” where we would have to interfere would be if we were concerned for the safety or health of one of the chimps.