Gordo recently joined the introduction group, leaving just Dora behind from Cy’s original group of 6. While Dora waits to join the introduction, she went to visit Willy B, Honey B, and Mave. In today’s blog video, see how excited everyone was to be reunited with Dora! Unfortunately Willy B gets overstimulated with Dora in the group long term and begins to pick on her, so she is now living with Mave until she is ready to join the introduction.
reintroduction
Making The Most Of It
Honey B and Terry have been living together, just the two of them, for a few weeks now. As you can see, they are making the most of it. Check out those play faces!
I must admit, the quality of these videos is not great. But, I had to share! I mean, those faces! Gah!
Click here to see for yourself!
Honey B and Terry Back Together
The video pretty much says it all.
No, that’s not true.
I’m sure J.B. will have more to share about the Terry and Gordo switch tomorrow!
I know some people are having trouble accessing our videos when clicking on the embedded videos on the blog. For some reason, YouTube has decided to ask people to sign in to their accounts to access videos. I guess it’s a known issue. If you are having trouble, here’s a link to watch the video directly on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGZ3ozNReQY
I’m also curious what happens if I include the video here instead of through our top posting system, so here it is:
How to Handle a Bully
I thought it would be a good time for another quick update on our reintroduction process (see an initial overview here, and a previous update here).
Actually, there’s not much in the way of news to report. We are still holding steady with Gordo and Honey B in one group and everyone else in the reintro group. The reason for remaining so long in this stage is that while Willy has shown glimmers of improvement, his tendencies are right there at the simmering point, ready to boil over as soon as his enabler (Honey B) rejoins the group. So we’re not rushing anything.
What has Willy been doing? For the most part, it’s his usual combination of obnoxious displays that persist until they result in a fight and the occasional (but now far less common) bullying of poor Terry. At their current frequency and level of severity, they are tolerable. And Willy has actually faced more frequent consequences, which could potentially be a good thing. On two occasions, the group had enough of his behavior and they went after him, with only Willy B’s idol and savior, Cy, defending him. Willy walked away humbled, if only temporarily, with some scratches and bites to keep for a while as souvenirs of his encounters. For most chimpanzees, these would be learning opportunities but Willy is not known to be a quick study.
But back to those glimmers. On one occasion, when Willy was beginning one of his intimidation campaigns towards Terry, Terry ran right to Willy B and hugged him. That put an end to it. Could Terry learn to do that again? And would it continue to stop Willy in his tracks? Submissive behavior has never worked for Terry before so maybe awkward hugs are the key. I know they would work on me.
One of our next steps will be to sub Terry out for Gordo to see if Willy fixates exclusively on intimidating Terry or if, without Terry present, he would exhibit the same behavior towards Gordo. That would tell us something about where to go next.
You’ll notice from these descriptions that problematic group dynamics are rarely the result of one actor alone. There are dozens of chimp bullies out there and their group mates somehow manage to coexist with them (see: Jamie). And there are plenty of insecure chimpanzees in the world, who eventually manage to find their place in a group (see: Annie). For Willy, it’s a lack of status and sense of security combined with bullying tendencies combined with a target that overreacts combined with an overly protective alpha male combined with an enabler that likes to kick butt and ask questions later. So while you could say that Willy B is ultimately responsible, kick out just one of the legs that props this whole pattern up and you might have a different outcome entirely.
Now imagine all the potential solutions that these causes present and you’ll see why it’s such a difficult problem to solve. Perhaps Willy would just be happier in a smaller group. OK, but who would be forced to live with him? And would they be happier in a smaller group or would they suffer the missed friendships and the lack of community that larger groups provide? Maybe Willy just can’t live peacefully with Terry. Or maybe Honey B is just too bad of an influence on Willy. Which one of the three of them gets kicked out of the group and leaves their friends behind?
