This chapter examines four possible cases of pretending in rehabilitant orangutans. Only about a dozen other cases are known, so these cases are worth dissecting because they are so rare. Seven incidents have been reported for Chantek, an enculturated language-trained orangutan, spanning pretending to feed a toy animal at 1 year 8 months, deceptive self-pretense at 1 year 10 months (acting as if needing to urinate in order to stay in the bathroom) and pretend play at 4 years 10 months (clay man symbolic play) (Miles, Mitchell & Harper, 1996). Two incidents reported as deceptions may also qualify as pretending: a wild adult male lulled a competitor into dropping his vigilance by pretending to lose interest in combat; and an adolescent female rehabilitant fooled a human by pretending to lose interest in forbidden goods (Byrne & Whiten, 1990). Some imitative behavior in free-ranging rehabilitants resembles other-pretend, or pretending at behaviors observed in others, at representational levels (Blake, 2000; McCune & Agayoff, PIAC3). Examples are: nonfunctional tooth-brushing, and siphoning fuel from an empty fuel drum (Russon & Galdikas, 1993, 1995; Russon, 1996).

These new cases offer a chance to explore whether characteristics linked with human pretending, especially complex ones like metarepresentation, feature in great ape pretending. All four cases show complex social maneuvering, so they offer a rare window on complex social cognition in a species best known for its minimalist approach to sociality.