OK, here's a story.
Jane Goodall, who is now about 65, has studied chimpanzees since she was about 25. She's my #1 hero since Jacques Cousteau died. She spends her time travelling now, to try to alert people to the fact that animals are disappearing at an alarming rate from wild places like Africa.
Jane wrote about how chimpanzees sort out dominance -- something like the pecking order that chickens use. There is a lot of threatening that goes on, and they try to keep the real bloodshed to a minimum.
One of the chimps she studied (start thinking politics here) was not the strongest or the brightest of the group, but he managed to climb to the top by the following strategy.
Because the chimps often used branches, dragged across the ground at a run, to threaten others, this chimp began to experiement. He found that he could use, to his advantage, an empty fuel can from Jane's camp, bumping along the ground, making a hell of a racket. Even better, two cans.
He won. He became the top chimp.
So threatening behavior? Not a problem. Happens all the time. Let's worry about real behavior.
And let's not leave empty cans about the camp.
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Topic: Did you play with Joe? (Read 1941 times)