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Apr 16, 2015 · Apes are famous for making comfy beds of branches and leaves; other primates, with the exception of lemurs and lorisids, don’t build such nests. And even those lemurs and lorisids...
- Natural Nest Building in Great Apes: Adults and Immatures
- Responses to Nesting Materials in Captive Great Apes
- The Role of Early Experience: Insights from Captivity
- Nesting Sites and Nest Locations
- Nests and Social Dynamics
- Sleeping Postures
- Nocturnal Activities
All normal, adult great apes living in a natural environment are likely to be skillful nest builders. However, young infants are not. Competent nest construction requires learned, complex behavioral sequences combined with sufficient strength to break and bend branches and twigs to form a platform that will safely accommodate a large-bodied ape. Re...
In a study of what captive chimpanzees did with nesting materials, Videan (2006a) described three nest-building techniques of increasing complexity: (1) arrange-and-tuck—individuals picked up handfuls of hay or browse and placed it around themselves, (2) outside-in—they took small amounts of hay from the outside edge and placed them on the inside e...
Complementing reports from the field, observations in captivity have clarified some aspects of the ontogeny of nesting in great apes. At least four factors appear to contribute to developing competence in nest building: an inborn tendency to manipulate and bring objects toward the body, increasing physical strength to break and twist sturdier or mo...
In nature
Where free-ranging, diurnal primates sleep at night is determined by multiple factors, including staying safe from nocturnal predators, proximity to the last and the next day’s projected first feeding sites, visibility of the surrounding countryside, shelter from inclement weather and wind sway, likelihood of disturbance by other animals, and exposure to late afternoon and early morning sun (see Anderson 1984, 1998; Fruth and Hohmann 1996; Hernandez-Aiguilar et al. 2013; Stewart and Pruetz 20...
In captivity
When given the choice, like their wild counterparts, captive great apes show preferences in where they sleep at night. Riss and Goodall (1976) studied a captive group of wild-born adolescent chimpanzees. Over a 3-month summer period, the apes’ locations were noted 15 min after the last one had apparently settled down for the night, again at 22.00 h and 24.00 h, and then again the following morning before they arose. This observation schedule spanned four consecutive phases: (1) three cages ea...
In nature
The number of nests at a sleeping site often but not always corresponds to the number of independent individuals traveling together during the day. Mountain gorilla groups were described as being more compact at night than during the day (Schaller 1963). However, given chimpanzees’ and bonobos’ fission–fusion social organization, these apes’ night-nest group sizes appear more variable (Goodall 1962; van Goodall Lawick 1968; Fruth and Hohmann 1994; Mulavwa et al. 2010). Orangutan nests are mos...
In captivity
In Riss and Goodall’s (1976) study of six adolescent chimpanzees, two or more chimpanzees usually slept together in one cage, often though not always in physical contact with each other. The authors attributed such co-sleeping to the absence of rejection by their mothers when they were juveniles. Riss and Goodall (1976) reported that time of retiring for the night was highly synchronized in the group: only 5 min elapsed between the first and last individual to settle down; this was also gener...
Due to the lack of good nighttime observations of wild apes in their nests, little is known about preferred sleeping postures, typical number of awakenings, responses to disturbances, etc. Great apes often move around in their nest (Goodall 1962), and they may sit up before finally settling down to sleep, for example to huddle together (juvenile or...
Although sleep is the main nighttime business, wakeful activities do not entirely cease. Video traps recorded nocturnal terrestrial activities in 18 of 22 chimpanzee field sites, particularly where human activity levels were low, daytime temperatures were high, and forest predominated (Tagg et al. 2018). Nocturnal arboreal activities also occur. Fo...
- James R. Anderson, Mabel Y. L. Ang, Louise C. Lock, Iris Weiche
- 2019
Jul 23, 2019 · All great apes sleep in nests and show sophisticated building techniques, using the differing way that sticks and twigs snap and bend to build comfy sleeping dens. Apes make a new nest every night, as they rarely sleep in the same place twice.
- Scott Dutfield
May 4, 2022 · Gorillas start nest building an hour before sunset, and get in bed by nightfall. They sleep a bit longer than humans – an average of 12 hours per night. But apparently, they can also sleep up to 17 hours a night, according to Uganda Safari Experts.
Apr 16, 2012 · When they are ready to snuggle up at the tops of trees, great apes make themselves cozy "nests" in which to rest for the night. New studies of these one-night nests reveal their incredible...
The past few decades have seen a burgeoning of scientific studies on great apes’ use of nests for sleeping in the wild, as well as their nesting behavior and sleep in captivity.
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Nesting Behavior*. Sleep*. Social Behavior. The past few decades have seen a burgeoning of scientific studies on great apes' use of nests for sleeping in the wild, as well as their nesting behavior and sleep in captivity.
