Watering Hole Etiquette

Perhaps the most famous of Abyssinian elephants was “Jumbo.” Captured by Arab traders in 1861, and after trading hands several times, he wound up in England, before he was purchased by P.T. Barnum, resulting in a great public outcry in Victorian England. Eventually, he was moved to the U.S. He died in 1885 after being hit by a train. – Photo from “Poor Dear Jumbo”: Elephants, Empire and Empathy in Victorian Britain – Describing actions of the Victorian public after the popular elephant was first sold... “To ease Jumbo’s pain, zoo visitors regaled the elephant with copious cakes and pastries, either delivering these treats in person or sending them in the post. ‘Some nurses at a London hospital’ sent Jumbo a ‘box containing sponge-cakes and gingerbread’. Another female – ‘one who rode on your back as a child’ – forwarded Jumbo a generous slice of her wedding cake, a delicacy with symbolic resonance, since Jumbo himself was about to be separated from his ‘little wife’, the female elephant Alice. ‘May you enjoy my wedding cake’, read the accompanying letter, ‘and never have to part from your Alice’. Other Britons demonstrated their solidarity with Jumbo in even more bizarre ways. A lady whose husband had recently died sent ‘a parcel of crape and widow’s weeds’ to Alice, ‘that she might mourn over her bereavement’. One man christened his son ‘Jumbo’ in the elephant’s honour, while another more practical individual sent Jumbo ‘a box 2 feet square, full of corrective pills’ to prevent nausea during his transatlantic voyage.”

Stand Aside for Elephants

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Animals of the Jungle Have Well-Recognized Etiquette Observed at Drinking Places

A moving picture firm has been taking some remarkable pictures at a watering-hole in Abyssinia of animals which come there from miles around to quench their thirst. It is the etiquette of the Jungle for the elephant to drink first. No matter how many animals are around the water-hole, they all stand aside for the greatest beast of all. Many of the animals come 40 or 50 miles for a drink, and there is a truce between even the most deadly enemies. After the elephant, comes the rhinoceros. Although most of the other animals observe the water-hole truce faithfully, two rhinos will fight over their precedence. 

The cinematograph operator obtained wonderful pictures of two of these huge animals going at it hammer and tongs. The fight only ended with one of the animals being killed. When the rhinoceros had finished, the giraffes drink their fill, followed by zebras. Zebras always travel is herds, and sometimes 40 or 50 will arrive at the water-hole at a time. According to the etiquette of the jungle, however, they only come in fourth for the drinking stakes. The first foul animals are mixed in order, but the rest get a drink just how and when they can. —Pearson’s Weekly, 1912

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette for the Birds?

Many people have often laughed at the curious etiquette noticeable in the behavior of bees toward their Queen. But the peafowl etiquette in introducing young chicks to their owner is at least as curious.

Birds of a Feather, Mind Their Manners Together

The Hen's Formal Introduction of Her Brood to the World

For bringing up their families peahens are a model to every other feathered fowl in existence. The nest is usually made of a quantity of dry sticks, and when fairly set, and on it, the difficulty is to find out where the hen is. (So beautifully does the ash gray plumage assimilate with the surroundings that it is often possible to tumble over the nest before recognizing it.) In this nest are laid from three to four, large, whitish eggs about the size of those laid by the common domestic goose.

When the chicks are hatched out, they are the most delightful little brown birds imaginable. The color is a rich deep brown, and they much resemble young pheasants both in size and in coloring. Many people have often laughed at the curious etiquette noticeable in the behavior of bees toward their Queen. But the peafowl etiquette in introducing young chicks to their owner is at least as curious. As soon as the chicks are able to walk the mother marshals them in a procession, and, leading herself, she stalks to the place where she and the others are generally fed. Having formally introduced her brood, she takes them back to the nest, and they are not seen any more for some weeks. The hen will come and be fed, but the chicks are supposed to remain in retreat until they are grown to the size of spring chickens, when they come out and join the rest of tho fowls and learn to feed for themselves.— Country Home, 1911

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette and Gorilla Tactics

We aren't talking “guerilla warfare” here, but gorilla “play-fair!"

To Learn Social Etiquette and to Settle Scores, Gorillas Play a Simple Children's Game of “Tag”

There may be no game simpler than tag. To play, you need nothing but a few friends and some energy. In fact, tag is so easy to play that it reaches other primate species: Gorillas like to play, too.

Marina Davila Ross and colleagues spent three years watching and filming gorilla colonies at Germany and Swiss zoos for a study now out in Biology Letters. They shot footage of 21 different young gorillas goofing around in a game that resembles human children playing tag.

Like human tag, one gorilla runs up to another and taps, hits, or outright punches the second. The hitter then usually runs away, attempting to avoid being hit back. Davila Ross and her colleagues also noticed that, like kids, the gorillas would reverse roles, so sometimes the first hitter would be the tagger, and vice versa. All African great apes appear to play tag, and younger apes play it much more often than their elders. Tree-dwelling orangutans likely also play a similar game, but not on the ground, according to Davila Ross in Discovery News.

"That was incredibly rude and your father and I will not tolerate poor manners around here any longer!"  Young gorillas need the opportunities to learn valuable social skills and gorilla “etiquette” which will stand them in good stead in their later lives. 

Gorillas games, like their analogues in human kids’ games, would seem to play a role in social development and learning to play nice with each other. Gorillas strike each other pretty hard during play, Davila Ross says, but they’re careful not to strike too hard.

The game is thought to prepare gorillas for conflicts that might arise over food or mates. “This kind of playful behaviour lets them test their group members and learn what the borders are,” she added. “How far you can go with an individual is important for social interactions later in life.”

Not all gorillas have an easy time learning the social skills they need to get along in a group. Case in point; Patrick... A 430-pound silverback male gorilla living in Dallas for 18 years, who made headlines in 2013. 'Sexist' gorilla being kicked out of Dallas Zoo," wrote the New York Daily News; "Male Dallas Zoo gorilla to get therapy for sexist attitude," claimed Reuters. But Patrick's not sexist, he just doesn't like the company of other gorillas. He's underscored his preference for solitude by nipping or biting the females. So Patrick was moved to the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina.  Hand-reared as an infant, the large silverback gorilla, was simply having a harder time than most in mastering the basics of "gorilla etiquette." 

Davila Ross argues that gorilla tag is even more revealing than that. Those who are lower on the social ladder tend to be the instigators of the game, trying to get a leg up or an ego boost from besting a gorilla with more social status. Thus, she argues, the gorillas are aware of social inequities, and the competition of playing tag teaches them how to deal with unfair situations by seizing a competitive advantage, like smacking your friend and then running away.

“It remains unknown to what extent unequal play itself gives animals a more competitive edge,” the scientists write. But while further research will attack that question, one thing is clear: Humans probably wouldn’t fare well in an inter-species game of tag, as we wouldn’t describe the force with which they strike one another as 'playful.’”

🦍Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia