Breakfast this morning at the sanctuary was a leisurely affair in a warm and cozy greenhouse. The chimpanzees enjoyed apples, pears and the fruit smoothie in addition to their chow. The menu appeared to be quite popular with everyone today and there was quite a bit of food peering going on. Food peering is a common occurrence in chimpanzee communities and is observed in both captive and free-living situations. Essentially, it is a nonverbal way of asking, “Are you going to eat all of that?” As a method of communication, it can be more or less effective given the audience and the mood. Today, although there were quite a few instances of it, there were not very many instances of actual food sharing, so, I would say as a strategy it was, on the whole, largely ineffective.
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
On a Mission
This afternoon Foxie was lying on the platform in the greenhouse when she spotted a troll doll lying on the ground. She jumped the few feet from the platform to the ground to rescue the abandoned troll.
Pre-leap:
Post-rescue:
More play communication
Just earlier this week I posted a video I caught of Foxie using exaggerated signals to get Negra to play with her. Today, it was Missy initiating the play with Foxie! And of course, Foxie couldn’t resist.
It’s Good to Be the Queen
People are often surprised to learn that Negra is kind of a powerhouse of personality. Yes, she’s the grandma of the group, and yes, she has an endearingly sweet face, but Negra is a force to be reckoned with. She knows what she wants, and she sees no reason why she should have to wait. Negra is not the leader of the Cle Elum Seven (Jamie would be horrified to hear me even suggest such a thing), but she has her own kind of power. Perhaps because she’s the oldest, or maybe just because of her supreme confidence, Negra is universally respected. There’s a good reason we call her the Queen!
When Negra wants to be groomed, she will walk up to one of the other chimpanzees and plant herself down unceremoniously in front of them. The message is always received; I can’t think of a single time this strategy hasn’t worked for her. If Negra wants to be groomed, Negra will be groomed. Even boss Jamie can’t say no.
Annie on Young’s Hill
Sometimes, Annie will sit out on Young’s Hill to just take in the view and feel the sun on her back, even if no one is sitting there with her. We used to say that Annie wouldn’t do much without Missy by her side, but that’s not how we describe Annie anymore. She is fine being on her own.
It’s only for a short while though, because of course her friend Missy will run out to play chase at full speed.
Play communication
Because humans use verbal language to communicate, we often don’t notice all the subtle nonverbal cues we give off during interactions with others. Working directly with another species definitely makes you notice those cues, both in nonhuman animals and in humans. Sometimes if someone misinterprets what you are saying or doing, you have to almost exaggerate the opposite cues to make sure they don’t keep thinking you were purposely being mean.
An easy example is when dogs are playing, and if one dog starts to think things are becoming more aggressive, they may snarl and bark and seem somewhat threatening. If the other play partner wants to make sure things don’t get out of control, they will play bow really low to the ground, wag their tail with enthusiasm, and make sure their teeth are not bared. The opposite cues are standing tall, hair up, and teeth bared, and that is how they show aggression. The same can be said for chimps, as well. They have opposite cues for opposite circumstances. When trying to be aggressive, they stand up, swagger, pant hoot, and show all their top teeth to demonstrate how intimidating they are. Opposite behaviors are bowing down, showing a play face (hiding their top teeth), bobbing their head, laughing, and so on to show they are being playful.
Sometimes play can get kind of exciting, and there is a fine line between play and threat. The other day I was playing with Foxie and we were stomping and she was hitting the ceiling. Though she was definitely playing with me, Negra couldn’t see Foxie’s play face and misinterpreted her actions as a threat. Negra started to swagger and pant hoot and her hair was standing up a bit. Foxie quickly wanted to let Negra know she was not at all being aggressive and so she was extremely exaggerated in her play behaviors. She approached Negra with a low posture and really big play face, laugh, and playfully slapped the ground. Negra understood what was going on and began to chase Foxie across the loft and the catwalk of the playroom (at Neggie speed, of course) and I was able to catch the tail end of this play session. You can see how Foxie is continuing to use everything in her arsenal to make sure Negra knows she means to be playful.
Paper, it’s fun and practical!
As JB mentioned in his blog post last month about power, mornings at the sanctuary can often be determined by the luck of the draw. Today I should have played the lottery because I was blessed with good weather, good moods, and good enrichment.
If you’re a long time reader of the blog you’ll be familiar with the concept of enrichment and how central it is to engaging the chimpanzees actively in their environment. If you’re new here I encourage you to explore to find older entries we’ve written about it, like this one. We try to provide new and engaging activities and items for the chimpanzees on a regular basis to help mitigate the boredom that can result from captivity. To that end, we have an enrichment calendar to schedule themes for creating the daily enrichment that the chimpanzees are given; it helps us stay creative.
Today’s theme was lots of paper, and yes, it’s been done before, but the reprise was just as good as the original, if you ask these chimpanzees. Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it, you can see it for yourself in the video below!
