Chimps scratch out grooming requests.Pairs of adult males in a community of wild African chimps often communicate with gestures, indicating that they possess a basic knowledge of one another's wants and intentions, two researchers contend. Many scientists attribute the capacity to discern others' thoughts and feelings only to people. The chimp encounters proceed as follows: One animal makes an exaggerated scratching movement on part of his body, such as his forehead, in front of a comrade, who then grooms the indicated spot. Gesturing of this type frequently occurs during social grooming
In social animals and humans social grooming is a major social activity, and a means by which animals who live in proximity can bond and reinforce social structures, family links, and build , causing the provider to shift his activities to where the recipient scratched himself. Simone Pika pika (pī`kə), short-haired mammal related to rabbits and hares, also called mouse hare and rock rabbit. Pikas live above the timber line in the mountains of N Asia and W North America. of the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, and John Mitani of the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. in Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, city (1990 pop. 109,592), seat of Washtenaw co., S Mich., on the Huron River; inc. 1851. It is a research and educational center, with a large number of government and industrial research and development firms, many in high-technology fields such as spent several months in Uganda observing male chimps' grooming Combining, consolidating and segregating network traffic using devices such as digital cross-connects, add/drop multiplexers and SONET switches. Grooming is a telephone term that typically refers to managing high-capacity lines between central offices, carriers, ISPs and very large behavior in a community of more than 140 animals. The scientists recorded 186 instances in which one chimp used scratching to request grooming of a particular spot on his body from another chimp. The animal that viewed the scratching display usually began to groom the indicated spot, even if he was already grooming another part of the gesturing chimp. Pairs of high-ranking male chimps were most likely to use and respond to exaggerated scratches as grooming requests, highlighting the importance of the symbolic gestures, Pika and Mitani report in the March 21 Current Biology.--B. B. |
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