Take it from Gordo: If you can’t be high-ranking, be clever.
Don’t mind me…I’m just up here to enjoy the view. Clearly, you guys got all the fruit, which you obviously deserve, what with being so high-ranking and all. And even if there were fruit up here, which there’s obviously not, I certainly didn’t watch the volunteers put it up there on the roof.
Researchers have argued for decades over whether chimpanzees possess a theory of mind—in other words, do chimpanzees have the ability to know what other chimpanzees know or believe? Like most appraisals of nonhuman intelligence, theory of mind studies have relied heavily on contrived and unnatural experiments carried out in behavioral laboratories and other captive settings. As is so often the case, we force other animals to play on our terms and then dismiss them as unintelligent when they fail to meet our standards. But even in these conditions, with the deck stacked against them, chimpanzees have passed nearly every challenge thrown their way. They regularly demonstrate the ability to understand both the goals and intentions of others (a sticking point is the issue of whether chimpanzees know when another chimpanzee possesses a false belief, as opposed to plain old ignorance).
Of course, not all complex social behavior requires a full-fledged theory of mind, but as members of a social and highly competitive species, chimpanzees clearly benefit from being able to imagine other chimpanzees’ perspectives and adjust their behavior accordingly, especially when they lack the might to impose their will on others. I remember learning in school about “sneaky guy” mating techniques, in which the lower-ranking males invite females for a secret tryst without catching the attention of the dominant males who, if they were to witness the attempt, would likely punish a subordinate for such behavior. How do they do this? It depends on the community, but in some areas, the males simply tear up a leaf in a particular way while making love eyes at the object of their affection.
Gordo is a classic sneaky guy (though his romantic overtures are a bit more explicit!). Always on the lookout for the dominant chimps, he knows what he’s allowed to do in their presence—and what he can get away with when no one is looking.
