Domestic Violence in Chimps
February 9, 2007 11:24 AM   Subscribe

Boy chimp meets Girl chimp boy chimp beats girl chimp to keep her from having sex with his buddies. New scientific study.
posted by angryinla (37 comments total)
 
Thank god we humans don't do that.
posted by jouke at 11:32 AM on February 9, 2007


Jane Goodall: "Let's see if we can get to the root of the issue here..."
Boy chimp: "Bitch just won't shut up."
Goodall: "Let's not use such aggressive sign language, Bongo..."
posted by frogan at 11:43 AM on February 9, 2007


Want to see video of this? Take your video camera to any 'shit-kicker' bar around 2am on a Saturday, record couples leaving. Repeat. Sorry it's not chimps, but it's pretty close.
posted by Shfishp at 11:45 AM on February 9, 2007


I recall seeing a documentary a few years back about monkeys, not chimps, that would continally gang rape and beat the females of the group. It was the most violent thing I have ever seen in the animal kingdom. The females lived in fear, clinging to each other at all times. It seems silly to use the word "rape" in animal terms, but if you saw this documentary you would use that word too. I'd try to look it up to provide a hyperlink, but I fear it might not be too safe at work to type in Google "Monkey rape"
posted by brinkzilla at 11:54 AM on February 9, 2007


brinkzilla: let's see that link!
posted by null terminated at 12:00 PM on February 9, 2007


So it's true. If you have an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters, eventually they will type The Chronicles of Gor.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:07 PM on February 9, 2007 [5 favorites]


I'm looking forward to the follow-up study on "Cheap anthropomorphism in scientific journalism."
posted by Abiezer at 12:14 PM on February 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Much better to be the Bonobo. Free lovin' apes!
posted by malaprohibita at 12:28 PM on February 9, 2007


Hey it's the invisible hand of evolution folks, blame Darwin.
posted by CameraObscura at 12:32 PM on February 9, 2007


He he he. That's what she gets for not hailing to the chimp!
posted by isopraxis at 12:35 PM on February 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


Brinkzilla, was it this BBC documentary?
posted by swordfishtrombones at 12:51 PM on February 9, 2007


For a lengthy but really well done examination of what primate models can and can't tell us about ourselves, see Primate Paradigms by Linda Marie Fedigan.
posted by carmen at 1:00 PM on February 9, 2007


Swordfishtrombones,

no thats not it. It was like squirrel monkeys or something smaller like that. I'm coming across alot of medical journals, but nothing that seems like it was the basis of the documentary.
posted by brinkzilla at 1:12 PM on February 9, 2007


Chimps: They're just like us!™
posted by thekilgore at 1:26 PM on February 9, 2007


InevitableFilter: OMG! Evolutionary Psychology!
posted by tkchrist at 1:29 PM on February 9, 2007


Bitch better have my monkey.
posted by klangklangston at 1:48 PM on February 9, 2007 [4 favorites]


Jo, whateva mang.

Clearly given the abject Darwin-worship going on this thread, you guys haven't had your eyes opened by Darwin's Black Box yet! It can be yours for only $9.90, and you, too, can make vague, unsubtantiated claims about how "wrong Darwin was" at dinner parties and the like. Feel informed, on the cutting edge of pseudo-science. It's the next best thing to the rapture, mang!

-----

More topically, this isn't surprising. Anyone that's seen the documentary footage of monkeys going to war with each other over territory knows what I'm talking about. It's surreal to see a team of armed, screaming monkeys attacking each other in the dense foliage of a tropical jungle.
posted by The God Complex at 1:50 PM on February 9, 2007


That neroscientist is pretty cute.
posted by hellphish at 2:40 PM on February 9, 2007


I dunno, malaprohibita, I heard Bonobo's a tax dodger and a hypocrite.
posted by breezeway at 3:22 PM on February 9, 2007 [1 favorite]


"So it's true. If you have an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters, eventually they will type The Chronicles of Gor."

