Marketing Scoops: animalpsychology

Empathy is often seen as a defining human trait, woven into the fabric of our societies. It helps people cooperate, build friendships, and resolve conflicts. But empathy is not unique to humans. Across the animal kingdom, from elephants to the bonobos, behaviors hint at emotional connections that transcend species boundaries………Continue reading….

By Sanjana Gajbhiye

Source: Earth

Critics:

The chimpanzee is a highly adaptable species. It lives in a variety of habitats, including dry savanna, evergreen rainforest, montane forest, swamp forest, and dry woodland-savanna mosaic. In Gombe, the chimpanzee mostly uses semideciduous and evergreen forest as well as open woodland. At Bossou, the chimpanzee inhabits multistage secondary deciduous forest, which has grown after shifting cultivation, as well as primary forest and grassland.

At Taï, it is found in the last remaining tropical rain forest in Ivory Coast. The chimpanzee has an advanced cognitive map of its home range and can repeatedly find food. The chimpanzee builds a sleeping nest in a tree in a different location each night, never using the same nest more than once. Chimpanzees sleep alone in separate nests except for infants or juvenile chimpanzees, which sleep with their mothers.

The average lifespan of a wild chimpanzee is relatively short. They usually live less than 15 years, although individuals that reach 12 years may live an additional 15 years. On rare occasions, wild chimpanzees may live nearly 60 years. Captive chimpanzees tend to live longer than most wild ones, with median lifespans of 31.7 years for males and 38.7 years for females. The oldest-known male captive chimpanzee to have been documented lived to 66 years, and the oldest female, Little Mama, was nearly 80 years old.

Leopards prey on chimpanzees in some areas. It is possible that much of the mortality caused by leopards can be attributed to individuals that have specialised in killing chimpanzees. Chimpanzees may react to a leopard’s presence with loud vocalising, branch shaking, and throwing objects. There is at least one record of chimpanzees killing a leopard cub after mobbing it and its mother in their den.

Four chimpanzees could have fallen prey to lions at Mahale Mountains National Park. Although no other instances of lion predation on chimpanzees have been recorded, lions likely do kill chimpanzees occasionally, and the larger group sizes of savanna chimpanzees may have developed as a response to threats from these big cats. Chimpanzees may react to lions by fleeing up trees, vocalising, or hiding in silence.

Chimpanzees and humans share only 50% of their parasite and microbe species. This is due to the differences in environmental and dietary adaptations; human internal parasite species overlap more with omnivorous, savanna-dwelling baboons. The chimpanzee is host to the louse species Pediculus schaeffi, a close relative of P. humanus, which infests human head and body hair.

By contrast, the human pubic louse Pthirus pubis is closely related to Pthirus gorillae, which infests gorillas. A 2017 study of gastrointestinal parasites of wild chimpanzees in degraded forest in Uganda found nine species of protozoa, five nematodes, one cestode, and one trematode. The most prevalent species was the protozoan Troglodytella abrassarti. Recent studies have suggested that human observers influence chimpanzee behaviour.

One suggestion is that drones, camera traps, and remote microphones should be used to record and monitor chimpanzees rather than direct human observationn Western popular culture, chimpanzees have occasionally been stereotyped as childlike companions, sidekicks or clowns. They are especially suited for the latter role on account of their prominent facial features, long limbs and fast movements, which humans often find amusing.

Accordingly, entertainment acts featuring chimpanzees dressed up as humans with lip-synchronised human voices have been traditional staples of circuses, stage shows and TV shows like Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (1970–1972) and The Chimp Channel (1999). From 1926 until 1972, London Zoo, followed by several other zoos around the world, held a chimpanzees’ tea party daily, inspiring a long-running series of advertisements for PG Tips tea featuring such a party. Animal rights groups have urged a stop to such acts, considering them abusive.