The life and works of the apefant

On a day last summer, when I was observing my baby chewing on things as usual, a thought struck me: Why don't I know more about apefants? When I spend so much time observing a baby, why don't I use some of that time to compare my human infant to his peers among our closest cousins, the chimpanzee, the bonobo, the gorilla and the orangutan? If I knew what my infant has in common with ape infants, then I could understand the evolutionary origins of baby behavior better. So I resolved to learn more about apefants. 

That was easier thought than done. Firstly, Google told me that the word "apefant" doesn't even exist in English. Apparently it means something like "joke" in Norwegian but otherwise the internet doesn't acknowledge the self-evident name of the young children of apes. Even when I gave in and searched for "ape infants" I didn't find much of use. I wanted a book for new mothers about the development of the child during the first year, but for ape mothers instead of for human mothers. No one seems to have written such a book. Maybe the fact that ape mothers do not actually read books affects the market negatively. So I gave up on the idea temporarily, waiting for a better opportunity. 

The opportunity came after I went to the ACX meet-up in Copenhagen in September and met mathematician and programmer Ana, who is married to pianist and composer Robin. As I got to know the couple, Robin mentioned that his brother, Andy, is a very dedicated zookeeper who works at the zoo in Borås (a rainy town in Western Sweden) and specializes in apes! 

Even Andy couldn't recommend any book about apefants because he didn't know about any. But he agreed to answer all my questions from his practical knowledge of apes. So although there is no book about apefants, now at least there is a small blog post about them. 

Observations of an ape worker

Andy works in the ape-house at Borås zoo. Thereby he observes apes all day long, five days a week. He has not observed that many different ape individuals since he has not been to many different zoos. But he has followed a number of apes over several years. That's the closest I can get to original ape research. 

Andy tells us the following:

When apefants are born they are not really ready for life. Just like human infants, they are very immature. They know very well how to do one thing: Grip tightly to mother's fur with hands and feet. For about two months, that is all they do. They ride on their mothers' bellies, nurse and do little else. In the night, the newborn apefants co-sleep with their mothers in beds the mothers make of branches. 

Apefants don't start moving by themselves before they are between six months and a year. They walk very badly during their first year, like if their arms were totally stiff. Only the legs move. Apefants don't crawl because that is not necessary with their halfway four-legged constitution: Apes don't tip over as easily as humans. Apefants start climbing at the age of one and a half years approximately, but that depends a lot on how brave they are. Some start much later. 

Adult chimpanzees almost never act clumsily. That is because they take really long to learn how the world reacts to them. They learn that if they move a certain way, a branch or a stone will move another way. Chimpanzees learn to jump from heights step by step. They start out by jumping from small heights and go bigger and bigger. An adult chimpanzee can jump from heights of six meters. All this is something they have to learn. They are not like cats who are agile just by instinct.

Apefants don't pick up things from the ground and put them in their mouths before they have teeth. When they get teeth, they tend to bite on things. They continue doing that for 5-6 years. Chimps like to break things and see what is inside and their children also do that. 

Apefants have a lot to learn. Especially orangutans, who have a life in solitude in front of them. They need to gather a huge amount of information during their first ten years in order to survive on their own. For chimpanzees, security is in the group. There will always be someone to ask. Orangutans need to memorize everything, because they will be on their own. Different apes are good at different things. Orangutans are great problem solvers, but very bad at communication. They can only tell each other things like "now I'm angry" and "now I'm not angry". Chimpanzees on the other hand are great at communicating and negotiating. So orangutanfants and chimpfants have partly different focus when they grow up.

Chimpanzee and gorilla children have white spots of fur on their behinds. There is a theory that such a sign might have evolved in order to signal that they don't know what they are doing. Chimpanzees need to learn the language of their species step by step. Before they learn, they tend to  behave in inappropriate ways occasionally. For example, they sometimes unwittingly signal that they threaten other individuals. Adult males tend to be gentle and patient with children of their group and overlook such childhood errors.

Apefants don't cry like human infants when they need something. They cry when they are afraid, like when a stranger comes, but they don't need to cry out loud when they are hungry, sleepy or bored like human infants, since they are in such close contact with the mother that she will see the apefant's need without any high vocalizations. Unlike human infants, apefants are never left by their mothers. 

That comparative study

So how do apefants compare to human infants? Andy pointed out that he can't compare apefants to human infants because he doesn't know the latter. But I do (n=5). I know that they don't know much as newborns. They don't smile when they look at you. Instead they smile when they are falling asleep. At two months of age, they get interested in toys. Not before, really. At four months of age, they learn to grab things with their hands. They use that ability to mouth everything they can find. At five to six months, babies start to crawl if they are lucky. Less lucky babies start at seven, eight or nine months or not at all before they learn to walk around the age of one year.

It is interesting that Andy mentioned the number two months as the time when newborns do nothing, because I say that too: At two months, babies get interested in observing things, like toys hanging from above. It is like apes and humans take the same time to "wake up" at the beginning of life.

If I compare Andy's information about apefants to my knowledge of humanfants, I would say that apefants are not as advanced as I thought. Previously I thought that apefants developed quicker than human infants. My preconception was that since being an ape is easier than being a human, apes can become apes faster than humans can become humans. Andy instead told us that being an ape is actually very difficult and apefants need to learn very much too, maybe as much as humans. Apefants don't learn to walk faster, they don't go around and explore things faster. Especially, they don't learn to climb faster. I guess most human parents remember with a tinge of horror how babies learn to climb before they can walk, around the age of nine months, and then become more and more efficient climbers before they understand where it is safe and appropriate to climb. At the same age their apefant colleagues, who were actually born to climb, only limp pitifully with stiff arms. It seems like apefants' dependence on their mothers prevent them from exploring the world as independently as human infants. 

One interesting feature is the newborn apefants' clinging to their mothers. Every time I have been expecting a new baby, I have been afraid I would drop the baby after it is born. Immediately when the baby was born, I completely stopped worrying. Babies simply don't want to be dropped and they show it. Newborns can't do many things, but somehow they do just the right things to stay with the person who carries them. They don't cling to clothes the way apefants cling to fur, but they arrange themselves in easy-to-carry postures. On that point human infants and apefants seem clearly related. Human infants also have a strong gripping reflex as newborns. If you give them a finger they will grab it with surprising strength.

I have tried to find information on apefants' mouthing behavior. Almost to no avail. In the scientific community, the interest seems close to non-existent. I think the way human babies obsessively take everything in their mouths is indeed intriguing (I wrote about it in my allergy post here), since it totally opposes adults' sense of hygiene. Andy's observation is that apefants actually bite more on things than they lick them. That is interesting, because human mouthing behavior seems rather independent of teeth. Babies start mouthing as soon as they start grabbing things and before that too (there is an invention called pacifier to meet that kind of demand). Also when babies start getting teeth by the age of six months, they don't aggressively bite on things in order to tear them apart, although they often chew and nibble a bit. I would have guessed human mouthing behavior was very old since it seems so illogical, but according to Andy's information apefants have a bit different ideas about why it is pleasant to take things into their mouths. 

Conclusion 

The conclusion of this blog post is: Apefants are not that competent after all. They are not obviously more instinctual than humans. They just have other things to learn in life.

The other conclusion is: Always go to your local ACX meet-up. You can make the most unexpected acquaintances.