It’s getting harder and harder to understand why we keep these beings incarcerated, though.
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Because if they started stealing our cars and bikes and driving around in/on them, it might be awhile before anyone noticed because they were better at it than us.
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Let alone playing sports…
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I confess, it’s been 20 years since I last went to a zoo. And yes, I get it’s about conservation. It still doesn’t keep me from feeling bad for the confined animals, even if they are being preserved. It’s cruel to lock up something that doesn’t understand why it’s being locked up.
I wish we could do a better job of confining the poachers so the animals can be free. Or the incentive to poach was gone. But as long as some asshat somewhere in the world is will to drop the cash to get ivory, skins, or other bits & pieces, it will be a problem.
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True. It’s not like she’s banging him against a rock to get him clean, or treating him like a mother hamster would and scarfing him up. I did keep the word “gently” and I do feel that gorillas feel love.
I’m just saying… that’s not kissing like a human mother would kiss her baby, which is what the OP implied was the similarity between this gorilla mother and a human mother.
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Well, I had a Million Dollar Idea that big game hunters could be sold on the idea of hunting ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ by going on safari to Africa and shooting poachers. Ah, I entertained a lot of dinner parties with that idea. And then, within 90 days of that idea, it was the plotline of an episode of The Blacklist.
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Hmm. This made me actually look it up. Good job!
In my brief dive into the history of kissing:
One of the most compelling hypotheses surrounding the emergence of kissing in humans (and kiss-like behavior in other species) is tied to the widespread practice of passing pre-chewed or regurgitated food from the mouth of one animal to another. Birds do it. Chimps (and a number of other mammals) do it. Many humans even do it.
The passage of food from one creature to another (be it between parent and offspring or potential mates) is certainly an intimate form of interaction. Whether this behavior can be regarded as altruistic is debatable, but the fact that caring for one’s young and securing a mate are both crucial to an organism’s ability to pass its genes on to subsequent generations supports the argument that this behavior would be evolutionarily encouraged.
So how did humans make the leap from mouth-to-mouth feeding to full-blown makeout sessions? That’s less clear…
ALLLL that said, in this instance she isn’t feeding him, she’s cleaning him. If your (hypothetical) kid falls into the mud do you grab a towel or do you start licking her face? If you go with licking her face, are you kissing her?
Even when she starts feeding him with her mouth, she still isn’t kissing him. She’s feeding him.
So I don’t agree that it’s the same thing. Intent matters.
When she finally actually puts lips on him without food in her mouth or goop on his surface, then I’ll agree she’s kissing him. I’ll just wait here for that video to surface.
I never said it wasn’t. Just that it wasn’t kissing. Me taking care of my (at the time) fiancé when she broke her ankle was a sign of love. All signs of love aren’t called “kissing.”
I know, I’m being overly pedantic.
She loves her baby, and I’m certain she does with how gentle she is with him.
But I’m not the one that said “… this gorilla mama gently kissing and holding her baby…” Phrasing it that way projects a particular narrative on the video that I (and others it seems) don’t see.
Only the OP can say why they used “kissing” instead of “cleaning,” and maybe it’s as simple as when they watched the video they saw it as kissing. Or maybe not.
My statement
was not meant to criticize your comment and i apologize that it came across that way. I was only emphasizing that fact that love is the motivation.
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Obligs:
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To be fair, i do think the “however” made it sound partially accusatory.
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I actually agree with everyone who thinks it’s more likely that the mother is cleaning her offspring than intentionally kissing it, but your assessment that it’s still a sign of ‘love’ resonates with me.
To me, the “however” seemed like nothing more than the mere conjunction that it is.
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I didn’t take it as criticizing. I apologize for coming across as defensive.
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