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Simple Summary: Chimpanzees Tatu and Loulis use signs of American Sign Language. This study presents sign use over 8 years while living at the sanctuary of the Fauna Foundation. They used a majority of the signs in their base vocabulary each year in a variety of communicative functions. Adult chimpanzees Tatu and Loulis lived at the Fauna Foundation sanctuary. They had acquired signs of American Sign Language (ASL) while young and continued to use them as adults. Caregivers with proficiency in ASL maintained daily sign language records during interactions and passive observation. Sign checklists were records of daily vocabulary use. Sign logs were records of signed interactions with caregivers and other chimpanzees. This study reports sign use from eight years of these records. Tatu and Loulis used a majority of their base vocabularies consistently over the study period. They used signs that they had acquired decades earlier and new signs. Their utterances served a variety of communicative functions, including responses, conversational devices, requests, and descriptions. They signed to caregivers, other chimpanzees, including those who did not use signs, and to themselves privately. This indicates the importance of a stimulating and interactive environment to understand the scope of ape communication and, in particular, their use of sign language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions serve to initiate and continue conversation as well as to gain information and introduce new topics. In signed languages a question can be signaled by modifying the content of an utterance or by coordinating the use of nonmanual markers (e.g., the questioning look) and manual modulation (e.g., holding the sign for an extended duration). Cross-fostered chimpanzees, who use signs of American Sign Language (ASL), have demonstrated behaviors that appear in human conversation, including question-answer exchanges. The current study describes the production of questions by signing chimpanzees in a conversational context and offers a methodology for quantifying the relationship between nonmanual markers and manual modulation involved in interrogative utterances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Compassion fatigue is when those in helping professions experience burnout and secondary traumatic stress in excess of the compassion satisfaction derived in interactions inherent to their occupation. It appears in medical professions and animal care workers and other occupations. This study was a preliminary assessment of the prevalence of compassion fatigue in chimpanzee caregivers using the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL-V) survey. Levels of compassion satisfaction were high but levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress were elevated indicating potential problems in this workforce. Compassion fatigue is associated with intention to leave the profession, poor mental health, and has a negative effect on the individuals receiving care. This article suggests ways to maintain compassion satisfaction and mitigate burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Compassion fatigue is defined as "traumatization of helpers through their efforts at helping others". It has negative effects on clinicians including reduced satisfaction with work, fatigue, irritability, dread of going to work, and lack of joy in life. It is correlated with patients' decreased satisfaction with care. Compassion fatigue occurs in a variety of helping professions including educators, social workers, mental health clinicians, and it also appears in nonhuman animal care workers. This study surveyed caregivers of chimpanzees using the ProQOL-V to assess the prevalence of compassion fatigue among this group. Compassion satisfaction is higher than many other types of animal care workers. Conversely, this group shows moderate levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress; higher levels than other types of animal care workers and many medical professions. While compassion fatigue has an effect on the caregiver's experience, it has potential to affect animal welfare. Caregivers are an integral part of the chimpanzee social network. Compassion fatigue affects the caregiver's attitude, this could in turn affect the relationship and degrade the experience of care for captive chimpanzees. Compassion fatigue can be mitigated with professional development, mindfulness training, interrelationships among staff, and specialized training. This preliminary assessment indicates the work ahead is educating caregivers about compassion fatigue and implementing procedures in sanctuaries to mitigate burnout and secondary traumatic stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pretend play is well studied in human children and is thought to be associated with symbolic thought and theory of mind. There are many descriptions of pretend play in chimpanzees and other apes but few systematic studies. This study was a systematic sampling of videotapes for instances of pretend play in chimpanzees who have acquired American Sign Language. There were two sampling methods. The first sample of 17 hours 36 minutes and 26 seconds of videotape contained five instances of pretend play. The second sample of 50 hours 16 minutes and 41 seconds contained 16 instances. The instances fell into four different categories; substitution, attribution of function, animation, and insubstantial situation attribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memorializes Robert Allen Gardner (1930-2021). Gardner and his late wife and research partner, Beatrix “Trixie” Gardner, are best known for their ground-breaking cross-fostering project with the chimpanzee Washoe, the first nonhuman to learn a human language (American Sign Language). Between 1972 and 198, Allen and Trixie replicated their success with four additional infant chimpanzees. Allen cofounded and was a psychology fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Nevada in Reno, and served as director from 1990 to 1993. