A caring and connected young leader

The keepers at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo have observed the emergence of a new leader of the zoo’s chimpanzee community. Keeper Katie Hooker told me about the ‘good leader’ who has emerged after a leadership vacuum of three years.

In late 2019, Lubutu, the long-term leader of chimps at the zoo, sadly passed away. The keepers regarded Lubutu as a good leader, and as far as the keepers could tell, the chimps were happy to have Lubutu as their leader – the community functioned in an orderly manner and the occasional dispute between individuals was resolved promptly and harmoniously. ?

Following Lubutu’s passing, and maybe because they were big shoes to fill, there has been a leadership vacuum. (In chimpanzee communities, the leadership role is always filled by a male and the dominant male is called the alpha. In some other primate groups, such as ring-tailed lemurs, a female fills the leadership role.)

In the last six months, a young chimp, Sule, has emerged as the alpha. Before Sule came through the ranks, it looked like Samaki might have become alpha. Samaki is a physically imposing chimp and he was Lubutu’s second-in-charge – or in primatological terms, the beta male. As Lubutu’s beta he was ideally positioned to take the leadership mantle, and showed signs of doing so for a brief period: he groomed the other males to build relationships and the females bowed submissively to him. But not every adult male chimp is attracted to the alpha role and he let it pass.

Shikamoo was the next in line for the alpha role. It appeared though, that the main drive for Shikamoo to be leader was his mother, rather than Shikamoo himself. His mum, Sacha, pushed Shikamoo to lead patrols of their territory. In the wild, border patrols are vital for chimps to protect ?territory from neighbours encroaching on their turf and it’s one of the leader’s duties to lead the border patrol. In a zoo, a patrol means checking out the boundary of the exhibit. It could not have been a reassuring signal to the rest of the community to have mum pushing Shikamoo to undertake a patrol. Another key role of a leader – we are still talking chimps – is to resolve disputes between groups members. In pushing her son into the alpha role, Sacha would grab Shikamoo’s arm and lead him to a fight for him to intervene. But as the proverb says, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

Young Sule came through the ranks. Sule is Shikamoo’s younger brother, so presumably Sacha is? satisfied with the result that one of her sons has become alpha. The keepers have predicted for years that Sule might be the next alpha. One of Sule’s standout characteristics is the quality of the relationships he builds. This attribute might be due to his personality or it could be because of his upbringing. Sacha is not an attentive mother, so when Sule was an infant he was often left to his own devices. For example, a chimp mother is usually close-by in case she needs to scoop up her baby away from danger, such as when rampaging males sweep through an area smashing everything in their way. In the absence of Sacha, the protective role was filled by the other adult females watching out for Sule. All the adults seemed to like Sule and he developed quality relationships with the rest of the community.

He seems to be a caring leader. ?One of the females, Ceres, recently gave birth. Immediately Ceres gave birth, Sule took some food to her. He did this for every feed that day. He also spent the day following her around and grooming both Ceres and the baby. Being close to Ceres that day allowed him to chase off any individual that got too close to Ceres and her new infant – presumably to give her some ‘space’. ?

Sule is only 15.5 years of age, which is young for a chimp to be alpha. He has grown into the role quickly. The keepers identify a number of behaviours indicative of a ‘good leader’. He:?

·???Shares food with the females,

·???Plays with the infants,

·?? Plays the politics well, grooming the other two males who might become his rivals for the alpha position,

·??? In the morning, he’s the first one to emerge from the night den to check for any danger in the exhibit and beyond,

·? ? Leads the daily border patrol, and

·???? Intervenes in disputes to restore harmony in the community.

Like any first-time leader, he had to learn a few things. One thing he seems to have worked out is not to intervene too quickly nor too heavy-handed in a dispute. When he first took the leadership role, he intervened too quickly rather than give the rivals an opportunity to come to a resolution. And in those early months, he wielded discipline with a heavy hand. But now after a few months he holds off just a little before intervening and is firm and fair in disciplining. He seems to have found a happy balance where he can discipline while still maintaining quality relationships.

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