If you’re Rayne or Lucky, you know that Terry’s a big softy. I mean, he cries every time Willy B makes a face at him! And everyone knows he’s not much of a fighter unless he has a whole crew backing him up. Lots of bark, very little bite.
But if you are Missy or Annie, he’s got to be one of the toughest guys ever. He’s so big and fuzzy! And those chest-beat displays—who does that? A gorilla, that’s who! Who is this guy?
That’s the magic of an electric fence. You can talk a big game and never have to back it up.
Sanctuaries often maintain multiple groups of chimps living within sight of one another. This runs counter to the natural territorial behavior of free-living chimpanzees but is often made necessary by practical considerations such as limited space and the economical advantages of shared infrastructure. Our friends at Fundació MONA in Spain looked at how having close neighbors affected the chimpanzees in their care and, as you might expect, there were some downsides. Increased vigilance and self-directed behaviors during some inter-group encounters were taken as evidence of stress. And while they didn’t find the contagious aggression seen in some other studies, in which conflict in one group makes conflict in another group more likely, we can anecdotally report that is does occur here from time to time.
But, as they noted, there are also a number of advantages to these arrangements. For chimps like Terry, they can offer a way to blow off some steam without stirring the pot within his own group—and if the girls across the way happen to be impressed, all the better. For chimps like Burrito, who is coming up on Season 18 of his own reality show, it can be enriching to have a new show with an entirely different cast to watch through the window. And when the chimps across the way are getting everyone riled up, there’s an opportunity for some affiliative interactions within the group. After all, nothing bonds an in-group like an out-group.
There are days when I think Terry would readily trade Willy B to another sanctuary and never have to see his group again. But what would he do without his legions of adoring fans to the other side, to whom he must certainly be The Greatest Chimpanzee That Ever Lived?
