HomeAnimals & Their WorldHabituation, Naming & Focal Sampling

🐾 Habituation, Naming & Focal Sampling

Adjust observer distance and habituation level to see how a wild chimpanzee troop's flight response changes, then run a live focal-sample ethogram on a named individual.

Animals & Their World3DModerate60 FPS💨 Air & Wind
habituation-and-focal-sampling-longitudinal-primate-fieldwork-lab ↗ Open standalone

A 3D forest clearing where a chimpanzee troop's tolerance of a human observer depends on cumulative habituation, and a live focal-sample ethogram tracks one identified individual's time budget exactly as field researchers have since Gombe in the 1960s.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Raising habituation shrinks the troop's flight distance; crossing that boundary flips the group from calm to vigilant to fleeing. Meanwhile the panel logs real elapsed seconds the focal subject spends feeding, resting, grooming, moving, or reacting to the observer.

🎮 How to Use

Move habituation and observer-distance sliders to see the troop's response threshold shift, pick a focal subject from the dropdown, toggle named vs numbered labels, and reset the ethogram timers to start a fresh observation session.

💡 Did You Know?

Jane Goodall's decision to name rather than number her subjects was controversial at the time — critics said it risked anthropomorphism — but it became standard practice once her records showed named individuals had distinct, trackable personalities and life histories.

⚙ Under the hood

Adjust observer distance and habituation level to see how a wild chimpanzee troop's flight response changes, then run a live focal-sample ethogram on a named individual.

chimpanzeebehaviorethogramwildlifeobservationhabituationThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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