A Hair Plucking Journey

By Violet Bishop

It is pretty common for chimpanzees to exhibit a hair plucking behavior. This happens for a number of reasons, and many of them are similar to why humans do it! Because the chimps come to the sanctuary from research labs, some arrive with anxious behavior.

In humans, this condition is called trichotillomania. Both humans and chimpanzees do this behavior for many reasons. Hair plucking can sometimes be a self-soothing technique to help cope with stress. Arielle arrived at the sanctuary with this hair plucking behavior. The caregivers worked together to come up with a solution. Thanks to them, Arielle no longer hair plucks!

Meet Arielle

Arielle is the youngest female at the sanctuary. Previously she had only lived with other female chimps. Eventually, her group of ten females was introduced to males.

Arielle can be described as high-strung. When she first came in 2019, she did appear to hair pluck. She is known as a dramatic instigator in her female group. As a chimp who had never lived with males before, she would pluck her hair inconsistently as she adjusted to her surroundings. As a result, behavior coordinator Kate spent many hours observing Arielle and documenting her behavior. 

Hair Plucking Journey 

Just like humans, chimps come from many different backgrounds. By using their behavior as a guide, we can learn more about how to improve their enrichment and their environment. Kate uses a Behavior Observation Tool (BOT) to observe and record various abnormal behaviors. She eventually created a log of when Arielle would hair pluck, which allowed us to work towards solutions. Kate noticed that Arielle would mainly pluck her hair during breakfast. She would rarely do this during dinner, and in the afternoons, she is relaxed. 

What was it about breakfast that seemed to make Arielle pluck her hair?

There is a lot of excitement in the mornings. Caregivers are coming into the sanctuary, and the chimps are excited about their breakfast! A lot is going on at the beginning of the day. Because all the chimps in Arielle’s group get fed at the same time, all of the excitement seemed to make her pluck hair more than at other times. Kate tried a couple different things until she found a solution! 

Solutions and Success 

With any abnormal behavior, it is important to understand the cause. Although Kate was fairly sure the hair plucking was behavioral, she wanted to address all the possible medical concerns. Without looking into everything, an underlying medical condition might be missed. She worked with the veterinarian at the sanctuary and gave Arielle an antihistamine. This would rule out any kind of skin problem. However, the medication did not seem to affect her hair plucking.

Arielle’s skin had no damage in general. There were no rashes or skin abnormalities. This suggested that her hair plucking was behavioral and not a skin condition. The next step was figuring out how to ease any stress that led to Arielle’s hair plucking. 

Because Kate noticed Arielle would mostly pluck during breakfast, the caregivers began to scatter leafy greens around the enclosure before the main course. Now the chimps have a healthy snack! The excitement would die down before everyone was fed. This eventually led to Arielle stopping her hair plucking behavior. Her hair is currently in the process of growing back.

It is not unlikely that chimpanzees will hair pluck multiple times throughout their lives. They tend to use it as a coping mechanism. If Arielle starts to pluck her hair again, Kate and the other caregivers will come up with another solution.

You can help Arielle and the other chimps by making a donation or purchasing an item from our Amazon Wishlist!