Gorillas’ right-handedness gives new clues to human language development
Psychologist Dr Gillian Forrester, a visiting fellow at the University of Sussex, has been studying a family of gorillas at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent. Using a specially developed coding system for analysis, she and her team identified which hand gorillas used when doing activities such as: using objects and eating or preparing food (described as ‘inanimate targets), and which hand they used for social interactions, such as: scratching their head, patting their friend on the back or mothering (‘animate targets’).
They found the gorillas were more likely to use their right hands for inanimate targets and either hand with equal frequency - for social interaction.