The flaws of such experiments led evolutionary anthropologist Brian Hare to develop a more naturalistic, species-appropriate test for chimpanzees. That meant he had to think like a chimpanzee. What he devised was a clever situation in which a subordinate chimp could compete for food with a more dominant chimp.
In his experiments, Hare set up enclosures containing two chimps, one at either end. He placed food in the centre. Thanks to well placed barriers, sometimes both chimps could see the food; sometimes only one.
In one instance, Hare allowed a dominant and a subordinate chimp to watch as he put food in the middle. However, the food was obscured from the dominant one once it was placed down.
As is typical for chimpanzees in this sort of scenario, the subordinate all but ignored the food, leaving it for the dominant. Subordinate chimps know better than to take food from dominant group members, just as Dilly knew not to let Beethoven catch her eating that banana. Even though the dominant couldn’t see the food, it knew where it was.
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