Refuge51

Gorillas in a Tryst - TIME



Leah was staring at George. A series of rapid, pulsating whimpers escaped her lips. She then drew near to George, who locked gazes with her, his face unreadable. His shoulders were relaxed, and when Leah was within his grasp he opened his right arm and embraced her. Leah lay on the ground and George looked into her eyes. He bent over to lie on her, while Leah wrapped her legs around George's waist...


A new study suggests that male monkeys trade favors with females for sex — and that the market price depends on availability

Is this a missing letter from the Penthouse Forum? The steamy section of a well-thumbed romance novel? Try neither: The scene is actually taken from the April 2007 issue of the Gorilla Gazette, a primatology journal. Leah and George aren't star-crossed lovers caught in mid-tryst. They're western gorillas in Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, observed by primatologists whose interest is far more scientific than it is prurient. There's reason to watch — Leah and George's moment in the Mbeli Bai forest clearing, captured on film by a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, is one of the only times gorillas have been seen mating face to face, rather than face to back. "It's an extremely rare behavior," says Thomas Breuer, the primatologist who photographed the pair through a telelens. "We haven't seen this in 13 years of observation. If you look at the photos it's a very nice piece of action."

I have, and it is. But what does the act mean? Is it a one-off, or the start of a gorilla sexual revolution? Breuer is hesitant to draw any conclusions, noting that scientists observe just a sliver of the life of wild gorillas, but he speculates that face-to-face mating (also known as "ventro-ventral copulation," for the Latinists out there) might engender a deeper relationship between the silverback male, George, and Leah, the female. After the mating was finished (roughly 2 mins., about par for the course for your average silverback), Breuer even observed George holding Leah's hand. Apparently, even the world's largest primates like the occasional cuddle. "Maybe there's a way the act forms a kind of bond between the silverback and the female," he says. "But we just don't know."

That might be unlikely — male gorillas, after all, are happily polyandrous, mating with multiple females in their group. (It's good to be the silverback.) But there might just be something special about Leah. Breuer had earlier observed Leah (named inexactly after Princess Leia of Star Wars) using a crude tool — another first — testing out the depth of a pond with a long stick, rather than simply diving in. The very humanness of her experimentation struck him. "That observation was so interesting," says Breuer. "Very often they find solutions to problems in the same way as you or I would."

Perhaps that's why we find such stories so fascinating. More than just our neighbors on the evolutionary tree, primates are our doubles in the animal world. We look into our eyes and we see ourselves, and even experienced scientists who've spent years observing them struggle to avoid falling into the trap of anthropomorphism. It would be nice to believe, on a Valentine's Day, that when George and Leah lock eyes, they know a little bit of what we might feel when we look upon our loved one. And perhaps they do. But they don't need to. The life of a wild gorilla, caught only in glimpses from a distance, has richness and mystery that is wholly sufficient to itself, and which we'll never fully know.

Teri B.

Awwwwww . . .

Where the heck is GMom? She'd have a lot to say on this.

Refuge51

I just emailed her

Refuge51

Teri, I posted two of these threads by accident. Can you delete the second one? Thanks..

Teri B.

I'll see to it.

Veronica

I saw this on the National Geographic page. It is incredible. This female ape may be instructing him. I wonder if he has behaved this way with any other female?

Refuge51

Probably has a lot of girlfriends but only one true love.

The_Heretic

"What's that gorilla signing to us?"

"Ahh, let me get my glasses on here, 'It's. Not. Easy. Being. A. Pimp.'"

__________________

John McCain: "He's in Iraq... with a few centuries to kill."

Refuge51

Where is G-mom? I hope she's okay.

gorillamom

The male usually favors one female, but has many different relationships. Each one has a different role in the male's life. At Woodland Park Zoo we have a female named Jumoke, nicknamed "Mohoe". She liked to make the babies, but didn't want to take them. She's not a bad mom, but would rather not care for a baby. She also is the dominamt female in the group. She ueses sex, playfulness, and determination to keep this status. She also is younger than the other female. That's how it was when I left the zoo, it may have changed and Amanda could be the dominant female, but I doubt it. Even when she was in Toranto she was not the dominant female. Now that makes me think about how much genetics play in the personality and roles in society (social groups for apes). I'm ok, just still sick with that cough. My temp got really high and I was out of it.

__________________

The Clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop
On what day or what hour.
Now is the only time we have,
So live it with a will,
Don't wait until tomorrow,
The hands may then be still.