The video below shows Jamie nesting with a bunch of the extra blankets we put out for the enrichment today. Have fun doing laundry tomorrow, Jackie!
behavior
Peering in Silhouette
Peering is one of my favorite chimpanzee behaviors. It is related to peering as we commonly understand it (looking intently at something), but it has a more narrow usage with chimpanzees. Chimpanzees often peer when they would like another chimpanzee to share some of their food. Rather than asking for some, they stare at the food as if it is some mysterious substance from outer space, sometimes getting as close as a few inches from the other chimp’s mouth. As a result, the peering chimp annoys the other chimp into either turning away or reluctantly giving up some of their food.
Today, Negra was enjoying a piece of ice from Young’s Hill while Jody peered at her. Peering can go on for an awfully long time, long enough to make me uncomfortable just watching it. I’m not sure whether Negra ever gave Jody a piece of the ice.
Reassurance
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been putting forages out on the hill to encourage the chimps to go out. Negra will do anything for lettuce, so we’ve been using trails of lettuce leaves to lead her across the log bridge to the lowest platform. Tonight she climbed to the top of the platform for what I think was the first time.
On her way back she heard something that startled her. Determined to stay with her lettuce, she sought reassurance from a caregiver from afar, and then from Jamie who approached from below.
Negra amazes me. Imagine the courage that it takes to venture out into the wide open after living 35+ years in cages scarcely bigger than your own body. I am thrilled to see her on that hill.
Playful Negra
We don’t know exactly how old Negra is. Our records say she was captured in Africa in 1973, other records indicate 1968. As far as we know, she was immediately placed in a biomedical research facility in the United States after her capture. She remained the property of the biomedical industry until 2008.
We celebrate Negra’s birthday on June 13th, the day the chimpanzees arrived to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. The 3rd anniversary of the chimps’ arrival and Negra’s 38th (or so) birthday is just one month away!
Regardless of her exact age, Negra is not a young chimpanzee, and it’s always a joy to see breaking out into play. She and Foxie had been playing for several minutes before I could get to the camera. When I did start filming, Jamie was banging on the fencing and didn’t seem very pleased, but she soon decided to give up on reprimanding me and instead joined in on the play.
My favorite part of the video below is Negra’s foot stomp towards Jamie. Foot stomping is a common chimpanzee play behavior, but this is one of the very few times I’ve witnessed Negra do it.
Jamie loves a challenge
Many nonhuman animals have the ability to create and use tools. It’s easy to think of this behavior as simply a means to an end – a crow wants to retrieve a piece of food from a vertical tube, so she bends a piece of wire into a hook in order to pull the food out (if you weren’t aware that birds can create and use tools, you should check this out. We primates aren’t as special as we think we are).
But for humans, we know that tool use and problem solving are not always linked to a tangible goal. Why do we play chess or work on crossword puzzles? Why did I play the game Operation when I was a kid? For many people, activities that challenge our memories and problem-solving abilities, or test our dexterity and coordination, are considered fun.
What I find interesting about Jamie is not that she can find an appropriate tool, modify it if necessary, and manipulate it in order to achieve a goal that could not be achieved otherwise. What interests me is that this is Jamie’s idea of a good time. What we see in videos like the one below is a chimpanzee contemplating, deciding, planning, manipulating, straining, and struggling. For what? Not for the nut, at least not only for the nut. Jamie has a mind that goes looking for problems to solve. For her, it’s all about the challenge.
New benches! + What’s with all the reassurance?
J.B. has already applied his new welding skills by fabricating two new awesome benches for the playroom. Thanks to Barb from Ohio for aiding in the project by “adopting” J.B. and purchasing the workshop heater from our amazon.com wish list.
The video below mentions reassurance, which is really common among chimpanzees. This simplifies what can be complex behavior, but, in general, asking for reassurance can be a submissive or peacekeeping behavior, or it can be a way to ask, “are you on my side?” Giving reassurance can be saying, “everything’s okay between us” or “yep, I’ve got your back.”
In the first instance in the video, Jamie is submitting to Burrito and Burrito accepts her submission by doing a quick arm over gesture as he runs by. Looking at this 2 sec interaction in isolation, you might suspect that Burrito was dominant to Jamie, but looking at their interactions overall, that’s not the case. It could be that Jamie just wanted to acknowledge Burrito’s display but let Burrito know she wasn’t interested in starting any trouble with him, so she could get to work looking for food.
In the second instance in the video, Foxie is being submissive to Negra, probably not because Foxie thinks that Negra is going to start something, but because Foxie is respectful of those who are higher ranking and often plays the role of peacekeeper, keeping the group calmer by giving reassurance to whoever seems excited.
Chimpanzees are a bit tightly wound in general, and a high arousal situation such as a great food forage can quickly turn into a fight. So, in any high arousal situation, chimpanzees will be doing a lot of asking for and giving reassurance, even if the situation is a happy occasion. Sometimes the exchange of reassurance is more just a sharing in the excitement of the moment than a submissive or dominant behavior.
Jamie’s intense love of boots
As a fitting tribute to Kathy Cochran’s birthday, I used the beautiful telephoto lens she gave us way back when with the new camera that the board of directors recently purchased for us. It’s so great to have high quality equipment to capture moments at the sanctuary and share them. Perhaps one of these photos will be in the book Sanctuary: Year Three.
Jamie’s love of boots…