This is another study which reminds us how close humans (the ‘naked ape’ as per Desmond Morris) are to our primate cousins the apes.
A research study has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which is the first to study the teasing behaviour of apes: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans (4 species) in two zoos.
“Playful teasing in great apes is an intentionally provocative, asymmetric behaviour with varying proportions of playful and aggressive elements. Similar to teasing in human children, playful teasing in apes involves one-sided provocation, response waiting, elaboration, repetition and elements of surprise. “
Quote from the study conclusion
Looks like humans
The study concluded that the three juveniles assessed for their behaviour shows us that humans are far from the only great ape to engage in playful teasing.
“Joking draws on complex cognitive abilities. In order to joke you need to understand social norms. You need a theory of mind. Playful teasing, which we can see in children of eight months, may be a precursor to this.”
Isabelle Laumer of the Max Plank Institute of Animal Behaviour, the lead author of the study as I understand it.
Intelligence and testing boundaries
The ability and the desire for juvenile chimpanzees to mess around with their adult relatives and tease them by, for example, pulling their hair or getting in the way or generally being annoying, seems to me to be partly about demanding attention and it demonstrates a clear intelligence.
It demonstrates, the researchers say, that these apes are testing social boundaries and in doing so they need to be cognisant of social boundaries.
Well-mannered adults
The teasing, as inferred above, was one-sided and was difficult for the adults to ignore although sometimes they did. And it is noticeable that in almost every instance, the adult ape kept calm and well mannered.
During a total of 75 acts of annoying teasing of various kinds including poking, hitting, body slams and pulling and swinging only I in 20 adults became aggressive. Eventually the juvenile apes got attention.
The researchers found that the juvenile apes teased in similar ways.
“It was poking, hitting, hindering movement. For orangutans, hair pulling was more common. Probably it’s more fun to pull on long hair.”
Laumer
They found that often the adults would pretend it wasn’t happening.
“We found that they mostly ignored the behaviour as a first strategy. The teaser would look at the target. If the target was not reacting, they did something else. Maybe a hair-pull, a poke, jumping, or pulling on the leg.”
Laumer
Attention seeking?
Does this look like juveniles demanding attention of their parents to test at which point their behaviour was unacceptable? It does to me. This is certainly teasing and playing but I would add a further layer of behaviour here which is that it is attention seeking which is probably why the adults refused to pay attention most of the time! They didn’t want to promote or foster what they regarded as irritating juvenile behaviour.
The researchers did not mention this aspect of the behaviour or it is not mentioned in The Times newspaper’s report which is the source of this article. Thank you.
Putting themselves into the minds of others
The researchers also added that this kind of juvenile behaviour requires the ability to put yourself in the minds of the adult. They are trying to rile the adult apes and therefore they need to be cognisant of what in their mind; how they are feeling.
They concluded that there must be a reason for this kind of juvenile ape behaviour and I mentioned above that it is about the testing of social boundaries according to the researchers.
Study details for those who are interested:
Spontaneous playful teasing in four great ape species – Researchers: I. B. Laumer, S. L. Winkler, F. Rossano and E. A. Cartmill – Published:14 February 2024 – Link: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2345