If the thought of Willy living alone as a possible solution crossed your mind, I understand. I know some readers still hold him responsible for the injuries Burrito received in an earlier intro attempt (the greatest trick Honey B ever played was to convince the world that Willy was responsible…). But as a staunch disbeliever in free will, who will happily annoy anyone within earshot of this opinion, I can only view Willy as a victim himself — of his upbringing, of his brain chemistry, of his circumstances — who deserves break, too. So we’ll keep experimenting with different reintro groupings, new behavioral medications, novel enrichment interventions, and so on, with the hope that we can find something that works for everyone.
On a lighter note, and the reason for this blog title: You have to appreciate Rayne for her ability to put a guy in his place.
Reintroduction Update
Back in late October, we began “reintroducing” the members of Cy’s family to one another with the hope of creating a more stable social group. The idea, in short, was to split off the alpha, Cy, along with the dominant but short-tempered and socially awkward Willy B, until their relationship with one another was clear. After that, we’d gradually build the group back up (the Reintro Group) by adding those left behind in the other group (the Remainers) in a way that would hopefully support a clear hierarchy around Cy (there was an alternate plan to rebuild the group around Willy B should he have proven himself dominant to Cy, which thankfully didn’t happen). At each stage there were benchmarks to bet met, including behaviors like play, grooming, shared use of food puzzles, and a lack of conflict requiring separation, before another member would be moved to the Reintro Group. Members would be added one at a time initially and then in pairs near the end to ensure adequate social support and an even balance of power.
The staff have been monitoring the chimps, day and night, and recording behaviors, welfare indicators, and descriptions of interactions to help us evaluate the group’s progress.
We paid particular attention to indications of dominance between the males, such as who gets to take food and when—what animal behaviorists call priority access to resources.
Willy B’s behavior when paired solely with Cy was a dramatic break from the patterns we were concerned about. He was respectful of Cy’s status. He didn’t bang on the walls at all hours of the night. He seemed generally less agitated. None of which is too surprising given what we had speculated about his social anxiety before. After about a week, once Cy and Willy B had met the benchmarks and their statuses relative to one another were clear, we added Rayne, a dominant female from Cy’s original group. Rayne was, as always, adept at navigating the social waters.
This was probably the easiest grouping for Willy B, as both Cy and Rayne are socially savvy and extremely tolerant of Willy’s less conforming behavior.
Lucky, who generally plays the role that captive primate experts often refer to as the “potted plant,” entered the Reintro Group without much drama (potted plants are chimps that tend to sit on the sidelines while all of the intense drama unfolds around them).
With Lucky in the group, Willy B continued to keep himself together, for the most part. And Cy was playing a far more active role in the hierarchy, spending slightly less time with his magazines and a little more time being the boss.
As his time in this larger group went on, however, Willy B began to backslide into some of his old tendencies, particularly the late-night commotion-making. But without Terry to direct his frustration towards, or Honey B to serve as his “I-don’t-know-what’s-happening-but-I’m-ready-to-fight!” wing man, the group felt free to ignore him.
With the benchmarks met yet again, it was time to add Dora. And to our surprise, the group immediately began to engage in more affiliative behavior.
But while Dora’s presence helped the Reintro group coalesce, her absence from the Remainers had just the opposite effect.
It seemed like Terry and Gordo took the opportunity, in the absence of some of the more dominant chimps, to attempt to establish themselves over Honey B and Mave. But Honey B and Mave were not having any of it. Mave was screaming and chasing Gordo every time he tried to take food—a troubling behavior that she has exhibited previously, though to a lesser degree, and which, I should note, does not make her any less perfect in my eyes 🙂 The instability of the Terry/Gordo/Mave/Honey B grouping prompted us to expedite Dora’s stage in the Reintro Group and add Terry and Mave, much to everyone’s relief.
And while we thought the Gordo and Honey B, the two loners, would protest at being paired alone together, they have instead been bonding and being exceptionally playful with their caregivers. Who would have imagined?
