Appendix A1


From zoo observations of chimpanzees with
offsprings




The below glimpses, narrated in anthropomorphic
terms, are from the daily life of group of
half-wild chimpanzees which I have studied
through video-recordings, observations and
drawings in the Kristiansand Zoo and Wildlife
Park in Southern Norway. The group comprises two
adult males (the Alpha male Champis and the Beta
male Kjell), three females (Josefine, Biny, and
Dixie) with offsprings, including the male
youngster Jesper.




Imitation of odd walking and "baby-sitting"
posture


The five year old youngster Jesper is often at
play with either of the two grown up males, with
Champis who is the largest, and with Kjell who is
smaller and slightly deformed, and walks in a
peculiar manner. In play sequences with each of
two male adults which appear very spontaneous,
Jesper appears to be deliberately imitating what
the adult is doing. Most striking was the way in
which Jesper once followed Kjell around, walking
behind him in the same peculiar manner of
asymmetric limping ground movements as exhibited
by the adult Beta male.


This Beta male, Kjell, is used by one of the
mothers, Biny, to watch her infant (one year)
while the mother goes in search for food or
drink. When she gives a sign to Kjell he
immediately comes and assumes, as she goes away,
a position and bodily posture that is almost
identical to the way in which Biny had been
sitting, watching her offspring.




Anticipating the movements of a "property holder"


When one of the mothers (Josefine) was once
occupying the platform (on the inner island)
which usually another mother (Biny) occupies,
Josefine observes that Biny from afar begins to
move in the direction of her platform. Even
though Biny is 10 metres away, Josefine at once
leaves the platform. But then, when Biny changes
her direction and goes elsewhere, Josefine
resumes her position on "Biny's platform".


A mother's "medical care" prevents suffocation
and releases holding behaviour


When Josefine's infant was 25 days old something
critical happened.. The infant tried to cough and
tried to cry, but was unable to cry or cough.
Josefine went into action. First she put her
small finger inside the tiny mouth of the infant.
Then she opened her mouth widely, and had the
baby's head inside as if to swallow it. She
formed her lips like a track and began sucking.
After a while she opened her mouth and extended
her tongue to the on-looking attendants. On her
tongue was a 6 cm. straw with a catch at the end.
First, by using her finger and her mouth, perhaps
also her tongue she saved the life of her
offspring.


Since this event, and when returning to the
flock, Josefine's holding and caring behaviour
changed. Before this event Josefine had been
showing signs of not getting accustomed to the
motherhood situation. She had lost her first
newborn in the water two years earlier, giving
birth sitting at a tree branch. Having her second
birth, Josefine at first appeared very
uncomfortable with her offspring. She would not
allow the infant to cling to her body, holding
him away from her body, sometimes even
upside-down. Now, after this event of
near-suffocation, she allows her infant to cling
to her, and constantly grooms the infant,
cleaning his eyes with her tongue, and so forth.
She has also become very protective of her
infant, and pushes away young Jesper (Dixie's
offspring) whenever he gets too close in his
efforts to hold her infant.




Two different "situational definitions" of a
similar event


One day Jesper (5 years) kept pestering Josefine,
clearly wanting to hold her infant. When she
turns away from him, he gets angry and throws
things at her. Finally -- after one hour of
having been pursued and pestered by Jesper, she
"lost her patience" and bit him. At Jesper's
shrieking, the whole flock reacted instantly,
came running towards them and shrieking at
Josefine. Biny, the other mother, usually so
close with Josefine, slapped her. Even Kjell, the
"baby sitter", pushed her. The next week, the
same development occurred. Again, at Jesper's
shrieking, all the others came running. But this
time, they turned against Jesper and took him
away from Josefine and her offspring.




Anticipating punishment because of "disobedience"


When the weather is not too cold and it is nor
raining, the chimpanzees shift between being
inside and out in the open on a small island. a
small bridge connects the inside to the outside.
The Alpha male, Champis, is always to first to
cross the bridge, and the others follow him. On
the island they scatter around, not always
grouped together. But when returning inside,
Champis will again be in the lead and first cross
the bridge to the inside, with the others
following. One rather chilly day, two of the
others, Josefine with her offspring, and Kjell,
the Beta male, had been by themselves on the
island, and did not manage to catch up with the
others when they crossed the bridge to the
inside. The big male then sat down inside the
door, close by the opening as if watching out for
them. Cautiously Josefine and Kjell approached
the bridge. But when noticing the watcher inside
the door, they withdrew. They remained sitting
down outside in the grass, in the cold, as it
were, not venturing another entrance at this
stage (Figure A1.1). From time to time one of
them would made another advance towards the
bridge, even halfway entering it, before again
withdrawing when noticing that the big male was
still sitter there inside the door.




























Performance with "pretense"


An electrically elevated trapdoor opens for the
chimpanzees to cross a bridge to the outside. The
door is opened when the attendant in an
observation room on the opposite side of the
inside island pushes a button. In the morning,
after they have been given food, the big male is
sometimes impatient for the door to open so that
they may get out in the open. One morning he
demonstrated his impatience by running around in
apparent anger, halfway slapping and feigning
slapping the others and eliciting shrieks around.
After such a round, he would pause and look
towards the attendant's room. The trapdoor
remained locked. The big male resumes his running
around and made slapping movements towards those
which he passed, which again evoked shrieking.
Again he looks toward the room on the other side.
Still, no reaction. Only after the chimpanzees
had calmed themselves, was the button pushed that
opened the door. The next morning, the big male
repeated his performance. Again, no reaction. In
the mornings to follow there were no more
performances of this kind.




Moving with the mother's movements


When riding on the mother's back the infant
appears to be moving with her movements as she
moves about. In this position infants frequently
adjust their head to her head direction,
appearing to be following her gaze. Such joint
movements are less apparent when clinging to the
back of a sibling, for example, when Dixie's
offspring (6 years) is allowed to carry his
sister (5 1/2 month).


1 I thank the staff and the director, Edward
Moseid, of Kristiansand Zoo and Wildlife Park,
for all their support and help in facilitating
these observations. Most of the episodes
recounted in this appendix were mentioned in my
dinner talk 29 August 1994 in The Norwegian
Academy of Science in connection with the first
Theory Forum Symposium.