Cute Baby Gorilla

Via

Name The Baby Gorilla Contest

The San Francisco Zoo is holding a contest to name a male baby western lowland gorilla. If you need inspiration, you can see pictures and a video of the gorilla here.
(Hat tip tip to the Panda’s Thumb)

Political Turmoil and the Gorillas of Virunga

National Geographic has an interesting story about how the arrest of a Congo warlord is putting the Gorillas at Virunga National Park:

After a 15-month-long absence, the rangers were able to return in November 2008 after the park’s director, Emmanuel de Merode, struck a deal directly with Nkunda to allow his rangers to resume their work.
It’s unclear how that arrangement–and the protection of the gorillas–will be affected by Nkunda’s arrest.
“We’re being swept around by [political] events right now, but the national park has made a very concerted effort to remain apolitical,” de Merode said Friday from the city of Goma, located outside Virunga.

Von Economo Neurons and Hominoids

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I would have more to say about primates, brain evolution, and life history. I still plan on exploring that in future posts, but wanted to mention this interesting item that deserves a post of its own.

Virunga National Park Website: Please Donate to Help Save The Gorillas

Virunga National Park has a website check it out. You can find also sorts of neat stuff – such as the video of the silverback below. Or this post about two baby, orphan, mountain gorillas. The park needs your help and to that end there are various categories and levels you cans choose if you would like to help the park. Just follow the link above.

Dian Fossey’s Gorillas Are Being Exhumed

According to National Geographic the remains of 72 Rwandan mountain gorillas are being exhumed for scientific study:

The Gorillas of Virunga: An Update on the Killings

I’m sure many of you remember the orgy of gorilla killing at Virunga National park in 2007. According to The BBC there have been some developments in the case.

Gorillas, the Missionary Position, and Oral Sex

To steal a line from my blog buddy Duane, I find this Science Daily article abnormally interesting. Fair warning, this post is probably not work or child safe.

Ileret Fossils and Primate Sperm Competition

From the Ileret article by Spoor et al:

The intraspecific variation of vault size in H. erectus, including KNM-ER 42700, is larger than in extant humans and chimpanzees, but smaller than in gorillas … This degree of variation may well imply that H. erectus showed marked sexual dimorphism, rather than the reduced levels that characterize the derived condition in H. sapiens …

Gorillas Discovered Using Tools

In a study to be published in the November issue of PLOS Biology scientist announce they have discovered gorillas using tools. It has been known for quite some time that chimps use tools but no one had ever witnessed gorillas using tools in the wild. What makes this study so important, though, isn’t the fact that gorillas were using tools. It’s how they used them that made the study so important.
From New Scientist:

They saw a female gorilla nicknamed Leah attempting to wade through a pool of water created by elephants. After quickly sinking waist deep, she got out of the water and picked up a metre-long stick, says Breuer. She then re-entered the water and repeatedly prodded the stick ahead of her as if to test for depth. She advanced about 10 metres before returning to her wailing infant on the edge of the pool.

“It was exactly how you or I might have tested the depth of the water,” Breuer told New Scientist, by satellite phone from a forest clearing in Nouabalé-Ndoki.

A second example was also captured on film, when Efi, a gorilla from another group, used a stick to lean on for support while she foraged for food with her free hand. She then used the same stick as a bridge to help her cross a patch of swampy ground, says Breuer.

*snip*

“Both cases seem related to the problems of locomotion in this swampy forest clearing,” says Breuer. This suggests that the tool use stems from an ecological need.

“Most great ape tool use is based around the retrieval of food,” notes Gillian Sebestyen-Forrester who studies gorilla communication at the University of Sussex, UK. But the “incredibly intuitive” behaviour of using a stick to test water depth is something quite different, she says.

“The gorillas have understood in some capacity that they can extend their sensory experience and find out more about their environment by physically extending their bodies with an inanimate object,” she says. “This suggests that the gorilla is capable of some mental calculation and abstract thought.“

Footprints of gorillas were found on branches in nearby clearings suggesting their use as bridges could be widespread, says Breuer.

From National Geographic News:

“The most fascinating thing about this observation is the similarity [to humans] with which the gorillas solve the problems in this particular habitat,” he said. “If you or me want to cross a swamp, we use the same solutions as gorillas.”

Like humans, the gorillas in the swampy clearing jump from one dry patch to another, walk over branches, swing from trees, and—as the observations and photographs now show—use tools.

Totally cool research!

Added Later: Abnormal Interests has a post on the gorillas as well.