Apes show they can do swimmingly in deep water
TWO RESEARCHERShave provided video proof that certain apes can swim, the University of the Witwatersrand said yesterday.
“For many years, zoos have used water moats to confine chimpanzees, gorillas or orang-utans. When apes ventured into deep water, they often drowned,” it said.
“Some argued that this indicated a definitive difference between humans and apes: people enjoy the water and are able to learn to swim, while apes prefer to stay on dry land.”
It said the apes used a kind of breaststroke, as opposed to the dogpaddle most terrestrial mammals used.
Renato Bender, who is working on a PhD in human evolution at the university, and Nicole Bender, who works at the University of Bern, Switzerland, as an evolutionary physician and epidemiologist, provided the video.
It was based on their study of a chimpanzee and an orang-utan in the US. The primates were raised and cared for by humans and had learned to swim and dive.
“We were extremely surprised when the chimp Cooper dived repeatedly into a swimming pool in Missouri and seemed to feel very comfortable,” said Bender.
“It was very surprising behaviour for an animal that is thought to be very afraid of water.”
Several weeks later, Cooper began to swim. The orang-utan Suryia, who was filmed in a private zoo in South Carolina, can swim freely up to 12m.
Most mammals use the dog-paddle instinctively. Humans and apes, on the other hand, must learn to swim.– Sapa