Young Chimp Learns How to Deal with a Snake, Animals with Cameras, BBC Earth
From her dramatic start in life, young orphan chimpanzee Kimbang has come a very long way. But before she is released into a family group, how will Kimbang recognise and respond to danger?
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00From her traumatic start in life,
00:03Kimbang has come a very long way.
00:10But before Mimi feels completely confident
00:12about releasing her into a family group,
00:15she wants to see if Kimbang can recognise and respond to danger.
00:22So we've come up with an experiment using a plastic predator.
00:31I've never seen her see a snake,
00:33so I hope that she doesn't get too close
00:36and that she lets us know that it's there.
00:39And we'll make a small noise like, ooh, ooh,
00:43so that we know that there's something,
00:45that she shouldn't go near. OK.
00:50I'm really excited.
00:52I've never seen a snake before,
00:54so I hope that she doesn't get too close
00:57and that she lets us know that it's there.
00:59I'm really excited to find out exactly how she reacts to this.
01:04Good girl, Kimbang.
01:06What's that? Good girl.
01:17Can you figure out what she's actually doing?
01:19She's stopped, so she must have seen it.
01:22Is she looking at it? Yeah, she definitely knows something's not quite right.
01:30Yeah, look, she's moved right round.
01:33She hasn't gone actually near the snake,
01:35she's just checking it from every angle.
01:40This response is entirely based on instinct.
01:44There's a lot of snakes in this forest,
01:46so if she'd just gone and grabbed it,
01:48then it would be really worrying.
01:52See, she's just touched both to see if it'll move.
01:55See, she's just touched both to see if it'll move.
01:58Yeah, yeah. Which is great.
02:00Kimbang adopts a defensive strategy.
02:04She's even using the bush to make herself look even bigger.
02:09Good girl.
02:12She's improvising, using every tool at her disposal.
02:18Oh, that's good, she's trying to hit it with the camera.
02:21That's great.
02:25But will she make an alarm call to announce the danger?
02:32Yes, that is brilliant.
02:36It's great that she's let us know that it's there.
02:39That is good.
02:41So I think we should make an alarm call so she knows we've seen it,
02:44and then she'll leave with us.
02:50It's the perfect response.
02:52One that could have saved her in a real-life snake encounter.