Gorillas and humans use similar body language to communicate, reports the U.K. Daily Mail. Researchers at the University of Sussex studied a family of gorillas in a British animal park.
Psychologist Dr Gillian Sebestyen said: “We shared 23 million years of evolution with great apes and then diverged approximately six million years ago. Gorillas have highly complex forms of non-verbal communication. I think we are looking back at what sort of communications skills we may have once had.”
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She told Science Daily: “Apes, like humans, use a range of non-verbal communicative social skills such as facial expression, eye gaze and manual gestures, and tactile signals, such as grooming and huddling, which are used for social cohesion.”
The Daily Mail article is rather vague. I’d like to know more information about the types of body language that are similar. I’ll have to do more digging online…
2 responses so far ↓
1 val // Dec 20, 2008 at 9:29 am
hi, i’m such a big fan of your blog & animals of course. last week i got this at my email at work, i’m always moved even by a tiny glance in the eyes of all creatures, but this moved me in such a powerful way, absolutly we have a lot to learn from them…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf-HaF7ju5A
2 elizabeth // Jan 23, 2009 at 8:17 am
the Orangutans imprisoned at the Phoenix,Az. zoo relay the strongest most politically correct statement for human comprehension Ive ever witnessed.None of the adults will allow or will do themselves,the young(ranging from baby and up)to face the area which people can view them.So their backs are always turned to the public.This is a full time job for the adults as there are many young with enormous energy.The young are not allowed to do anything where their eyes or body are directed toward the onlookers.They climb their trees on one side only.Apparently our anti -social behavior is also similar.Is the assumption that if were ignored long enough we will vanish,or that they will be enabled to ?I have not gone back for years(5 or 6 at least )due to how disturbing it was.
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