Over 4 years after the start of data collection, our study showing qualitative variation in abnormal behavior in chimpanzees has finally been published in Animal Welfare (@UFAW_1926).

A short thread on what we found and why this matters 1/10

doi.org/10.7120/096272… With my co-authors Elisabeth Sterck, Frans de Waal, and @cwebb218, we explore how a group of captive chimpanzees varies in their expression of abnormal behavior (AB). AB, such as coprophagy (eating one’s feces, see GIF) is often seen as a sign of poor welfare. 2/10

New paper alert! 📣🐵

As part of a special issue in Behaviour on anecdotes, we describe how an immigrant chimpanzee female adopted a local female-specific tradition after introduction to a captive group. A thread 1/8

#chimpanzees #openaccess

brill.com/view/journals/… With my wonderful co-authors @ejcvanleeuwen, @cwebb218, and Frans de Waal, we provide the first report of this tradition, we dubbed the "crossed-arm walk" (see gif), which has been present in the chimpanzee group @burgerszoo for over 20 years. 2/8