I’m not sure you’d even need to make a change as fundamental as altering the food supply to “warp” the conduct and social organisation of chimps. The act of observation changes the observed. Often when that particular statement crops up, the changes are metaphorical or inhabit the equally poetic realm of the subatomic. But when psychology is involved, and when the observed group or individual is aware that the observation is occurring, the behavioural changes can be dramatic.

We observe chimpanzees partly because they are so closely related to us… because they offer us insight into ourselves. So the very first question we need to ask ourselves is what effect would being obviously observed by a significantly advanced species have on us? I suspect that if a group of human beings found themselves in a situation analogous to the one into which we place the observed-chimps, we would witness the manifestation of all sorts of atypical behaviour.