Apes love monkeying around

Apes love monkeying around

Apes like to tickle each other.

Humans often get a kick out of playing tricks on their friends and family, and it turns out we’re not the only ones. A new study has discovered that great apes like to tease each other too.

A team of researchers found this out by studying 75 hours of video footage from San Diego Zoo in the US and Leipzig Zoo in Germany. The scientists wanted to observe the behaviour of great apes, which include bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas. In the footage, the researchers noticed 142 examples of the animals teasing each other.

The different methods of teasing included poking; offering an object before snatching it away; and tickling each other. They also enjoyed pulling another ape’s hair to annoy them and even body-slamming them.

More than a fifth of the apes’ teasing techniques used the element of surprise: they would sneak up on each other from behind or while one was looking in another direction. If an ape didn’t get a response to the teasing, they would often decide to carry on being annoying until the other ape eventually reacted to their behaviour.

Although adults played tricks on each other, the teasing was most common among the apes aged three to five years old. The scientists realised that this behaviour was similar to human infants, who can start teasing when they’re only eight months old. Dr Isabelle Laumer, who worked on the study, told The Guardian newspaper, “When human infants tease their mother, they tend to look to their mother’s face for a reaction. We see that in these great apes too.”

Scientists need to do more work to learn why great apes are teasing each other. Researchers think the work could be helpful for other studies about emotions and humour in apes and in humans.

The Week Junior 2 March 2024