IK! IK!
Gorilla
September 12, 2008
September 05, 2008
September 01, 2008
August 24, 2008
August 13, 2008
Pose like a chimpanzee...
A study has found that Michael Phelps' victory pose after winning the men's relay race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Monday is an instinctive trait of all primates, including gorillas.
The triumphant pose, arms thrust at the sky and chest puffed out at a defeated rival, has been performed by blind athletes, who could not have learned the move by watching others.
The scientists concluded the dance is the same for many, regardless of country of origin.
August 12, 2008
August 05, 2008
Secret Gorilla Paradise Found
Now that we've found them, I can only hope we will leave them alone.
A first ever ape census in northern Congo found 73,000 of the gorillas in that country's Ntokou-Pikounda region and 52,000 more in the Ndoki-Likouala area.
The Ndoki population includes an obscure group of nearly 6,000 gorillas living in close quarters in isolated swamps near Lac Télé.
"We knew there were apes there, we just had no idea how many," said WCS's Emma Stokes, one of the lead researchers in the two-year project.
The gorillas have thrived thanks to their remoteness from human settlements, food-rich habitats, and two decades of conservation efforts in one of the world's poorest countries, Stokes said.
July 29, 2008
February 15, 2008
Gorillas Mate Face to Face
Researchers say that few primates mate in a face-to-face position, known technically as ventro-ventral copulation; most primate species copulate in what's known as the dorso-ventral position, with both animals facing in the same direction. Besides humans, only bonobos have been known to frequently employ ventro-ventral mating positions. On a few occasions, mountain gorillas have been observed in ventro-ventral positions, but never photographed. Western gorillas in captivity have been known to mate face-to-face, but not in the wild, which makes this observation a noteworthy first.
