New Scientist has a fascinating article on the roll sex plays in silverback gorilla social structures.
Female gorillas use sex as a tactic to thwart their rivals, new research suggests. Pregnant apes court their silverback male to stop other females conceiving.
“It seems to us that mating is another tactic that females use to compete with each other – in this case to gain favour with another male,” says Diane Doran-Sheehy, a primatologist at Stony Brook University in New York.
Here’s a monkey swinging around at Phuket, Thailand zoo. Normally you see them swing from more of a distance, or up close just briefly. This is a closer up view.
Babies born using the new technique would inherit most of their genetic material from their mother and father. But a tiny amount – mitochondrial DNA accounts for less than 1% of all the DNA in a human body – would come from the donor of the mDNA. This genetic material would be passed on to future generations.
The Denver Zoo is hand raising two orphaned emperor tamarin’s. Assorted pictures and video of these tiny (and I mean tiny) monkeys can be found here and here.
Charlie the gorilla is back in his pen at the Denver zoo after an escape. He was allegedly only escaped for a few minutes, but I’m sure the care takers were still nervous. These guys are strong.
