The San Diego Zoo used to have an orangutan named Ken Allen who was known for carrying out complex escape plans. In his open enclosure, he threw rocks and feces at people. He built a ladder out of fallen branches to test his weight on the rungs. The enclosure walls were smoothed after that.
The zoo tried to distract Ken. Ken enlisted them to help him distract the zookeepers. Ken tried to inch up the sides of the enclosure despite the fact that orangutans are believed to be extremely hydrophobic. Ken tried to hop out of the enclosure when he tried to test the wires on top of the wall.
These are not acts of sabotage or curiosity, rather, they are forms of active resistance to the conditions forced upon them by humans. In captivity, animal acts of resistance mirror those of humans: they ignore commands, slow down, refuse to work, break equipment, damage enclosures, fight, and flee. They are a struggle against exploitation.
The science and art of making decisions is what politics is all about. Politics is often thought of as the work of politicians and activists within the framework of national and local government, but really it is the work of the entire community. Politics is at work when two or more people agree or disagree. Politics plays out in a lot of different ways for humans. The choices we make affect others. It also includes things we make and design, our relationships with our partners and neighbors, and what we consume. Politics affects almost every aspect of our lives, even if we say that we don't want to. Almost everything gets done by the process. Politics is a kind of technology because it is the framework of communication and processing that governs everyday interaction.
Animals are good at acting politically.
Our decisionmaking processes must extend beyond our own human lives, to nonhuman animals, to the planet, and in the very near future to self-awareness and artificial intelligence. The idea of a more-than-human world is a way of thinking that fully acknowledges and engages with all living beings. There are many ways in which a more-than-human political system can be formed. We have a lot to learn from the way animals act politically among themselves.
Ken Allen is an example of an animal doing politics, but it's important for animal social groups as well. All social animals practice some kind of consensus decision making around migration and feeding sites. Conflicts of interests between group members can be caused by this. Getting a group of people to agree on a restaurant is something most of us are familiar with. In the animal world, the answer to this problem is usually democratic process.
Red deer, who live in large herds and frequently stop to rest and ruminate, will leave a rest area once 60 percent of adults stand up. Female members of the herd indicate their preferred direction of travel by standing up, staring in one direction, and lying down. Complex decisionmaking behavior is displayed by birds. Scientists have learned that the decisions about when and where to fly are shared by everyone in the flock.
The honeybee is one of the most equal animals. All bees are descended from a single species of wasp that decided to go vegetarian 100 million years ago. Their longstanding commitment to social life is reflected in the beekeeper's proverb, which means "one bee is no bee."
The honeybees perform a dance called the "waggle dance." In 1944, Austrian ethologist Karl von Frisch described the waggle dance as a means by which forager bees share their location. One of Frisch's graduate students noticed a swarm of bees hanging from a tree. They were looking for a new place to live. He noticed that the bees were covered in soot and brick dust and that they were performing waggle dances. Lindauer realized that these weren't foragers.
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