Playful primates break up fights, spin in circles, and bend branches for acrobatics

Chimpanzee moms break up fights It’s time to head back to school, and for kids, that means getting ready to resume their usual playground antics. Unfortunately, what starts as innocent roughhousing between peers can sometimes get a little too rough. When that happens, parents and other grown-ups occasionally step in to make sure nobody gets hurt. Humans aren’t the only great apes that break up fights among their children. Chimpanzee and bonobo mothers keep watch over the playing grounds of African forests. All it can take is a distress call from a screeching young chimpanzee to send a mother racing into action. “If anything serious is happening, like if someone is really aggressing their child or [the child is] afraid, they’re right there,” says Cat Hobaiter , a primatologist at the University of St. Andrews who studies chimpanzee communication in the wild. “I’ve seen a mom drop out of a