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Apes in captivity seen swimming for the first time!

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  • 21-08-2013 7:51pm
    #1
    steddyeddy
    Registered Users Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭


    Link here! The previously held notion about apes was that they canno't swim. Apes are quite similar to us in that they have a culture. Based on that fact I don't think you can pigeon hole all apes into a set of behaviours. Some Eskimo tribes for example don't swim (It's too cold to learn) based on that example some alien zoologist might suggest that all humans canno't swim! Anyway enough ranting heres the article !



    Although wild chimps and orangutans will wade into streams, primatologists
    have never observed them swimming underwater in nature. However, two captive
    apes learned to swim, which may shed light on human evolution.


    A chimpanzee named Cooper started his aquatic adventures in the bathtub of
    his caretakers’ home in Malton, Missouri. Cooper eventually graduated to the
    shallow end of the backyard pool. A pair of guide ropes helped Cooper as he
    developed his abilities, until the chimp could do his own version of the
    breaststroke.


    In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, trainers taught Suryia the orangutan to swim
    in the pool at the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species. Suryia
    started with a life vest, but now opens his eyes and grasps objects underwater
    without any assistance. Suryia now can swim approximately 12 meters (40 feet)
    across the pool.


    SEE ALSO: 10 Critters With Criminal Instincts


    A paper in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology documented
    Suryia and Cooper’s aquatic achievements. The researchers noted that Cooper and
    Suryia’s abilities cast doubt on two hypotheses about why apes don’t swim in the
    wild. One belief held that apes lacked buoyancy, due to their fat-to-muscle
    ratio, and would sink. The other hypothesis was that apes lacked the ability to
    control their breathing enough to avoid inhaling water while swimming
    submerged.


    Most primates don’t enjoy pool parties, and in the wild, only a few primates
    swim regularly. Proboscis monkeys take the primate watersports gold medal.
    Proboscis monkeys can swim approximately 20 m (65.6 ft) underwater and can cross
    rivers. Humans, though, are the most aquatic of the apes.


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