Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

mirror

Mirror Mania

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Chimpanzee intelligence is well-known and a specific aspect of their intelligence that I find particularly fascinating is their awareness of self as separate from others, or ‘theory of mind’. A classic experiment used to test for theory of mind in animals is the mirror test whereby a mark is placed on the face or some other body part of an animals and then they are presented with a mirror. If the animal notices the mark and reaches towards their own face instead of the one in the mirror, this indicates that they are aware that the image in the mirror is themself and not another animal. This works on a number of species we all recognize to be intelligent like elephants, dolphins, and the great apes while, interestingly, other nonhuman primates like monkeys, will fail this test. Human children typically begin to pass the mirror test around the age of two.

I’ve always enjoyed watching chimpanzees look at themselves in the mirror. Some are more interested than others in their own reflections, usually picking at marks or scabs on their face and head, opening their mouths to inspect their teeth and tongue, and sometimes making faces at themselves. Are they amused? Are they curious? What’s happening in those minds?!

To celebrate this endearing behavior, I’ve decided to put together a compilation of photos and videos of the chimps at CSNW looking at their own beautiful faces. Enjoy!

7 years bad luck

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Let me begin this story by telling you that today is my birthday… This is not a plea for birthday wishes, but rather an ironic cherry on top of this latest chimp house caper… More on that later.

Today, Jamie and her group received a roll of paper. This is a standard enrichment item that they receive regularly. What wasn’t standard about today, was Jamie’s mischief she decided to create with the cardboard tube at the center of the roll of paper. Unbeknownst to her caregivers, Jamie spent her morning using the cardboard tube as a a tool to knock down a very breakable mirror that we have had mounted on the outside of the caging (for many years!). We use this mirror to spy into the loft of the playroom so we can see who’s up there from our vantage point on the ground. Today though, Jamie decided it had to go.

To truly tell this story, we had to watch Jamie’s antics back on our security camera footage. Unfortunately, the video quality wasn’t great so to really appreciate today’s blog, you’ll have to use some imagination. After finding her ready to use tool, Jamie spent about a half an hour working on Project: Destroy Mirror. She tried multiple angles and methods until she successfully sent the mirror crashing down to its demise.

After hearing the crash of something shattering into a million tiny pieces, I naturally responded to the incident with a broom and worked on making sure the glass pieces were safely out of chimpanzee reach… Only to be greeted by Jamie and a handful of feces flung at my head. How dare I move her sharp glass, she had worked so hard on that! Volunteer Dusty and I spent an extra hour diligently cleaning up my happy birthday mess, artfully gifted to me by my creative chimpanzee boss/overlord.

Thanks James.

Speaking of birthdays, Burrito’s big day is coming up.  As Kelsi announced yesterday, in celebration of Burrito’s 41st birthday we will be having a photo contest to have our followers pick their favorite photo(s) of Burrito, we will then be selling the photo with the most votes.  We will post the contest every day on the blog, so you can vote once per day and you are welcome to vote for more than one photo! The contest ends on January 8th at 6:00 p.m. PT.

 

 

 

Flying Foxie and other assorted tales

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The Seven got off to an early start on Young’s Hill this morning, taking advantage of a short break in the near-constant rain we’ve been having this winter. Jamie took some of her breakfast to go, perhaps leading Missy to regret not saving any of her own.

Negra and Foxie waited for their neighbors to appear in the chute.

Missy and Burrito completed the first of many patrols.

Honey B, Willy B, and Mave continue to be enthralled with their new mirror. Honey B gazed at her reflection for a while this morning and later watched herself chew gum.

She managed to look dignified in all of the photos I took today, but the rest of the time she was making all of her human and chimpanzee friends laugh with her antics.

Willy B has been spending his time in front of the mirror investigating some teeth that appear to have gone missing.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the chimps have started to develop a new routine, the highlight of which is the pre-dinner display. Most of the chimps engage one another through the windows between the playroom and chute but Foxie has developed her own signature move, which involves pant hooting in front of the Howdy Door and then launching into a running double kick. After each kick, she listens intently for a response from the three on the other side of the wall. If she hears them, she screams and runs to her group mates for reassurance; if there’s no response, she launches another assault on the door.

While Foxie can work herself up into a frenzy this way, her friends don’t take her too seriously, as evidenced by Annie’s nonchalance.

Another Quiet Day

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Today, Burrito was checking out his reflection in a plastic mirror.

Foxie enjoyed some bottled water (we’re still waiting on tests of our well water since it was contaminated during the fire).

Missy and Annie spent some time grooming. Missy likes to groom herself with a tool – in this case she ripped a splinter from a log. If you look closely you can even see some dandruff falling.

Annie likes to pick Missy’s nose. Missy tolerates it but doesn’t seem to enjoy it. I don’t blame her – Annie doesn’t bite her nails down like the other chimps do.

 

The Photogenic Cle Elum Seven

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I was looking through some photos from June. As you can imagine, all of the caregivers take a lot of photos. Most of the best ones make it to the blog, but once in a while I find some that haven’t been posted. It only took me a few minutes to find these never-before-seen gems:

Burrito:

Mr. B

 

 

Foxie:

Foxie

 

Foxie making faces to herself in a mirror:

Foxie looking in mirror

 

Missy under a blanket. She’s been doing a lot of Negra impersonating this summer:

Missy under blanket

Negra is spying on us

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We recently gave the chimpanzees a bunch of plastic mirrors, thanks to a generous donation by Laird Plastics. The chimpanzees were thrilled to be able to examine their own faces. Foxie even used her mirror to practice her “hoot face”. But Negra had something else in mind. She has been using them to spy on us with her back turned. Now she won’t even sit down with us face to face! J.B.