Great Apes at the Zoo

Zoo Observation I visited X zoo on a warm, sunny day in October. All of the primates I observed in the zoo were confined to a specific area, although they were separated by species (Strier 1-2). The apes were enclosed in a habitat that attempted to mimic their natural environment behind a pane of glass. Although there was a fair amount of greenery, there was, overall, little privacy for the animals.

Although the younger animals appeared to be extremely active, the older Westland Lowland gorillas attempted to find what privacy they could in the simulated environment of the rainforest. To conduct my ethnographic analysis was somewhat difficult at first; although primates are diurnal rather than nocturnal, many of the larger animals looked sluggish and sleepy at first and did not interact much with one another (Strier 2).

Judging from the people around me, visitors are particularly fascinated by these apes because of their obvious similarities to human behaviors, underlining the close evolutionary history between humans and animals. Human beings are often said to have a strong anthropocentric interest in apes: because of the fact that they look like us and seem 'like us' there is greater interest in their behaviors (Strier 9). This is often encouraged by popular culture, which depicts apes in humanlike clothing and activities as humor.

Many of the toys for the apes present the habitats were like children's toys, including inner tubes, balls, and ropes. This reinforced the idea that apes are like children or more primitive versions of humans. Feeding time was clearly a main event in terms of the way the animals were presented as interesting characters to be observed. For the frugivorous (fruit-eating) apes, watching them eat bananas and other human food was particularly engaging for many watchers (Strier 15).

The socially interactive or gregarious temperament of most primates also makes them a great attraction as was the case of the white-handed gibbon. Many of these primates interacted with the zoo patrons, making faces at them or throwing objects in their direction. There was not an option to directly feed them as in some zoos and even when the public was relatively close to the animals there was a glass pane, a barrier, and several feet between the primates and the people.

This allowed for some amount of separation and distance. Phylogenetic characteristics refer to the assumed relationships between organisms based upon behaviors such as diet and mating practices. Although very different behaviors were observed amongst all of the animals, all of the species I observed exhibited affiliative gestures at times, including sharing food, grooming one another, playing and engaging in mock fighting. I did not observe any overtly aggressive behaviors in any of the primates although I know that such territorial behavior is certainly possible (Strier 9).

To me, many of their behaviors looked very human, but of course that is my biased perspective, projecting human characteristics onto the animals. The more gymnastic monkeys Golden Lion Tamarin monkeys were kept outside so visitors could watch them swinging from tree to tree. They were far more energetic. The monkeys seemed willing to play with and interact with their environment. They were also more aggressively tactile with one another and engaged in frequent self-grooming.

They seemed more habituated to their circumstances than some of the other apes, perhaps because the greater number of diversionary opportunities within their pen. Monkeys are characterized as energy maximizers in terms of their behavior (Strier 15). This means that they spend a great deal of time actively looking for food while energy minimizers carefully conserve their calories by moving around as little as possible (Strier 15). Naturally, the larger and more sluggish apes drew far less attention than the more energetic monkeys.

This further underlines the extent to which going to the primate house seemed to be entertainment for most of the onlookers, rather than educational. Little attention was paid to the blurbs of information to the side of the zoo's pens and there was a great deal of shouting and laughing as the visitors looked at the behaviors of the chimps. Primates' altruistic, sharing behaviors clearly had an important role in enabling these animals to survive for many years.

By sharing food and supporting one another, the band of primates as a whole is able to survive. Nurturing the babies of other apes which share the same DNA creates a supportive.