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech act theory describes units of language as acts which function to change the behavior or beliefs of the partner. Therefore, with every utterance an individual seeks a communicative goal that is the underlying motive for the utterance's production; this is the utterance's function. Studies of deaf and hearing human children classify utterances into categories of communicative function. This study classified signing chimpanzees' utterances into the categories used in human studies. The chimpanzees utilized all seven categories of communicative functions and used them in ways that resembled human children. The chimpanzees' utterances functioned to answer questions, request objects and actions, describe objects and events, make statements about internal states, accomplish tasks such as initiating games, protest interlocutor behavior, and as conversational devices to maintain and initiate conversation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversational interactions depend on partners making contingent responses. This experiment examined the responses of five chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Washoe, Moja, Tatu, Dar and Loulis, to four conversational conditions. Following the chimpanzee’s request, a human interlocutor either: (1) complied with the request, (2) provided an unrequested item or activity, (3) refused to comply or (4) did not respond to the request. The chimpanzees’ responses were contingent on the conversational input of the interlocutor. When their requests were satisfied, the chimpanzees most often ceased signing. However, when their requests were misunderstood, refused or not acknowledged, the chimpanzees repeated and revised. This pattern of responses is comparable to patterns of conversational responses in human children. Keywords: chimpanzees; American Sign Language; requests; pragmatics; conversation; gesture; communication; Pan troglodytes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between captive primates and their caregivers are critical ones and can affect animal welfare. This study tested the effect of caregivers using chimpanzee behaviors or not, in daily interactions with captive chimpanzees. In the Chimpanzee Behavior (CB) condition the caregiver presented chimpanzee behaviors. In the Human Behavior (HB) condition the caregiver avoided using chimpanzee behaviors. The chimpanzees had individual patterns of response and had significant differences in their responses to each condition. These data are compared to a similar study conducted at The Zoo Northwest Florida (ZNWF). Both groups of chimpanzees were sensitive and responsive to the differences in conditions. These data suggest ways to improve animal welfare. Keywords: chimpanzee behavior; animal welfare; species-specific behavior; husbandry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between captive primates and their caregivers are critical ones and can affect animal welfare. Friendly relationships can improve quality of life; adversely, agonistic relationships can decrease quality of life. Caregivers in and of themselves should not be stressful to their charges, instead the caregivers' behaviors and the nature of their interactions with captive primates is likely the basis for the stress. One method to promote positive relationships in the captive environment is for caregivers to employ species-specific behaviors in their interactions with their charges. This study tested the effect of caregivers' use of these behaviors with chimpanzees at The Zoo Northwest Florida in Gulf Breeze. The chimpanzee participants were three males. Data collection occurred during typical interactions between the human participants and the chimpanzees. Some days the caregiver presented chimpanzee behaviors and vocalizations (CB-Chimpanzee Behavior Condition) in the data collection interactions with the chimpanzees. On other days the caregiver presented human behaviors and used speech (HB-Human Behavior Condition) in the interactions with the chimpanzees. The interactions were videotaped. Data coders recorded the behavioral contexts for each chimpanzee as they occurred on the videotape and the time that each context began. Overall they engaged in significantly more friendly behaviors such as play in CB than in HB. They were significantly less interactive in HB than CB. Caregivers should understand and employ species-specific interactions with chimpanzees to promote friendly interactions and animal welfare. Zoo Biol 27:345-359, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports describing the implementation of innovative facility designs are important to both the primate caregiving community and policymakers reviewing current U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations. This study documents the changes in behavior of 5 adult chimpanzees that coincided with transfer from the Psychology Building Facility to the large and complex chimpanzee enclosure within the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) in Ellensburg, Washington. In 1993, the chimpanzees were relocated from a small facility with a 27.87-m[sup 2] indoor suite of enclosures to a new 587-m[sup 2] indoor and outdoor facility. The 1st study compares the activity budgets of the chimpanzees before and after the transfer. The 2nd study compares patterns of locomotion at the 2 facilities. The 3rd study examines the chimpanzees' patterns of use of the features at the new facility. The chimpanzees traveled more and exhibited more species-typical behaviors at the CHCI, including climbing and leaping. The pattern of locomotion and postures at the CHCI was similar to the pattern of locomotion and postures observed in free-ranging chimpanzee populations. The chimpanzees used all structures and all areas in the facility, especially elevated structures and the outdoor enclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]