Peering in Silhouette
December 2, 2011 by J.B. -
Peering is one of my favorite chimpanzee behaviors. It is related to peering as we commonly understand it (looking intently at something), but it has a more narrow usage with chimpanzees. Chimpanzees often peer when they would like another chimpanzee to share some of their food. Rather than asking for some, they stare at the food as if it is some mysterious substance from outer space, sometimes getting as close as a few inches from the other chimp’s mouth. As a result, the peering chimp annoys the other chimp into either turning away or reluctantly giving up some of their food.
Today, Negra was enjoying a piece of ice from Young’s Hill while Jody peered at her. Peering can go on for an awfully long time, long enough to make me uncomfortable just watching it. I’m not sure whether Negra ever gave Jody a piece of the ice.
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Love Jody’s lips….poor little Jody. They can be so good about sharing though.
Save that photo for the next online auction.
Alfred Hitchcock? 🙂
I absolutely love when you give us a scholarly explanation of chimp behavior, J.B. I have seen them ddo this peering but I didn’t know the explanation.
That’s so cool, I think I’ve seen that in a few of your videos. Negra did it to Missy when Negra wanted one of Missy’s corn cobs 🙂
oh, that’s a wonderful description! you know, this is a dog behavior too! My dog does exactly this, and not just for food – she’ll do it for anything – she can peer so intently it will wake me up from a dead sleep! But especially with food – she will stare and stare intently at the food! interesting! -K
My dog does this. Do the chimps eyebrows twitch? Do they get doey-eyed with a “woe is me” expression? Or is it more of a “if I look at this hard enough some of it will jump into my mouth.”?
The latter. Sometimes you wonder if they are attempting telekinesis.
Well you know what dogs think when they do this? If I stare at them long enough, they will give me some…perhaps the chimps are thinking the same thing…I’m sure they are because it seems to work!! 🙂