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Brilio.net/en - Weve all been there. After a long and arduous day at work, we trudge back home, whip up something delicious to eat (or lets face it, call in a GoJek order) and aaah! There is nothing sweeter than that moment of satisfaction in taking the first well deserved bite of dinner. And its usually accompanied by and hearty sigh of happiness.
Turns out we arent the only species that show our appreciation for food with a little bit of happy music. Gorillas have now been recorded to hum a melody of to express their contentment. Its a fascinating discovery that was just recently confirmed behaviour in the wild. Food-related calls have been documented in certain species of primates, such as chimpanzees and bonobos, but until primatologist Eva Louef discovered the calls in the thick jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo, no evidence had been recorded prior.
Louef, who is part of the e Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany, spent several months recording the sounds of the gorillas and discovered two distinct sounds: one was a humming tone that was steady and low in frequency and sounds somewhat like that of our human sigh of contentment, but you know, coming from the underbelly of an 80kg wild animal. The creative geniuses even compose their own songs and tend to sing louder when they are consuming their favourite food. They dont sing the same song over and over, says Louef. It seems like they are composing their little food songs.
While every individual in the zoo sings for its supper, Louef found that in the wild it was generally only dominant silverback males that sang and hummed while eating. The activity might be a silverbacks way of informing the group that the mealtime is continuing and not to move on yet. Hes the one making the collective decisions for the group, Louef says. We think he uses this vocalization to inform the others OK, now were eating. Zanna Clay, a psychologist at the University of Birmingham in the UK, who has studied communication in bonobos says: In gorillas you get the dominant male producing the calls, because he has to keep hold of all the females in his group.
What this could also lead to is a greater understanding of the origins in human language, and how we developed. Especially as the topic of conversation is food, one of the most essential and fundamental conversations all species have to have.
(brl/tis)
