REAL LIFE NEWS: GORILLAS SING WHILE THEY EAT
by Hazed
Do you hear the gorillas sing, singing a song of happy meals? (As the song from the musical Les Miserables almost goes.)
A new discovery shows that gorillas compose little songs which they sing while they are eating. It appears that the humming and singing is a way for the animals to express their contentment with the meal, and for the head of a family to let the other gorillas know it’s dinner time.
Primatologist Eva Luef from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany went to the Republic of Congo and watched two groups of wild western lowland gorillas. She discovered that the gorillas made two different sounds while they ate. One was a low frequency humming, and the other was a series of short notes at different pitches. You can listen to both sounds at the source link below.
“They don’t sing the same song over and over,” says Luef. “It seems like they are composing their little food songs.”
This is confirmed by the person who looks after the gorillas at Toronto Zoo, Canada. Ali Vella-Irving says humming and singing is a frequent part of mealtimes there. “Each gorilla has its own voice: you can really tell who’s singing,” she says. “And if it’s their favourite food, they sing louder.”
In the wild, it’s usually the dominant male that sings and hums while eating, suggesting that it’s a way to coordinate the mealtime for the group.
This discovery could help shed light on the way language evolved in early humans.
