Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Planning for future events, or foresight, requires imagination that an event may or may not happen in a possible future. This ability to plan for contingencies was once thought to be a uniquely human capability, however we now know several animals have this ability as well, whether it be scrub-jays caching future meals or dolphins hording reward objects in their tanks to obtain extra rewards next time the trainer appeared. One male chimpanzee at the Furuvik Zoo in Gävle, Sweden began using his foresight for what appeared to be future “muscle flexing” to display his dominance by storing and throwing rocks at zoo visitors.

Keepers began to realize Santino was casually gathering stones from his enclosure in the morning after he and his troop were let out from their night enclosure. Carefully piling stones in strategic locations, once the zoo opened, Santino would hurl the stones in an aggressive display towards the visitors. Keepers began taking all of the stones before opening, Santino would hide the piles. Keepers took all loose stones and objects out of the enclosure, Santino began pulling plaster from the enclosure walls and hiding the piles.

Eventually Santino had to be kept indoors before he hurt someone and until something could be decided upon to quell his need to bomb spectators. Eventually it was decided it was in his best interest to neuter Santino so he could rejoin his troop and use the outdoor enclosure. He has since stopped his aggressive displays.

Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Santino_chimp.JPG

Osvath, M. (2009). Spontaneous planning for future stone throwing by a male chimpanzee. Current Biology, 19(5), R190-R191. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.01.010
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(09)00547-8
Osvath, M & Karvonen, E. (2012). Spontaneous Innovation for Future Deception in a Male Chimpanzee. PLoS ONE, 7(5), e36782. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036782
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036782
http://news.discovery.com/animals/zoo-animals/zoo-chimp-attacks-humans-120509.htm
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chimpanzee-plans-throws-stones-zoo
http://www.livescience.com/20388-stone-throwing-chimpanzee-deception.html

Additional Reading: http://www.livescience.com/20388-stone-throwing-chimpanzee-deception.html

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