In the New Chimpanzees video I was surprised by the chimps eating monkeys and even their own infants. I had heard of non-human primates using tools and displaying emotions and behavior similar to humans but never of them eating animals that were so closely related to them. I wonder if other sources of meat in their environment are harder to come by so they eat monkeys out of convenience. I was really disturbed when the chimp took the infant from its mother and even tried to keep the mom away by hitting her with her infant then proceeded to bite the infant’s face and eat it. I do not understand why that is beneficial and a practiced/tolerated behavior. This is definitely one of their behaviors that isn’t paralleled to one of our own. I wonder if this behavior can be used to understand anything about humans at all. One of the mothers whose infant died displayed feelings of grief. If a male chimp understands the mother grieving, why would they kill the infant, why is it tolerated, and why do not they experience grief too? It was sad to see the chimps experiencing grief and loneliness but equally interesting to see them showing affection and playing with one another.
In the same video I thought it was interesting how chimps in different areas have different tools and ways of doing things just like how people across the world do things differently to get the same result. The chimps were pretty resourceful like when they were using a stick to collect ants out of holes to eat and using rocks and sticks to break nuts open. I thought the clip of the chimps going on patrols was also interesting as it was new information to me. It was similar to the spider monkey article about the benefits of warfare. In that article it mentions that the spider monkeys would exhibit behaviors that they normally would not, such as walking on the forest floor. The spider monkeys would then terrorize other groups of monkeys. In one case they started to chase a female until she decided to cross water and they stopped. It seems like they just want other groups to know of their presence and assert their dominance, not necessarily to protect their food source or to kill the other group.
I think by studying non-human primates we have learned a lot about ourselves but still have more to learn from them. There are some things I do not think we can learn by studying non-human primates like we might both do things similarly but only because that way makes sense. It’s probably more complex than that but for example, chimps and humans carry their kids on their hip or back but how else would you carry a kid, it just makes sense to do it the way we are. I don’t think that all of their behaviors align with ours but it is interesting to see which ones do.
Hi Asha! Great blog post, I enjoyed hearing and learning about your perspective on Primatology.
I also was shocked to hear of chimps eating monkeys and even their own infants. My assumption was similar to yours – I didn’t know of animals eating animals similar to them. Your follow up questions made me think more in depth about the grief of animals specifically from a gender perspective. Showing grief is just as critical as their ability to show affection.
Additionally, I agree with your perspective on the importance of studying non-human primates. Specifically within different time periods. One of my follow up questions would be, do you think the chimp taking the infant from its mother, hitting the mother with her infant and biting the infant’s face is specific to chimps in that time period? Do you think their behavior has changed? If so, why do you think it has?
Thanks!
Allie
I liked your blog post on the similarities and differences between humans and our non human primate relatives. For as much as the mother chimps valued their children, from teaching them all that they knew to make them successful to providing them with food and shelter, it was surprising to see the male chimps not feel the same way. It was gruesome to watch the male chimps attack and often kill babies to breed more. It was even harder to watch the chimps eat the baby chimps that died and hunt and eat monkeys. This is a way in which humans are not so similar to our non human primate relatives. I did notice that when a baby died from an outsider or natural causes the whole group would display sympathy for the mother and mother would display grief. It is interesting how the cause of death generated opposites in terms of how they reacted.
I really enjoyed your blog post and how you set it up in a way that allowed us to clearly see similarities and differences between nonhuman and human primates. I agree 100% with what you said and found almost all the same things very surprising. I think the biggest one for me was the fact that sometimes chimps eat their own infants. At first, I was disgusted and horrified but I also wondered why that may be and what circumstances that happens under or if it just happens all the time. I also agree with your stance on the importance of studying non human primates. I feel as if studying them allows us to understand ourselves better and where we started form. I think this is important so we can see how we evolved both physically and mentally and emotionally.
Hey!
I also found the chimpanzee video very interesting. There is so much we can learn from chimpanzees and there are so many similarities between our species and theirs. For instance, we both care for our offspring and we both use tools to complete tasks. I forgot but you reminded me about the chimps eating monkeys, even their own infants. This was surprising to me because chimpanzees have a high level of thinking, compared to other animals and they show parental care, just as humans do. I thought they would always protect and teach their offspring, but the fact they they sometimes eat them tells me there has to be outside factors. I like your point, maybe there was no meat or food in the area?
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The way that male chimps/gorillas react to infants that are not their own is extremely disturbing!
It is interesting when you see the mothers experience grief from the loss of their child, but the male who killed them doesn’t seem to understand and feel this grief. I think this is a disconnect with the concept of empathy and non-human primates. It is so fascinating the depth of emotions they can feel for themselves but not for others. I would enjoy reading more about non-human primates and their capacity for empathy.
The point you bring up about whether we do things because of common ancestor or just out of convenience was a point I hadn’t considered. It does make you question what things are similar just as a coincidence or legitimately due to our DNA. How would we determine this difference anyway? It makes you wonder, so thank you for bringing that up!