Baboons ignoring visitors

[CrazyCatLady]

Has anyone seen this? For the fourth time at this zoo, all the baboons are sitting with their backs to visitors almost frozen to the ground. Lost their appetites and just acting very different to normal.
As far as I can tell, all were born in captivity. This behaviour hasn't been seen anywhere else except in this zoo!
Still no explanation for it. People throwing out ideas of a UFO or n earthquake. Some saying it's an unseen predator :-s

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384032/Baboons-Dutch-zoo-sitting-backs-turned-visitors.html

 

[Clueless Git]

Simian civil disobedience?

 

[Amy SF]

I think they murdered someone and are trying to cover it up.

 

[thefadedone]

Fascinating.

Maybe they got sick of being gawked at by visitors all day long.

 

[shyvas]

Good for them !

 

[Calliegirl]

Non-human primates are much smarter than we give them credit for.

Santino would collect piles of rocks before the zoo opened, and throw them at the visitors. He only did it during the part of the year that the zoo was open. It shows they can think about and plan for the future.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chimpanzee-plans-throws-stones-zoo

Later on he started to 'trick' visitors, acting friendly and when they got close, throw a rock at them. He also began hiding the rocks under piles of hay.
http://theweek.com/article/index/22...ned-to-trick-humans-and-pelt-them-with-stones