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From: XRHAH@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV (Herbert A. Huston)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Animal planning
Message-ID: <5497@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: 30 May 91 14:07:23 GMT
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In article <17580002@hpfcdj.HP.COM>
sjk@hpfcdj.HP.COM (Steve Kommrusch) writes:

}I received some mail in reply to my query which described another occurance of
}planning in chimps.  This example does seem to show rather clearly
}non-instinctive non-immediate planning tendencies.  The author, however,
}could not site a reference; has anyone else heard of the following example:
}
}>I've heard about a chimp at a zoo that was awake when the keepers put
}>oranges (or some other fruit) in the pen (it was a large outdoor setup
}>that mimiced the natural habitat).  The chimp buried the oranges.  The
}>other chimps knew that they got oranges daily, and when they woke up, they
}>started looking for them.  The chimp that hid them pretended to look for
}>them.  Then, when they were asleep again, the chimp dug a couple up and
}>ate them.  I think I heard this in an Evolution and Human Behavior course,
}>but I cannot give you any references.  The deception involved is particularly
}>interesting.

This sounds like a slight mistelling of an incident that Frans de Waal
describes in _Chimpanzee Politics_.  It takes place at the large,
open-air chimpanzee compound at the Burgers Zoo in Arnhem.  De Waal and
a keeper carried in a crate of grapefruits, buried them inside the
compound, and carried out the empty crate.  The first and last parts
were done in full view of the chimps, who were still confined to their
sleeping cages.  When they were released, there was a frantic but
unsuccessful search for the buried fruit (it was findable, but not
easily findable).  Eventually they all gave up.  Well, not quite.  A few
hours later Dandy, an adolescent male, looked about and noticing that
none of the others were around, dashed over to the burial site, dug up
the fruit, and ate all of it.  His action was so fast that the photographer
was unable to capture it on film, having not left his equipment set up.
De Waal's conclusion was that Dandy had discovered the location of the
grapefruits on the earlier search but refrained from announcing it to the
others to get a much bigger share (like 100%).

_Chimpanzee Politics_ has been republished in paperback by Johns Hopkins
University Press.  I found it fascinating.

-- Herb Huston