Video proves some apes can swim, says university

JOHANNESBURG: Two researchers have provided video proof that certain apes can swim, Wits University said yesterday.

“For many years zoos have used water moats to confine chimpanzees, gorillas or orangutans. 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 dog-paddle most terrestrial mammals used.

The video was provided by Renato Bender, who is working on a PhD in human evolution at the university, and Nicole Bender, who works at the Institute of Social and Pre- ventive Medicine at the University of Bern, Switzerland, as an evolutionary physician and epidemiologist.

It was based on their study of a chimpanzee and an orangutan in the US. The primates were raised and cared for by humans and had learnt 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.

Several weeks later, Cooper began to swim. The orangutan, Suryia, who was filmed in a private zoo in South Carolina, can swim freely up to 12m.

“We did find other welldocumented cases of swimming and diving apes, but Cooper and Suryia are the only ones we were able to film,” said Nicole. – Sapa