A recent study shows that playful teasing behaviors in chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans … [+]
Great apes – especially younger chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans – enjoy engaging in “teasing behaviors” directed at their elders, according to study was published last month in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Since we evolved from a common ancestor about 13 million years ago, humans and great apes share many behaviors, including the ability to laugh, engage in social object play, and display complex social understanding. These characteristics make them excellent candidates for studying how and why humor and teasing evolve in species other than ourselves.
The footage was taken of nine bonobos, four orangutans and four gorillas at the San Diego Zoo and … [+]
Combing through 75 hours of footage from the zoo, the scientists looked for indifferent behaviors directed from one animal to another. These actions, which the scientists refer to as “teasing behaviors,” often involved direct physical contact, manipulating the other animal’s body, or engaging in behaviors that dominated the other animal’s field of view through repetitive movements.
These differ from play in that they usually do not include clear signals of playfulness, such as reciprocity, a facial play, or other gestures that indicate the behavior is intended as a joke. Instead, these actions can be more ambiguous, leaving room for different interpretations by the receiving animal. The study found that only 26% of these behaviors developed into play.
What do we know now about teasing and great apes?
In the 75 hours of raw footage, there were 142 instances of “event” teasing. Sometimes, these events consisted of various teasing behaviors.
18 specific teasing behaviors were observed in baby great apes. These include body hitting, hiding, obstructing the activities and movements of others, playful and aggressive hitting, using objects in interactions, offering and withdrawing objects or body parts, poking, pulling body parts or hair, stealing objects, swinging around or with objects , tickling, tug of war and violation of personal space.
Pushing is the most common teasing behavior in all great apes, with the highest incidence seen in chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are also the most commonly recorded species that hit, which is the second most common behavior. Meanwhile, orangutans excel at pulling hair and swinging near or with objects, indicating the species’ preferences for teasing behaviors.
Old orangutans, with their flowing hair, can be fun targets for younger orangutans.
The findings suggest that while some teasing actions may be common to all great apes, others are more prevalent or preferred in certain species, possibly due to different social structures or communication styles. Through such interactions, young apes learn the limits of social norms, teasing each other in ways that reflect the unique social dynamics and physical characteristics of their species.
So how do elders respond?
Great apes respond to the teasing behavior of younger members in a variety of ways. Typically, they ignore teasing or engage in mild avoidance behavior such as ducking or moving away. Occasionally, they may respond with playful or relatable actions. When adults themselves tease youngsters, they may moderate their behavior, a process known as self-handicapping, to maintain a playful atmosphere and encourage youngsters to engage socially.
In teasing interactions between great apes, there is an asymmetry that often stems from size differences, as opposed to the more balanced exchanges seen in play. You can think of this as how human children can sometimes be considered “annoying” by adults. As teasing is considered a cognitive precursor to joking and humor, the presence of these “annoying” behaviors in great apes suggests that joking may be deeply rooted in our evolutionary history. These exchanges in great apes strengthen social bonds and teach the young the social rules in a way that is strikingly similar to human social learning.
