Czech Chimps Are Having Zoom Meetings
After a year of working from home, you might be suffering from Zoom fatigue. That’s understandable. But some other primates in Europe are just getting started with virtual meetings.
The Guardian reports that Czech chimpanzees at two different zoos have been linked via Zoom by their human handlers. One group of chimps is at Safari Park Dvur Kralove. The other group is over 100 miles away at Zoo Brno. Both parks have been closed to visitors since December so the video “conferences” are giving the apes some form of interaction.
The chimpanzees are getting used to it. Gabriela Linhartova, ape keeper at Safari Park Dvur Kralove, says, “At the beginning they approached the screen with defensive or threatening gestures, there was interaction. It has since moved into the mode of ‘I am in the movies’ or ‘I am watching TV’. When they see some tense situations, it gets them up off the couch, like us when we watch a live sport event.” Some of the chimps have even taken to snacking while watching the screens.
If you’re tired of animals you work with every day, you can check in with the Czech chimps on the Safari Park Dvur Kralove website. Their Zoom calls run daily from 3:00 AM until 11:00 AM EDT until the end of March. The zookeepers will then decide whether to keep them going. After all, they don’t want the chimps to get burned out before the parks re-open.
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