More Than Just Kibbles: Keeper Familiarity and Food Can Affect Bonobo Behavior
The welfare of captive animals relies on numerous factors. Keepers can affect animals’ welfare and this could especially apply to emotionally and cognitively complex species, such as great apes. We collected video data over three months on 17 bonobos (La Vallée des Singes, France) and extracted five behaviours (play, aggression, anxiety, gestures, sociosexual interactions) —during […]
Short-term benefits of play behavior and conflict prevention in Pan paniscus
Most theories on the function of play have focused on ultimate rather than proximate benefits. Play peaks during juvenility but, in some species, it is present in adulthood as well. In primates, social play and grooming often show a matched pattern because they bring individuals into close contact and favor social cohesion. In Pan, researchers […]
Effect of spatial crowding on aggressive behavior in a bonobo colony
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.20024.abs According to a previously proposed coping model (De Waal [1989] Zoo Biol. 1(suppl):141–148), gregarious primates will react to crowding by adjusting their behavior in order to limit the amount of aggression displayed. Depending on the duration of the crowding, this can be achieved by the use of different strategies. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) react […]
Food-associated calling sequences in bonobos
When encountering food, chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, and some other primates produce specific calls, whose acoustic structure covaries with the caller’s food preference. For chimpanzees, there is evidence that listeners use these contingencies to guide their own foraging behaviour. Here, we investigated the vocal behaviour of another great ape, the bonobo, Pan paniscus, in response to […]
Sharing the motivation to play: the use of signals in adult bonobos
Gestures and facial displays are involved in regulating many aspects of mammal social life such as aggression, dominance-subordinate relationships, appeasement and play. Playful activity is an interesting behaviour for examining the role of signals as intentional communication systems. When animals play they perform patterns that are used in other serious contexts. To avoid miscommunication, many […]
Play behavioural tactics under space reduction: social challenges in bonobos, Pan paniscus
Several studies have suggested that primates vary in their response to spatial reduction, which represents a challenge for captive animals. Under spatial reduction, primates can adopt various strategies to reduce social tension. Such strategies, which are not mutually exclusive, can involve avoidance and coping tactics. Recently, it has been shown that, during short-term crowding, bonobos […]
Token transfers among great apes (Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus, Pan paniscus, and Pan troglodytes): Species differences, gestural requests, and reciprocal exchange
Great apes appear to be the nonhuman primates most capable of recognizing trading opportunities and engaging in transfers of commodities with conspecifics. Spontaneous exchange of goods between them has not yet been reported. We tested gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), bonobos (Pan paniscus), and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in a token-exchange task involving two conspecifics […]
Discrete quantity judgments in the great apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus): The effect of presenting whole sets versus item-by-item
The authors examined quantity-based judgments for up to 10 items for simultaneous and sequential whole sets as well as for sequentially dropped items in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), bonobos (Pan paniscus), and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). In Experiment 1, subjects had to choose the larger of 2 quantities presented in 2 separate dishes either […]
Making inferences about the location of hidden food: Social dog, causal ape
Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) and great apes from the genus Pan were tested on a series of object choice tasks. In each task, the location of hidden food was indicated for subjects by some kind of communicative, behavioral, or physical cue. On the basis of differences in the ecologies of these 2 genera, as well […]
Piagetian Liquid Conservation in the Great Apes (Pan paniscus, Pan troglodytes, and Pongo pygmaeus)
An understanding of Piagetian liquid conservation was investigated in 4 bonobos (Pan paniscus), 5 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and 5 orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). The apes were tested in the ability to track the larger of 2 quantities of juice that had undergone various kinds of transformations. The accuracy of the apes’ judgment depended on the shape […]