george

We are ch-ch-chuggin’ along with integrating George into a larger social group. Today marks another milestone in that goal. Rayne has now moved in with George and Cy permanently. This part of the introduction has gone pretty good so far, though it did have some of the challenges mentioned before in other meeting George had with Rayne. There had been some brief conflicts between them, with Cy acting as mediator. The only real time we have seen Cy “take a side” was when George lashed out at Cy for a minute, which really wasn’t taking a side as much as it was defending himself.  Chimp politics, amirite?

But since then, the three have made up and we have caught them playing with each other at various points in the day.

What was the miscommunication? I’m not sure, personally, but they know. Which brings up on of the questions we received from last week’s invitation for questions.

One of our long time followers, Kathleen, had asked about my perspective on the role gestural communication plays in this integration process with George. In my view, it plays a pretty significant role.

As you may remember, for most of his life, George has lived with one other female or completely alone. There are several different theories on how gestural communication is acquired, but really they learn it primarily from their mothers and the community they grow up in. And chimpanzees are remarkably resilient in adaptation. When females leave their group when they become of age to bear children, they will adjust the gestures they have learned growing up to match that of the new group that allows them in.

Why females? Chimpanzees in the wild live in a patriarchal society, meaning the males stay in the groups they are born into and the females leave to ensure the gene pool remains diverse enough to successfully reproduce.

One of the things an advisor on my thesis committee told me when I questioned why it’s easier to study the older male population compared to younger chimpanzees or females is because the older males are just that. Stubborn, “not going to change my ways,” old men. So their gestures are going to be the best representative of that group’s gesture repertoire.

That being said though, George is still a vibrant young man and is learning how to communicate with his new friends. This is my own personal opinion and not supported fully by any research, but I believe there is a basic blueprint to some gestures, but how it’s produce and the meaning it takes on is based on the environmental factor. My apologies but I couldn’t find the reference quick enough for this blog, but there is some kind of understanding chimpanzees in accredited zoos tend to understand each other better when they move between the facilities. Unlike those in other captive settings, zoo chimpanzees get to be raised by their mother for the most part. All the behaviors they have learned have been passed down from generation to generation originating initially from a relatively small group of wild caught chimpanzees. Chimpanzees used in the biomedical field had a different type of upbringing.

To me, the biomedical chimpanzees’ situation is very reminiscent of the case if the Nicaraguan deaf children who spontaneously created their own sign language. It’s a fascinating case study  I encourage you all to read. If you ever find it, there is also a really fun game called “Sign” that is based on it where you have to create your own gesture communication system with those you’re playing with. But again, it is my own personal theory backed by no formal research that those in a sanctuary setting are kind of piecemealing it together as they go. It is why I believe why there can be those misunderstandings in the beginning of introductions even though to our eyes it doesn’t seem like there isn’t any difference in the gestures they use with each other.

In this little example, you can see Rayne doing her group’s infamous “bunny hop” trying to get George to engage in play. It also seems like George is misreading it as a display so he is displaying back by trying to look bigger and hunching his shoulders over.

Luckily enough, in this instance, George picked up that Rayne’s intention was non-threatening so he engaged in a game of chase.

This next little clip is when I interpreted as evidence of George learning and adapting. The little “knocks” you see him doing to get Lucky to play don’t seem like much. If you were to ask any of the caregivers where they have seen this move before, however, there is a high chance they would respond, “Gordo.” That’s an almost exclusive Gordo move. We have not seen George do this until recently and after a recent intro with Gordo.

I cannot definitively confirm this because I am not George and can’t tell what he was thinking, but if I had to guess he picked it up to help himself be better understood by Lucky, who lives with Gordo. Again, that is my own guess.

Today is also Giving Tuesday! There is still time to help us reach our goal to help build a new support building for staff to work in! Any little bit gets us closer to helping us fully bring the expansion of our facility to reality!

Bonus Photo of Negra coming in for lunch with a purple-haired Troll!