Actually, the monkeys will just type many pages of the letter "S" and then piss all over the keyboard.
posted by drstein at 4:05 PM on February 9, 2007


Aww, he thinks he's people!
posted by Target Practice at 4:34 PM on February 9, 2007


Yeah down with evolutionary psychology. We all know that we are unique, special, and nothing like the other primates, because, like, god made us in his image.
posted by MillMan at 4:42 PM on February 9, 2007


I am an infinite number of monkeys; I just misspelled our name.
But you knew that all along, didn't you?
posted by Methylviolet at 5:17 PM on February 9, 2007


What's up with all the preemptive first strikes against the creationists? I haven't seen any in this thread.
posted by grobstein at 5:41 PM on February 9, 2007


hellphish writes "That neroscientist is pretty cute."

I have never been as interested in hair regeneration in the cochlea as I am right now.
posted by mullingitover at 5:44 PM on February 9, 2007


like, god made us in his image.

This just in:
God's a sexually abusive ape.

Film at 11.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 7:22 PM on February 9, 2007


Ugh, people. Evolution is right, it's one of those theories that is pretty solidly agreed upon is what makes things go round in the changing of organisms and the like, but evolutionary psychology just makes me squirm in my slightly worn Human Biology graduate pants. First of, give me a way to actually testthe hypothesis that this particular chimp behavior has anything to do with human behavior. Remember that we did not evolve from chimps; rather, both chimps and humans evolved from a common ancestor. Maybe if you could take a time machine and go watch that common ancestor you might be able to say something more solid.

No, we are not unique in terms of primates, but male chimps beating up on female chimps at the very least only parallelshuman behavior. I am of the mind that unless there is a genetic cause for such behavior that is common to both chimps and humans, you can't actually go and say, "well, male chimps beat up female chimps, no wonder people do the same." Yes, you have to use Science! to investigate such claims and some people think that has to do with testing hypothesis that is at least falsifiable.


Well, looks like I'm in the behavioral genetics camp, but I'll quit talking because I'm at the limits of my understanding.

In any case, it's kind of sad that those male monkeys get so aggressive with the female monkeys. Reminds me of some humans I've heard about.
posted by Mister Cheese at 7:43 PM on February 9, 2007


Are there no good samaritan laws in Uganda? These researchers just sat back and watched the females get beaten?

Maybe I'm too chivalrous, but in my book that just ain't right.
posted by graventy at 8:28 PM on February 9, 2007


Are they sure it wasn't because she walked off during sex, leaving him to eat his own tadpole yoghurt?
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:59 PM on February 9, 2007


What do you tell a chimp with two black eyes?
Nothin' ya told her twice already?
posted by Smedleyman at 7:28 AM on February 10, 2007


Evolutionary psychology != Evolution
posted by carmen at 7:39 AM on February 10, 2007


"That neroscientist is pretty cute."

From knowing people who worked at Kresge, word on the street is that she's inconsiderate and vapid.
posted by klangklangston at 4:49 PM on February 10, 2007


"From knowing people who worked at Kresge, word on the street is that she's inconsiderate and vapid."

People whom she turned down?
posted by stavrogin at 8:36 PM on February 10, 2007


"People whom she turned down?"

Nope. People who handled her grant applications.
posted by klangklangston at 9:11 PM on February 10, 2007


Yeah, but I heard she was a tiger in the sack.
posted by Methylviolet at 9:34 PM on February 10, 2007


Nope. People who handled her grant applications.

For one, no one in Kresge has seen my grants as I file them myself and they are confidential. As for being vapid, check out my ScienceBlogs site, which I believe speaks for itself. Seems ironic that I'm being called inconsiderate by a stranger bashing me on a comments board.
posted by mixscarlet at 2:23 PM on February 11, 2007


Be nicer to the admins, Shelley. They both talk and remember.
posted by klangklangston at 2:46 PM on February 11, 2007


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