Habituated chimps
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Snorticus
Have any of the scientists we interact with seen the habituated chimps in real life?
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Snorticus
Chimp & See is a great project. So much curiosity about how you scientists do your work, I could ask questions all day long. I look forward to reading all the threads and thank you for doing an AMA here!
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MimiA
scientist, moderator
Hey @Snorticus - would be great if you start a new thread for each question 😄 thanks for your interest!!!
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Snorticus
in response to MimiA's comment.
Upps, will fix.
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northernlimitptv
scientist, moderator
I certainly have! I have been working with the Fongoli chimpanzees in Southeastern Senegal. They're not one of the Chimp&See sites, but they're one of the few habituated groups out there! Some interesting papers on the Fongoli chimpanzees include:
tool assisted hunting: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(07)00801-9
females hunt more than males (rare in the chimp world!): http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/4/140507
risk-sensitive foraging on baobab fruits: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.23221/abstractPosted
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MimiA
scientist, moderator
I have too - I did my field work with the Tai Chimpanzee Project, Ivory Coast (http://www.eva.mpg.de/primat/research-groups/chimpanzees/field-sites/tai-chimpanzee-project.html) trying to innovate some new methods for getting non-invasively collected DNA from chimps. I also visited Bwindi, Uganda as an ecotourist to see the habituated gorillas there:)
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maureenmccarthy
scientist, moderator
Jack and I studied some semi-habituated chimpanzee communities in Uganda (which basically means we could see them but we kept our distance most of the time, since they lived in close proximity to humans and were generally wary of people). We also visited a few other sites in Uganda where habituated chimpanzees are studied.
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Lesterj1972
scientist
I have worked with semi-habituated chimps in Uganda, collecting behavioral data as well as non-invasively collected fecal and urine samples for genetic endocrinological analyses. I have also worked over a year collecting non-invasively collected genetic samples in non-habituated communities also in Uganda for another project. Behavioral data collection in the semi-habituated community was very challenging as we were not able to get closer than 50 meters to them and they would spend long periods of time in the dense understory where we not see what the were doing or collect any data. Because we couldn't always see them, we also lost them often as they can travel so quietly. Though, when were able to collect behavioral data or when we found them after losing them for some time it was very rewarding and exciting. During the other project when we were collecting genetic samples from the non-habituated communities we rarely saw the chimps. Even times when we did know where they were we would stay at least a hundred meters away from them to avoid stressing them and hoping that if they stayed longer they might possibly produce more samples 😃
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akalan
scientist
I have also done my PhD data collection with the Tai Chimpanzee Project in Cote d'Ivoire with the habituated chimpanzees. It was a privilege to be able to spend the whole day with them and gain insight into their everyday life. I have then had the pleasure of actually seeing wild chimpanzees in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Republic of Congo.
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LirSam
scientist
I happen to be lucky enough to work both with east african (Uganda) and west african (Ivory Coast) chimpanzees. In Uganda I was conducting an habituation for a new community of chimpanzees at the Budongo forest, so got to experience the entire process from the first time we were able to locate the chimps (who of course ran away) until they slowly got used to our presence. In the Tai forest, Ivory Coast, I am currently working with 2 habituated communities, so get to observe all the social interactions, tool use behaviours and of course chimpanzees hunting and border patrolling which is the focus of my work
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Snorticus
in response to LirSam's comment.
Are the chimps habituated to only familiar humans or to humans in general? Do they respond to local human neighbors any differently? I'm curious as to whether habituation is at all problematic.
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LirSam
scientist
The habituated individuals can definitely distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar humans! And they do respond to unfamiliar humans with more caution, which is good. However, it is known that the process of habituation makes wild animals generally less weary about humans which do makes them more vulnerable. This is why animal's habituation is a long term commitment that researchers don't take lightly!!!
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maureenmccarthy
scientist, moderator
Where Jack and I worked in Uganda, the chimpanzees saw humans on a daily basis. Because they lived so near them and often fed on crops from their gardens (just adjacent to the edges of the forest patches), they knew very well which families would allow this and which would chase them away. They also seemed to distinguish between us / my field assistants and other people who lived nearby (i.e., after a while, for some communities, they seemed not to respond with surprise when they saw us in the forest).
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MimiA
scientist, moderator
Hi @Snorticus
They certainly recognize individual people and anecdotally react differently to researchers they know and poachers. But apes are often habituated in a general way as well, so that ecotourists and new researchers can also view them. Habituating a group of animals is a huge responsibility, if researchers leave and a group has lost its fear of people it can of course be problematic for their survival in many cases.
We also know that habituation is at first stressful for the animals (eg: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632071400072X) and animals are sometimes more likely to contract human diseases when they have been habituated (eg: http://www.berggorilla.org/en/gorillas/countries/articles-countries/respiratory-diseases-in-mountain-gorillas/ and https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13223-human-sniffles-kill-endangered-chimps/)
On the plus side we know that having a research or conservation presence somewhere has a dramatic effect on wildlife survival (eg: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/03/24/rsbl.2011.0155) and of course there is the amazing information we have now on chimpanzees thanks to these habituated groups!
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Snorticus
in response to LirSam's comment.
Experiencing the full process must have been so cool!
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