Zookeepers in two zoos in the Czech Republic have set up large screens in chimpanzee gates to let their bored chimpanzees interact with each other via video calls.
The FaceTime experiment was set up to stimulate the chimpanzees, who missed the interaction with visitors during the closing.
The screens were installed on March 11 in the empty lookout areas at Dvůr Králové Safari Park and Brno Zoo. A two-way video call between the screens has the ape from both zoos to see each other for up to 8 hours a day, even though they were dumb.
So far, the chimpanzees seem to be using the new technology.
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“The campaign was a great success, and we could not be happier and prouder,” Michal Šťastný, a spokesman for Dvůr Králové Safari Park, told WordsSideKick. “Even other zoos have decided to take the concept and work with it.”
Intelligent animals
Zoos have the challenging task of keeping the most sociable and intelligent animals busy and fulfilled.
“Chimpanzees are very intelligent and therefore need a lot of stimuli to keep them active, agile and happy,” Šťastný said. “The key is to come up with new ways and kinds of enrichment every day to keep them busy.”
Normally, zookeepers are constantly finding new ways to entertain the chimpanzees and using different toys, food and equipment to challenge them. During the exclusion, however, zoo presses found it difficult to replicate the benefits of the chimpanzees by interacting with human (and non-human) visitors.
“Chimpanzees like to observe humans and also their dogs that are allowed in the zoo,” Šťastný said. “Sometimes they enjoy small games with visitors, such as chasing them, crying on them and other common chimpanzees.”
Unfortunately due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the safari park has been closed for months. “The zoo has been closed for almost 200 days,” Šťastný said. “This project shows people that the zoo does not sleep and that the animals need our daily care.”
Successful screen time
FaceTiming with other chimpanzees seems to have partially replaced the stimulation that the monkeys received through interaction with visitors.
“Anything new is very interesting to them,” Šťastný said. “Especially during the first days, the group will carefully inspect what is going on.”
The chimpanzees clearly knew they were using a video because they were constantly looking for what was behind the scenes, Šťastný said. But the chimpanzees also seem to understand that chimpanzees and containers on screen can see it too.
“Some of them would bring their own food to show off with other chimpanzees as with ordinary beginners,” Šťastný said. “The chimpanzees also like to look at the zoos in Brno doing their job.”
All six chimpanzees at Dvůr Králové were at one point engaged in the video call, but one young woman, known only as M, seemed to have more screen time than the older residents.
“Sometimes the chimpanzees seem so interested in the screen that they refuse to move from one casing to another when the guards have to clean it,” Šťastný said.
Although FaceTiming was a big hit in the zoos, the project is likely to end within the next two weeks, Š, astný said because they expect the chimpanzees to eventually get bored.
“The video streaming was a huge success, but over time, the chimpanzee’s attention is likely to fade,” Šťastný said. ‘That’s why the guards keep on [up] with new ways of enrichment every day. ‘
Originally published on Live Science.