Do chimps eat insects?
By Joseph Elliot
In the wild, 4 percent of a chimp’s diet is made up of insect protein! Here at the sanctuary, the chimps have an equal opportunity to forage and eat insects … but do they?
Termites. But not really.
The Peachtree Habitat has three man-made termite mounds installed. But we don’t bring in actual termites to live in them. While the chimps may enjoy that snack, the termites might enjoy destroying our structures. Instead, we fill the mounds with jams, jellies, nut butters, and other food items. These naturally attract insects, and the chimps get to enjoy a winger or multi-legged critter with their fruity smear as they use their tools to extract the treats.
The first recorded incident of chimpanzees using tools was by Jane Goodall around 60 years ago. She noted that the chimpanzees were taking small sticks, removing leaves and branches and then jamming the stick into an ant or termite mound and swiping the branch across their mouth to eat the tasty treat of juicy, protein-enriched insects.
Caregiver Annie recently finished creating the third termite mound, now located in North Habitat. Using a wire mesh frame with PVC tubes inserted, the mound was then covered in quick drying concrete and painted. The tubes are then prepped with a tasty smear. Once the pipe is filled it is easily screwed into place from the inside where only humans can access and the chimps can get a stick to collect their treat from the outside.
By learning from one another, the chimps know how to modify, and use sticks randomly from the habitat to fish for their treats. Fishing for treats is a foraging behavior which is highly encouraged and time consuming. It keeps the chimps mentally engaged and mimics natural foraging behavior. We can always count on one of the younger females to be the first at the mounds and one of the last to leave.
Flys, ants, and millipedes, oh my!
And what about the other interactions with insects? Jurita has dug into the clay earth to get at an ant hill for some tasty treats. Sophia has been seen aggressively grabbing a few flies in midair and popping them into her mouth. But after a few seconds she turned her head and spat them back out.
We’ve observed that Noel is afraid of millipedes, she even alarm calls when she sees them! Caregivers have to remove them from her sight before she will calm down. She has also been seen throwing items at the millipedes to get them to leave the enclosure.
Kareem’s entire group were acting peculiar one day and didn’t want to walk through a door they use on a regular basis. Once they finally left the area, caregivers went in and found a small slug was slowly inching it’s slimy way across the floor and was blocking their path.
No chocolate covered ants for me please
These chimps seem a lot less inclined to eat insects the way their wild cousins do. At least for now. They are still learning and growing and maybe one day they will decide that insects are yummy. We’ll just keep filling the termite mounds with jam, move the slugs and millipedes for them, and ensure they have all the plant-based protein sources they need to make up the deficit.
We’ve often been asked if the recent invasion of cicadas bothered the chimps. While cicadas were indeed in our area, they never once appeared in our little valley tucked between the mountains!