Zambia Chimp Juma Invents Rectal Grass Trend, Fools Science and Friends
Chimpanzee Juma at Zambia’s Chimfunshi Sanctuary launched a baffling trend: inserting stiff grass into his rectum, inspiring five fellow chimps and sparking the top trending questions “Why do chimps invent new behaviors?” and “What is chimpanzee culture?” Researchers, expecting grooming routines, instead documented this unprecedented “grass-in-rear” phenomenon, with scientist Jake Brooker admitting, “We couldn’t really think of a reason why they were doing this.”
While Julie’s old ear-grass fashion lingers, Juma’s rear-grass innovation quickly swept through Group 8—until most chimps lost interest, except for Juma, the undeterred rear-grass loyalist. Trending queries like “How do animals create traditions?” and “Can chimpanzees influence each other’s habits?” now spike, as the sanctuary’s rescued primates form a tight-knit, fashion-forward collective where rectal accessories briefly outshone even the boldest grooming rituals.
In just one year, researchers logged 168 occasions of grass-in-ear—yet only Juma remains steadfast in the rectal grass movement, leaving his friends bemused and scientists scrambling for explanations.
