I Heart Gorillas

[poliphilo]

There was a picture in the paper yesterday of a wild Gorilla wading through a stream. And the big news is that she was using a walking stick.

As the author of the accompanying article, Desmond Morris, said, what we are seeing here is the beginnings of "gorilla technology".

Does this mean that if gorillas are left alone (which they won't be) they will eventually (after several million years) get round to inventing the wheel, the toasting fork and the electric door chime?

Yes. Probably.

Gorillas are peaceable creatures. Vegetarian too. Just imagine the civilisation they might have created if they'd got to the walking stick before us.

Comments

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Of course, the irritating part is that they immediately assume that because they've never seen it before, it's a "new" behavior, when it could be just as likely that gorillas have been doing this for years and it's just the fact that no one has managed to catch them at it yet.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, yes.

And we've only been observing these gorillas for an incredibly short time. I don't believe they were known to science until the 1920s.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I remember when I was a kid there was a scary comicbook about the Green Gorilla. I'm not exactly sure, but I seem to remember him coming out of the green swamp. I spent years hiding under my covers every time I heard a strange noise because there was a swamp a few miles away...and of course there was GREEN matter on top of the water.