Daniel Munoz
Anthropology 101 Lab
Gilbert Ramos
“Some chimps are angry at mirrors, while others are calm” is the title of the first video. In the first
video we see the chimp is already frustrated. The chimp seems to be pounding the floor. More than likely
to intimidate the “other” chimp. He also bangs the mirror & stares at the “other” chimp. Moving onto the
second clip, another chimp is seen to be throwing dirt with his hands. A behaviour I assume was done to
intimidate his reflection. The third clip however is a bit more interesting. The chimp seems to be afraid.
Rather than choosing to fight, he chose “flight”. Running away from his reflection. It seems the trend in
many of these clips is either fight or flight. Overall it seems these chimps are unaware that the mirror
represents their reflections.
The video also showcases female chimp behaviour. It seems that their behaviours actually deviate
from that of the males. One female is apathetic to the presence of the reflection and shockingly one of the
females actually understands her reflection is not another chimp. Going as far to check herself in the
mirror.
The title of the next video is “Mother chimpanzee and her baby go to mirror training class in
which other chimps participate.” In watching this video I observed that females are in fact more relaxed
but do seem to be intrigued by their reflections. Their position relative to the mirror is pretty large.
Perhaps out of fear. I don’t feel this video adds much more insight as to what is already known. So let’s
move on to the next video.
In our final video that is titled. “Gabon: A silverback gorilla tries to drive away his reflection
from mirrors without looking (challenge)” We see a gorilla rather than a chimp this time. It seems the
gorilla demonstrates behavior similar to chimps. Its way of intimidating its reflection is slightly different
however. It seems to do more of the harder pound on the floor. Intuitively making sense since gorillas
have tremendous strength. It does attempt to attack its reflection but fails by whacking his head amongst
the mirror. The video displays much of the same behaviour all throughout. And that concludes our
analysis of all three videos!
Overall, it seems the males are pretty stupid in comparison to the females. Females seem to be
disinterested. While some other females seem to be intrigued but do not attack.
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