Description of a chimpanzee’s mental world based on a picture, by Linda Evans.
The chimpanzee in the picture
Is looking for food. Is hungry. Is very hungry, hasn’t eaten anything for quite some time, yet he has drunk. He knows where to go to find food: to a bunch of trees where he can pick fruit and where other chimpanzees are as well.
Has pain in his chest on the right (at the height of the lung) and this is impeding climbing and moving in the trees. He is quickly out of breath, he constantly has to rest for a while and he has difficulty swinging from branch to branch. The other chimps are taking the food from under his nose. That’s why he hasn’t eaten for quite some time and he is half-starved.
It’s everyone for himself, the monkeys are each providing their own food. If a monkey hasn’t eaten for a good length of time, he won’t get anything from the others either, he has to manage on his own.
He is thinking of maggots he could eat, and which he rather likes, and he knows where to find them. But then he would have to walk for a good while and he is dreading that. He’s tired and he’s in pain and because of the pain he can’t move forward very quickly. He is thinking whether he should head for the trees or the maggots.
His back is aching, but that’s due to walking. He has been looking for food, he has covered a great distance, but he hasn’t been successful.
He feels lonely, isn’t happy, is sad. He feels somewhat abandoned, somewhat cast out, no one cares for him. He is somewhat pushed aside by the other monkeys, he is not allowed to come too close by. At night he returns to the group of chimpanzees he belongs to, but then he has no contact with the others. He sits by himself at some distance from the group. He is somewhat excluded.
The monkeys flock together as this offers a better protection against predators. Predators are not likely to attack a colony of apes.
Sometimes he hasn’t eaten anything when he joins the group at night and he has to go to sleep hungrily.
Sometimes when he’s in the group, there’s a female that comes up to him and plays with him. Sometimes several females. That makes him very happy. If he wants to make contact with a monkey from the group, and approaches someone, they don’t want him and they walk out on him. In fact he doesn’t know why. Sometimes there’s a female sleeping around him on the floor, and then he’s very happy, then he doesn’t feel so alone, even when he’s hungry. The males never approach him, they keep at a distance.
When his mother was still alive he was protected and there was always food. Then he was always in a group of females with their young and he was accepted in the group. The young used to play together and used to make fun together (e.g. running behind one another, climbing in trees). His mother used to lead the way for him in gathering food (picking fruit from the trees), and he used to follow her and he could pick his own fruit. He was protected against the others who would have pushed him away if his mother hadn’t been there (because they wanted the food for themselves, in a monkey colony the law of the jungle appears to be in force, the one who is stronger or dominant due to his personality or who has a higher rank, takes away the food from the weaker monkey or who is more submissive, or has a lower rank).
Now the other monkeys just take the food away from under his nose and he has to helplessly watch the others grabbing all the food with nothing being left for him. Therefore he goes searching for food on his own, but he’s not always successful.
He is too weak to stand up against the others, he lets them push him around very easily, he is unable to fight back. He doesn’t dare to do anything against another monkey grabbing the food from under his nose. He stands by resignedly and he is sad.
Sometimes small pieces of fruit that the others do not want are left, and then these are for him. Then he’s deliriously happy, then he has something to eat. And then he goes to sleep happily.
His life consists of looking for food, and for the rest he’s alone, except from some females who sometimes come and play with him and sleep around him at night, which makes him happy.
He feels small and inferior to the other monkeys. He doesn’t dare to stand up for himself. He’s very happy if he’s not cast off too much, and if has found some food during the day, and can sit in the group at night and is tolerated.
.