At CHCI we do a lot of research on human interactions with the
chimpanzees that live here. I have been thinking a lot about my own
behavior when I interact with Tatu, Loulis, and Dar. So, I thought I
would write about an interaction that Loulis and I just had.
It's very cold here in Ellensburg during the winter, and the chimpanzees spend a lot of their time indoors. As such, we try to provide many fun activities to keep them from developing too-bad a case of cabin fever. I was in the observation area when Loulis approached me for a game of chase. Since no other humans were around, I decided to get especially silly, and jumped up on the window ledge so that I could be up against the glass. Loulis seemed to think this was excellent, and started playfully knocking on the glass, and rubbing his knuckles up and down with a huge play face. I turned my back to him so that I could kick the glass with my bare feet. He responded in turn by turning his back and kicking the glass in the same place I was. I found it so interesting that he changed his posture to imitate my own that when he climbed down to play more chase, I did the same, and did my best to make it appear that I was running quadrupedally along the glass with him. When he back-hand-thumped the glass, I did the same, banging my wrist on the glass where he banged his wrist. This seemed to make him even more excited, and we ran along the glass together, banging our wrists and laughing for many minutes.
My wrist is a little sore now, but I've learned a valuable lesson about how adjusting my own behavior, as Loulis adjusted his, can make for a great interaction.
It's very cold here in Ellensburg during the winter, and the chimpanzees spend a lot of their time indoors. As such, we try to provide many fun activities to keep them from developing too-bad a case of cabin fever. I was in the observation area when Loulis approached me for a game of chase. Since no other humans were around, I decided to get especially silly, and jumped up on the window ledge so that I could be up against the glass. Loulis seemed to think this was excellent, and started playfully knocking on the glass, and rubbing his knuckles up and down with a huge play face. I turned my back to him so that I could kick the glass with my bare feet. He responded in turn by turning his back and kicking the glass in the same place I was. I found it so interesting that he changed his posture to imitate my own that when he climbed down to play more chase, I did the same, and did my best to make it appear that I was running quadrupedally along the glass with him. When he back-hand-thumped the glass, I did the same, banging my wrist on the glass where he banged his wrist. This seemed to make him even more excited, and we ran along the glass together, banging our wrists and laughing for many minutes.
My wrist is a little sore now, but I've learned a valuable lesson about how adjusting my own behavior, as Loulis adjusted his, can make for a great interaction.
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