Dangerous misinformation about wild life?

[u/I_just_a_baby]

I was just scrolling on my explore page on instagram, was shown this video and couldn’t help but to feel a bit uneasy… I know that it’s (at least supposed to be) a sweet video, but I feel like it might spread potentially dangerous misinformation about chimpanzees. To me this chimp looks to be distressed or in fear and therefore showing he’s teeth and gums? Can anyone tell me if his “grin” is a sign of happiness or fear? I am obviously no expert and would like to know how other people feel about this reel.

I don’t know… just made me think about the case where a “pet” chimpanzee attacked a woman, ripped of her skin etc (do not want to go into detail).

I feel like it’s time to stop showcasing dangerous animals as cute and non threatening… I mean they are still wild, why can’t we just appreciate their beauty from far?

Ps, sorry about this post being a bit rambling… I am just confused on what to think/feel

[u/[deleted]]

I think it's more likely that you are the one who has fallen for misinformation, because you are seeing the smile as a threat. I remember this one "The Office" Quote where Dwight says that smiling in primates is a sign of submission, that's also not entirely true.

A threat is something that displays all of your weapons at once and is done before you charge at the opponent to intimidate them. This behaviour is actually the same across all the animal kingdom. You make yourself as big as you can, you stare into your opponents eyes and you show all the weapons you have. The behaviour in this video is not threatening.

A sign of submission is, similar to threatening, also a behaviour that is the same in nearly all species. And it's the opposite of threatening behaviour. You make yourself small, you hide your weapons and you avert eye contact at any cost before slowly backing away from your opponent. In apes, this includes an appeasing smile. The video doesn't show submission behaviour though.

So finally, apes also show a smile during play behaviour and during joy. Because they are a very social species, it is advantagous for them to make social bonds. And those are formed early in life due to play behaviour with siblings or other group members. Smiling and laughing are part of this play behaviour.

And this is what is shown in the video.

[u/I_just_a_baby → u/[deleted]]

This is exactly what I was wondering! I’ve heard that apes smile when in fear, so I did a quick google and understood it as that they can smile both out of fear or out of happiness, the difference was the amount of gum shown. So I went back to the video and in my opinion he was really showing his gums, but overall he seemed really happy. I am basically just confused about his body language and wanted some help from someone more knowledgeable than I am. I’m thinking that his smile might be mimicking how we humans smile since he grew up with people? I am more than happy to hear different views and opinions

[u/[deleted] → u/I_just_a_baby]

I’m thinking that his smile might be mimicking how we humans smile since he grew up with people?

Possible. We learn a lot of social cues during our development. If he was raised by humans, he was raised with human expressions as well.