PLAYING WITH WATER

"PLAYING WITH WATER"
 
Complementing the article that Luiz Padulla has published on the site about the behavior of the chimpanzees of the sanctuary with water, we are going to add some other statements that show that chimpanzees behave similarly as human children. A few days ago, looking through a window in Guga's enclosure, I noticed that Claudia, Billy and Carolina got a long hose of almost 50 meters. Then I got to know that this hose was winded up out of the enclosure and that we it was used to wash the plataforms weekly, in the day of clean up in the enclosure. Somehow they managed to get the hose and pulled it inside the enclosure, plucking it from the tap.

When Guga saw the hose, he got inside the group and declared himself as the owner of it. After all, a dominant like him would do that. I asked him to give me the part that mates the tap, so that the water could circulate into it, and he did it. During 20 minutes, Guga and Emilio, Claudio and Billy, these last ones less intensively, played with the water until they get exhausted. Guga practically took a bath and only let the other play a little bit. When they insisted they threw some water at them to clear them off.

This reminds me when they were babies and I took them into the woods, to our small river. In this time of the year, that rains a lot, they practically dove in the great and powefull amount of water. I used to be afraid with the smallest ones, who could get hurt or be dragged by the river currents. But they knew how to play safely in the river. Everyone who lived that experience, which must had been unforgettable to them, today enjoy a great pleasure in playing with water. They have pools in their enclosures, but the playing with the hoses is irreplaceable.
 
Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
President, GAP Project International