Learning in the Zoo: Cobby Taught Me!

Many years ago, in the mid 1980's, I was very tiny part of the start of a study on captive chimpanzees. This study was called Chimpanzoo and it was created under the auspices of Dr. Jane Goodall. It is still continued to this day, after beginning in 1984!

Chimpanzoo recruited(s) volunteers from amongst anthropology students and graduate students to go to their local zoos and observe the chimpanzees in those zoos, using methods similar to those used by Dr. Goodall in her studies of chimps in the wild. We, because I was one of those volunteers, took observations of what the chimps under study were doing, every minute. This was an attempt to quantify how the behaviour of captive chimps varied from that of wild chimps, amongst other things.

The zoo I went to was in San Francisco. In the mid 1980's the zoo did not have a modern chimpanzee enclosure, although the zoo did have a brand new Gorilla enclosure, which was amazing, and the smaller monkey enclosures at the zoo were pretty nice too.

The chimps, however, had the standard enclosure of the time, a concrete 'island' with a 'moat' to keep the chimps away from the crowds of humans watching them (or vice versa, to be honest). There was a toy or two, a hanging car tire to play on, a piece of dead tree, some carted in pieces of branch and leaves, and a shade area. It was standard for most of the zoos of the time. It was drab, it was depressing and I hated that the chimps were stuck in it. It was SO BORING.

Observing the chimps' behaviour was always interesting, and always educational. I quickly realized that chimps and humans are bunched together on a simple continuum of life and behaviour. It was obvious that we are almost the same, that it's gradations of difference, not huge canyons of difference, which separate us (ohh and that damned moat, that separated us too). For more on this, see Franz de Waal's recent book (2017), Are we Smart enough to know how Smart Animals Really Are?.

There were four chimps at the zoo: one male, named Cobby, and three females, Minnie, Tallulah, and Maggie. They all had different, interesting, personalities. Much of the time they were active, although often they seemed to be bored. Cobby did what all male apes do, he looked over, protected and took care of his females. He was very kind to them in his chimp way.

But, what was there for him to protect his female chimps from? Well, sometimes that crowd of human chimps, the ones standing on the other side of the moat and to the side of those little lady human chimps who sat on the bench behind the hedge of bushes, watching him and his women intently, with pencils and notebooks in their hands (in other words me and my fellow volunteers at Chimpanzoo). The human chimps in the crowd, not always but far too often for my liking, male and female, would hoot and holler, point and laugh and mock Cobby and his ladies. The male human chimps were especially mean and rude. They would march around, acting as they thought Cobby did, but not realizing the reasons he did it. They would hoot and huff, and scratch under their arm pits. They would raise their shoulders and make gestures with their hands. They would say things like, 'Stupid monkey… dumb-ass… ugly bastard…'.

The male humans' gestures and words made me angry. And the simpering of their wives and girlfriends, the laughter of their children, just made it worse. I'm pretty sure Cobby felt the same. Cobby would respond, because, you know, those human chimps were talking in his language, making his gestures and he knew what they meant. They were threatening him, mocking him. Some of those humans would throw little rocks or stones at him. This was against the zoo rules, but the humans still did it.

And Cobby would get angrier and angrier, rightfully so. He'd stomp around the island, making his own gestures and calls. He'd throw the rocks back at them. The male humans would laugh, their women would twitter and giggle, and the male humans would imitate Cobby even more.

After a while, maybe 5 or 10 minutes, it was too much for Cobby. He'd look around, pause and furtively squat, with his hands under himself. We Chimpanzoo observers would immediately duck down behind the hedge, with just our eyes showing above it so we could do our work. Cobby would glance at us. Was it in approval? I don't know. Unbeknownst to the male human chimps, Cobby was squatting to crap in his hand.

And so, there Cobby was with a handful of poo. The next hoot, the next mocking stomp, the next tossed rock, was met with a forcefully thrown handful of chimpanzee poo. He usually hit some of idiots in the crowd, and they'd stagger away, gagging, their female companions giggling and laughing at them. The current idiots would quickly disappear, but new idiots always seemed to show up soon enough, unfortunately.

Cobby threw his ladies' crap as well. If he could find something that he could throw, he'd throw it. But the best was when it was his own, personal, steaming, crap. It made me proud of him, in a weird way, proud to realize how he was trying to protect his 'people' in whatever way he could. And the humans' actions made me disgusted. Mocking animals shows how stupid we are at times, I think. Cobby, Maggie, Minnie and Tallulah taught me so much about the dignity, the worth, the intelligence of other animals.

I never forgot all that they taught me. Because of Cobby and the others, I am able to see my farm animals as individuals worthy of respect and love and attention. Because of them, I learned to see the whole world that way.

Cobby passed away about two years ago. He was 63, older than I am now. Thank you Cobby, thank you. I'm so glad your life was long, and full, and San Fran treated you well.

We are heartbroken to share the sad news of the passing of our beloved Cobby, 63-year-old male chimpanzee. Cobby, a gentle soul, brought a calming presence to our troop of seven and was a protective companion to Minnie and Maggie, who he lived with for 42 years. pic.twitter.com/WLFoJk9e1u

— San Francisco Zoo (@sfzoo) June 6, 2021

So, thanks for reading and here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!