So what have we learned so far? We’ve learned that Cy is not yet ready to retire from his role as alpha to spend his days alone with his magazines. We’ve learned that Rayne pulls the strings. We’ve learned that Lucky is still a potted plant. We’ve learned that Dora is the secret sauce. We’ve learned that Terry may want to be more dominant to the females than he was letting on. We’ve learned that Mave can be without Dora for an entire week, but that she’ll take it out on Gordo. And we’ve learned that Gordo and Honey B have been secret best friends this whole time and that they just needed some privacy for their relationship to blossom. Most importantly, we learned that there’s hope for Willy B. He’s shown that somewhere deep down inside has it in himself to maintain his composure, understand his place in a group, and generally act in accordance with chimpanzee social rules. For a little while, at least.
The final stage of this process will involve adding Honey B and Gordo together to the Reintro Group, once the benchmarks have been met. And this will be the real test. Will Willy B revert to picking on Terry and causing constant chaos once the gang is all back together? Will Cy put a stop to it if he does? Will Honey B turn every conflict up to 11? It’s easier to shake up an ingrained behavioral pattern in a new setting. Once the group is all back together, will they go right back to their old ways?
Primatology is very much a science. But most of behavioral primatology involves developing hypotheses to explain behavior and then testing them with data. Projects like this reintroduction are an attempt to run the process in reverse—taking the data and hypotheses we have and attempting to generate the behavior we want to see. This is scienceish at best, but it’s all we’ve got (my apologies to every applied social scientist I just offended). We take an informed guess at a solution, try something, and then try something else if that doesn’t work.
Chimpanzees, like humans, are tough nuts to crack.
*****
On a different note, I wanted to be the one to get to thank the 2024 Comfort & Joy auction donors that contributed to the fund to replace stolen property and prevent future theft. I was so disheartened to discover one morning that parts of the system to the new entry gate that Jake and I had worked so hard on over the summer were stolen. Your generosity has helped us purchase replacement components as well as a motion-activated solar streetlight and 4G security camera. I harbor no ill will to the person who felt they had to steal these items. But I only want to have to replace them once 🙂 So, thank you to Steve Y., Jamie R., Sue R., Sheery B., Deborah J, Lisa T., Nancy D., and Dori O. for helping to keep the sanctuary secure!
Rayne Joins the Men
J.B. explained our reintroduction experiment last week, and I thought I would do a follow up today since we moved on to the next step.
As a duo over the last week, Cy and Willy B did not interact a whole lot, which is not shocking since they are both somewhat aloof. What we were waiting for was a day when they did three things: played, groomed for at least ten minutes, and used a new social enrichment puzzle.
Throughout the week, we were monitoring pretty closely, often using the security cameras, for signs of who took the lead. It was clearly Cy, with Willy B deferring to him throughout the week. It has been a lot quieter this past week without Willy B getting everyone going in the afternoons. It’s possible he will still be inclined to do this as the group gets bigger. He did make some attempts throughout the week, but because he was separated from the larger group, they did not have the same level of anxiety or feel the need to respond in the same way that intensified the situation and ended up in conflict.
This morning, I watched on the cameras as Willy B displayed toward the other group, and then I watched as Cy took over the display, with Willy B retreating. This seemed to serve to remind everyone that he outranks Willy B. It’s nice to see Cy express confidence in this way, and we hope he keeps it up as we add more chimps.
Rayne is the second chimpanzee to add because she is the highest ranking female in the group and therefore supports Cy in his leadership role. She also has been able to develop a positive relationship with Willy B and generally isn’t as intimidated by him as some of the lower ranking females in the group. So, the idea is that Willy B will continue to develop his relationships with Cy and Rayne and understand, without having the back-up of Mave and Honey B, that he is definitely subordinate to Cy, and, in fact, that’s really the best place for him and for the group.
Speaking of… we have created some fun groups for the friendship bracelets that we have in the Comfort and Joy online auction! These bracelets were made by two young ladies – Holly and Juliet – who came along with their parents on a vacation to Cle Elum while their veterinarian mom, Dr. Kathleen Olson, filled in for Dr. Erin while Erin was away a few weeks ago. They (the bracelets and the whole Olson family) are so sweet! Check them out, and be sure to check the auction every day, as we’ll be adding more items!
When I was closing up, I spied Honey B who had tucked herself into her nest, the epitome of comfort:
