There are many stereotypes out there about chimpanzees. Anytime I tell someone that I work with chimps, it is almost a guarantee they bring up something about bananas or poop-throwing in their response. Today, I am weighing in on these stereotypes!
Bananas
Do chimpanzees love bananas? Yes. Do chimpanzees love bananas more than every other food? No. Do chimpanzees only eat bananas? No.
Chimpanzees love bananas, but they love fruits in general! We serve the chimps at CSNW a variety of fruits and veggies and they all individually have their favorite foods. While bananas are a well-liked fruit, apples, pears, melon, or oranges, are equally as liked. I’m not entirely sure why we as a society have latched on to the pairing of primates and bananas, but it shows up in movies, greeting cards, toys, etc. Weigh in below on where you think this stereotype originated!
Foxie eats banana:
Honey B eats banana:
Poop-throwing
I have worked at two ape sanctuaries and out of about 90 apes (orangutans and chimpanzees), only three chimpanzees threw feces. As you may or may not know, Jamie is our only poop-thrower at CSNW. And one is plenttttttttty. Chimpanzees don’t normally throw feces in the wild, but it is seen in captive settings. There are other primates, such as howler monkeys, that are known for throwing feces.
Jamie throws feces at new staff members or volunteers, when they are doing something that she doesn’t want them be doing (whether that be playing with Burrito, scrubbing toys, or simply existing). She doesn’t throw feces as much at her long-time human friends, such as J.B., Diana, or Kelsi, so her newer friends get the brunt of it.
I don’t want you to think less of Jamie because she throws feces. Instead, think about it from the perspective of her trying to control an environment that is run by humans.
Jamie:
What other stereotypes are out there about chimpanzees? Let me know!
Lol, You forgot grapes, Jenna! But those are reserved for training candy, right!? But I feel like they all prize coconuts!
Don’t hold it against Jamie….it’s just hazing! It didn’t surprise me when you said JB and Diana and Kelsi don’t get hit as much….I’ve always felt like Jamie senses who “the bosses” are.
For the moment, the only one I can think of involves an oft-repeated comment on social media involving our faces. Not worth repeating, sigh.
I’m a docent at a zoo which is home to a small community of six chimpanzees. It is a very stable group, having been together for many years. Led by a well-respected and comparatively gentle alpha, there is little conflict. Things are generally very peaceful in our chimpanzee community.
But I consistently hear another big stereotype in addition to the two you focused on, bananas and poop-flinging. And that is that chimps are “violent” and “crazy,” that they will tear off your arm or “bite off your face.” When I hear comments like these, I typically try to explain chimps’ highly territorial nature, and how it plays out in aggression towards “the other.” I also explain that the stories they have heard about chimps attacking people who have tried to keep them as pets has much more to do with the psychological and emotional damage done to them through being taken from their mothers at young ages, and isolated from their own species, and general mistreatment, than with chimps behind inherently violent. (Recognizing that chimps CAN be violent, of course. Which is yet another argument against trying to keep them as pets.)
I also try to explain that, when chimps are behaving in ways that we see as violent and scary — loud screaming, chasing, throwing things, maybe some slapping or kicking — that this is not a sign of chimps “going crazy.” I explain that while WE may not understand what is causing the ruckus, THEY DO, and it is not just some random violent outburst without cause. There are times when I can explain to them exactly what is going on, and other times I cannot. But I explain that if they are fighting, it isn’t because they are “crazy.”
I have heard similar comments, Peter! I often respond by noting the many, many ways chimpanzees smooth over and repair disputes…and through the blog, I’ve also had chances to hear about how disputes are often avoided through skillful social interactions (Cy comes to my mind as being particularly adept at this…). Fights are an inevitable occurrence of social living, but their “sound and fury” sometimes draws our attention more than the quieter and more subtle affiliative interactions that they engage in every day.
Really insightful comment! The way chimpanzees are painted as being violent, savage, bloodthirsty monsters really grinds my gears. Violence and aggression is a part of chimpanzee society, but there are reasons for it! Heck, violence is a big part of human society. I’ve had to explain countless times that attacks by chimpanzees kept as “pets” are not representative of chimps in a typical wild society.
But you’ve not just that, you’ve the stories published about chimps that hunt and eat monkeys as well as stories of the “huge” war-like chimps in Africa. Add that to the fact that most people are getting their “education’ from Joe “that chimp is jacked and will eat your face” Rogan, and our work is cut out for us.
This is why I wasn’t entirely happy when “Chimp Empire” came out and became an instant hit. On one hand, it’s undoubtedly a gorgeously photographed and truly exciting story, but, on the other hand, it further strenghtened the stereotypes about the violent and blood-thirsty chimpanzees. I personally prefer the director’s previous work on the same topic – Rise Of The Warrior Apes – because the interviews with the field researchers made the whole story more comprehensible and intimate from a human perspective.
I watched that show and I think because of the time I’ve spent learning about chimps through following CSNW I realized this was a special situation of a large group fracturing. I didn’t think of it as representing all chimp societies, but if I hadn’t learned so much from CSNW that might not be the case.
Some speculation about people’s association of monkeys and bananas… In the United States and in Europe, people first encounter monkeys or apes typically in children’s literature or the zoo. Curious George ate bananas. Julius the gorilla also, I think.
As oranges, apples, and strawberries are not native to Africa and bananas are tropical, bananas may seem more natural to associate with African primates than the other fruits most commonly eaten by people.
I knew a zoo gorilla who threw poop at the vet. If he had had something else handy to throw, he might have thrown that.
in the 1960s and ’70s, there were black and yellow stuffed chimpanzees with vinyl faces, hands, and white sneakers on their feet. some of them had a banana in one hand, mine did not. But those did not precede Curious George. Maybe it’s because of bananas and plantains coming from the same part of the world, as you said
I don’t know if this is so much a stereotype as a grievous misconception: the attempts to domesticate Chimpanzees as if they are merely hairier and shorter versions of human primates, fundamentally childlike. At risk of preaching to the choir, attempts to domesticate (humanize) pan Troglodytes have always resulted in failure, to say nothing of the deprivation imposed upon captive chimpanzees from living the lives which Nature had intended. As I recall the moral of Gary Larson’s “There’s a Hair in my Dirt;” exalting yhe Natural world and understand it are two separate reactions.
Much as I love seeing Missy and Honey B each day in this blog, they were meant to live and move and have their being in their native habitat, as mother and child bonded together.
Good question. When and why did this banana thing become a thing?
There is nothing Jamie could do that would make me think less of her. She is intelligent, creative, beautiful, and she’s a survivor. Like Dora’s hand gesture from yesterday, a poop throw or threat of one, gets Jamie’s point across succinctly! 😉
I have loved watch a program called Money Life. Its about a sanctuary in Dorset England, started by 2 amazing men who saw too many chimps being abused for tourist. They took it upon themselves to go and rescue as many as possible, and to hear their stories broke many hearts. Sadly one of these amazing men has died, but his legacy is still going with his wife and the other orignal starter of the sanctuary. But, to get to the point, the man who is still there, is a real life Dr Doolittle, in that his relationship with the chimps is amazjng to see and watch and we learnt so much about chimps watching him.
But isn’t Monkey World a private zoo? They breed. They charge an entrance fee, and the public comes in. Is that the place I’m thinking of?
Hello, no they dont breed any of the chimps. The only ones they try to breed is the whooly monkeys whos numbers are classed as critical. Yes they charge a fee for the upkeep as its a charity.