Grooming up close

May 29, 2014 by Elizabeth -

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I was playing tug of war with Burrito in the greenhouse the other day when Negra approached and sat herself down in front of Burrito, waiting to be groomed. Burrito took the hint. Be sure to turn your volume up to hear Burrito’s tooth clacking, lip smacking, and Bronx cheers.

Burrito Chimpanzee Behavior Grooming Negra Sanctuary

7 Comments

Kathleen on May 29, 2014 at 7:51 pm

Wow! Thanks Elizabeth, that was great. I know CSNW has mentioned “sympathetic mouth movements” but I had no idea how noisy it could be. It might be serious stuff to Burrito but I couldn’t help but laugh! That was very interesting.

I also find it interesting that Queen Negra just plunked herself down between you and Burrito while you were playing tug. Any significance to that or was she just needing some comfort in grooming? (Love the look on Negra’s face while Burrito is musically grooming her.)

This might be my favorite video yet. : )
- Elizabeth on June 1, 2014 at 3:15 pm
  
  Kathleen – That’s a common strategy of Negra’s when she wants to be groomed. I wrote a little about it in this blog post from a couple of months ago: https://staging.chimpsnw.org/2014/03/its-good-to-be-the-queen/
  - Kathleen on June 2, 2014 at 7:58 pm
    
    Now I totally get it. Hail to the Queen!!
Jackie on May 29, 2014 at 9:39 pm

This was so cute and very interesting. I had no idea that chimps did this. I love seeing all the chimps, and I’m happy they are able to live in comfort with such wonderful people caring for them!
Chris on June 3, 2014 at 1:53 pm

Just curious if they ever do find any tasty morsels on each other while grooming like you see with wild chimps. It’s almost as if Burrito is doing all that lip smacking in anticipation of actually finding something. Too funny! Are they all that vocal while grooming?
- Elizabeth on June 3, 2014 at 2:24 pm
  
  Hi Chris – The chimpanzees sometimes use their lips to investigate bits of debris they find during grooming, but I don’t think they tend to ingest them.
Chris on June 3, 2014 at 4:18 pm

so they never get any little pests or anything from the grounds? I just wasn’t sure if you had to worry about things like that, like we do with our domestic pets and farm animals. I’m sure if there was something on them, the others would make quick work of it! 🙂

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