More redhead news….

2 thoughts on “More redhead news….”

1. Problem. Orangs do NOT live in groups – they are solitary with three exceptions – mothers with young, mating, and when a particularly rich source of food is available, like a certain few fruiting tree. This latter is rare, happening only a time or two a year. The otherwise solitary habit is thought to be due to the massive amount of food the big apes require and its general non-mass availability. That is to say, each adult needs a large solo territory. The young captive orangs are not a good model for orang behaviour generally.
   Well, here’s another thought about the differences and similarities between us and our cousins. We humans are one of the VERY FEW mammals who undergo menopause, that is, survival iof females long after the end of reproductive life. Other possibilities – one or two of the cetaceans. Otherwise, mammals go on reproducing until they die.

   That was in today’s New Scientist.

2. I forgot to tag Chipper (agAIN) as being the source of that… and I would like to say a couple of things about primates. Orangs are, by zookeepers anyway, considered to be the smartest of the great apes. That’s because they escape really easily. And when I say really easily, I mean that when enclosure designers get together and drink, say at a conference, they will laugh quite heartily about how hard it is to keep a female orangutan who doesn’t want to be caged in her enclosure and at the hubris of any one who tries to make an escape proof enclosure.

   Orangs have been known to spend literally years formulating their escape plans. They slowly gather up the materials they need. They have no pockets, so they will do things like park hunks of metal in their mouths. And the last time an orang escaped in North America, she led all of her enclosure mates to the ice cream stand. Zookeepers say that gorillas are plenty smart, but timid. Chimps are plenty smart, but have the attention span of a house fly and they’re f-cking mean, too. Gorillas are pretty sweet tempered, except when thwarted about food. Orangs are used to being left alone with their thoughts, and you can see the little wheels spin as they watch you. The girls are pretty mellow. The boys not so much – and yes they DO love redheads and will sexually assault them given half the chance, I read a very amusing and scary account of this in a travel book one time.

   Woo hoo! I likes me some orangs.

   Orangs don’t group in the wild except as noted. But all domesticated animals will group. Once you have the food supply wired, other things shake out – including how you tell if somebody else is laughing. Remember that primates are richly served with mirror neurons – all hunting mammals are, or they would not be able to mimic mum in the hunt (dad too if they are among the mammals who learn to hunt from pop).

   I’m thinking people with autism spectrum disorder either are missing mirror neurons or have neurological bars to accessing them – same with people with schizotypal or schizoaffective disorders. The people ‘marching’ to a different drummer are just that, not able to experience entrainment like the rest of us. I’m also thinking from my own life experience that when people with autism spectrum disorder get forced into entrainment activities that force them to predict and cooperate with the behaviour of people, they ‘get better’ or develop enough social praxis to at least get by.