Willy B is a thief.
Bear in mind, it’s a very minor blemish on his otherwise flawless character. And he’s certainly not the first chimpanzee in history to steal. But it is a problem.
At each meal, Willy B takes what is his and then helps himself to everyone else’s. You can get away with that when you are 175 pounds of muscle. But Honey B and Mave need to eat, too, and none of us need all that drama. While we could isolate Willy B in a separate room during meals, that could lead to pent up frustration and it would certainly be logistically challenging at times. This is where positive reinforcement training comes in.
For many years, we’ve used positive reinforcement training to encourage the chimps to cooperate with medical procedures. Those same techniques apply to husbandry challenges as well. The other day, Anthony built a moveable “target” just for Willy B. After being trained to orient towards and touch the target, Willy B is now learning to remain wherever the target is placed, a behavior known as stationing. Stationing allows us to create some distance between the chimps while they eat. At the same time, he’ll learn that he will be amply rewarded if he remains at his station the entire time and allows the girls to receive their food. Taken together, this is known as cooperative feeding. Mr. Dominant Chimp gets the special privileges he deserves and no one goes hungry. Everyone wins.
This is something I have come to love about working with chimpanzees. You can’t force them to do much of anything, so you are required to demonstrate a little patience and humility. I often visualize it as a choice between trying in vain to dam up a stream and slowly and methodically carving out a new path for the water to flow in a more favorable direction. One day I hope to put this lesson into practice in other areas of my life but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
On a side note, there may be a reason why Willy B was so quick to learn to station. On the other side of the Frisbee there is a pattern with a reflective surface in which he can catch glimpses of his own beautiful face.
Now we may need to train him to look away from his own reflection long enough to eat.
Wonderful blog, JB! I love hearing about the behavioral (chimp and human) challenges you all face. Really cool solutions!
My husband and I have been married for 43 years…. since we were both 19 years old. He was asked recently what the secret is, to being married for that amount of time. I was standing next to him, when he was asked this question, and anxious to hear his reply. Without hesitation he quietly answered, “Patience and understanding.” It sounds like those two virtues apply to more than just the relationships between humans. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this lovely story:)
Congratulations on 43 years, Andrea! Wow!
Fantastic blog J.B. What wonderful information about a very challenging issue… a forced form of enrichment that is incredible in it’s simplicity and yet accomplishes what needs to be done… And by simplicity I do not mean that it is “easy” to get this to work but a great concept that must be very effective.. helped along by the reflective surface… Who could resist looking at that face eh Willy B?
Ha all I can say is that’s freaking awesome! I’ve always been intrigued with the clever positive reinforcement training you all do, so cool.
Wow, that’s just brilliance, JB!
As much as we think of The Boss as being greedy, I guess she’s not so bad that you have to worry about malnutrition a.ong the others….
I’m curious–how did WW deal with this? In other words, how did Mave and Honey B last this long!?
Also, what do you do with a forage? Just serve a little extra of everything? Like rolls? 🙂
Also, something this cool should be shared-do you have a messaging system among all of the sanctuaries (I know you guys get ideas from each other and help each other out)–or do they just follow your blog like us?
Love the humor at the end! Maybe watching tv while he eats could be a good thing for someone….
Thanks Linda. We can’t really take credit for any of the techniques, we’re just taking from what others have already done. And I can’t speak to what WW did exactly, but I do believe they separated Willy B at times, which was fairly straightforward to do in the enclosures they were living in. Willy B doesn’t steal every last bit of food from the others but it’s enough that either a) everyone gets upset, or b) Willy B gets overfed. Interestingly, he doesn’t steal during forages as much as Jamie does. And when Jamie tries to steal, it starts a big fight because no one respects her authority enough to simply hand over the food like they would with Willy B.
Regarding the sharing of information between sanctuaries, the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance has an email list where we can ask questions and share information with one another (the directors of the member sanctuaries also have a conference call once a month). And every other year we have an in-person workshop where we share information like this (in San Diego this June). In fact, one of the speakers will be Margaret Whitaker, who helped pioneer many of the PRT techniques we use for captive primates.
Oh, it’s always wonderful to meet someone who’s responsible for something good in your life!
Still, the reflective frisbee is all on you guys, that’s an example of truly knowing your chimps as individuals, and I hope you share this awesome story with her!
The blogs are so interesting especially with many different challenges that
the caregivers are met with and the solutions. It is a learning experience
for us all. Thank you.
This is such a cool creative idea. Too bad there isn’t a Frisbee/disc maker out there who produces a silver, totally reflective model! Those last photos of Willy B admiring his handsome self are just too funny.
When I first saw the Frisbee attached to the caging I thought you had something like peanut butter smeared on it. This is what we do in the shelter where I volunteer. You drill a small hole at the outer edge of a Frisbee, then you smear peanut butter (or cream cheese if the dog is allergic to peanut butter) to the inside, hang it on the caging (with a carabiner) inside the dogs kennel/enclosure with peanut butter facing outwards. The dog spends a loooooong time licking off all the peanut butter happy as can be!! This is not only a form of enrichment, it also works to distract and quiet a barking dog, especially when you are trying to get dogs out for a walk and certain dogs like to make their presence known to the passing dog. 101 uses for a Frisbee!
I refer to your Chimpanzee Enrichment Data Base because oftentimes there is something on it that can be used in a shelter, ‘as is’ or with a few tweaks to fit a dogs needs. Frisbees, Kongs, Boomer Balls, and certain items are universal with zoos, sanctuaries, shelters. Keeping ‘enclosed’ animals engaged takes a lot of creativity and we can all learn from each other!
Your answer to Linda’s question was also very interesting.
What a great post! I have just now sent a message to my friend who is on the faculty of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Western Michigan University regarding this experiment. I see no reason why Willy B Chimpanzee shouldn’t contribute to the scientific discourse on positive reinforcement. That, and he is just so daggone good-looking!
Haha, Tobin, I did my undergrad at Western. Grey up about 1/2 an hour away!
Brilliance on BOTH sides of the frisbee!?
You said it, Nancy! Truly.