Dear Jon,
I hope you are feeling a bit better. Have you seen the footage on Sky News of Ambam, the gorilla who walks upright? Apparently he learnt this behaviour from his father Bitam. They are kept at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, Kent.
If this behaviour has been learnt from an older generation could it carry on until all future gorillas at this park start walking upright?
Anybody know if this could be the case?
Regards Davy C
And there is only one song we could possibly play now:
I would be interested in a long term analysis not only on few clips. How long and often is this gorilla really walking upright?
ReplyDeleteI'am sure he is a special one but bipedal walking/running is a known behaviour of gorillas. They surely rarely engage in bipedal positional behavior but they do. Bipedal running was observed over distances between 15 and 60 feet. Bipedal standing an runnning is a important behaviour in their chest-beating display. They also use it for transporting objects and for the search of food.
He didn't learn from his father, as I understand it, but lived as part of a human family for a year.
ReplyDeleteIs this phase one of Planet of the Apes? :-)
The Daily Mail has an article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351612/Ambam-takes-steps-global-fame-gorilla-walks-like-man.html