Par Ellen MEULMAN, post-doctorante de l'équipe FUNEVOL, UMR 7179 MECADEV - Mécanismes adaptatifs et Evolution et Shelly MASI , maîtresse de conférences de l'équipe Eco-ethology and cognitive ethology, UMR 7206 - Eco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie

The study of food-manipulation techniques may help us to identify subtle behavioral variation that currently remains unidentified with the traditional ethonographic approaches.  Preliminary results from frame by frame video analysis of 1 habituated group of wild western gorillas at Bai Hokou, Central African Republic, suggest that food features (e.g. size, shape, extraction requirements) affect individual food-manipulation strategies in gorillas. The preliminary results moreover suggest that wild gorillas show weaker hand preferences than their (non-writing) human counterparts living in the same habitat.

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