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

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Maybe we too were perfectly peaceful before we started using walking sticks?

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Isn't it gorillas who also carry toolkits with them when they go off to invade termite mounds? They take along a big stick to punch holes in the mound and a smaller stick to extricate the termites.

We've made such a mess. If we'd never learned to smeldt, maybe we, too, could live uncluttered lives with only an assortment of sticks.

[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.

Wait a minute!

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

"Just imagine the civilisation they might have created if they'd got to the walking stick before us."

How do we know for sure that they didn't?

Maybe they foresaw all of this horrid potential future and just said, "No thanks."

[balirus.livejournal.com]

Call me pessimistic but sooner or later they would look like this:



Starts with a stick and then a sword, damned dirty apes!