Three adult males dominate the A group of chimps. Frodo is the current alpha, having deposed his father, the aging Robert, a year or so ago. Frodo is stocky but calm and a little solitary. He spends much of his time sitting alone, arms crossed and with his head resting on his knees, staring into space with an expression that is part pensive and part grouchy. When he plays, it is most often with Kofi. Robert, who is dark-skinned and has an elegant drooping mouth, is now retired; his place in the group assured by age (and sometimes, I think, a touch of senility). He spends a lot of time grooming, and although his pant-hoots are often the first sign of tensions building within the group, he no longer challenges others. The challenger is Patrick, who is younger and more slender than Frodo but more ambitious. He spends his days asserting himself against Frodo and some of the more senior females (especially Riet), and playing with his younger brothers Lome and Lobo.
Yesterday afternoon at about 4pm, we arrived at the observation tower to find Robert and Frodo sitting below us, engaged in a very tender moment of male-bonding. They faced one another, open-mouthed and shook their hands and heads at one another excitedly, while grunting and occasionally gripping each other's wrists playfully. Their hand movements were gesture-like, but didn't appear to have any purpose; so while their interaction rather resembled a conversation - or maybe a game of stone-paper-scissors - I don't think that it was. (Since it also lacked a clear turn-taking structure, I don't think it was proto-conversational either.) They were just playing, but in a very absorbed manner - and on several occasions when Dorien came over to try to join in their fun, they moved away from her, so as not to be interrupted.
This was the first time I'd seen adult chimpanzees engage in this fascinating sort of interaction before. But what was going on in the background made it even more remarkable.
Patrick had been watching Frodo and Robert with a sense of growing frustration, and after several minutes of being shut out of their game he could no longer control his rage. Standing upright and hair erect on a step about a metre behind them, he swayed from one foot to another and rocked his shoulders in a classic threat display. Then, when he could no longer control his frustrations, he ran past them, charging the air about a metre to the left of their huddle. Patrick was jealous of the bond forming between his rivals.
When Frodo and Robert ignored his first charge, Patrick charged again, striking out not only at the males, but also at the group of older women that had surrounded them. All hell broke loose, and to the screams of 15 agitated onlookers, Frodo chased Patrick to the top of one of the higher trees in the enclosure. There Patrick was met by a group of females who shielded him, while a furious Frodo swung violently on a rope several metres below, waiting for him to come down.
Several minutes later, with calm restored, Robert, Patrick and Frodo returned to the corner of the enclosure where Robert and Frodo had been grooming. Only now it was Patrick who went to sit next to Robert, and Frodo's turn to be angry. Patrick had set out to disrupt the bonding taking place between the two others, and had succeeded.
When he saw that Patrick had taken his place, Frodo paced the edge of the grooming-corner angrily. He then charged a wall and kicked it, before picking up a torn-off tree branch and swiping and hurling at no one in particular. A moment later Lobo, Patrick's younger brother, picked up the thrown stick and struck out at Frodo with it - suggesting that not only had Frodo's game been ended, but also that his authority had been undermined by his losing encounter. (Typically the younger males would not dare challenge a charged-up alpha; it would be a recipe for hurt.)
Ten minutes later, in an act of reconciliation, Patrick approached Frodo to groom him. For now at least the hierarchy was restored, and with it calm returned to the group. It will be interesting to watch this rivalry develop, though.
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