Gorillas seek out old female friends when they move

The relationship between female mountain gorillas is more important than pre -understood, showing new research by Rwanda.

This indicates that when one of these social great apes goes into a new group, she will look out and join another woman whom she already knows.

Scientists based on research on 20 years of data covering several groups of gorillas in Jwalamukhi National Park in Rwanda.

Scientists found that when two women were separated for many years, a new arrival gorilla would still try to join a woman, with whom she had formed the previous relationship.

conclusion, Royal Society Journal Proceedings B.Show how important the relationship between two individual women is in the Gorilla society.

“Scientifically, I don’t know if I can talk about ‘friendship’,” lead researcher Victor Martignack explained, as a PhD researcher Jurich University. “But we are showing here that these same sex relationships really matter.”

Going into various groups is important in shaping the social structure of animals. This is something that both men and women do – women will ever move forward many times throughout their life.

This spread, as it is known, plays a role in avoiding inbreeding, spreading gene diversity and shaping social relations.

“This is very important in the wild,” Ms. Martignack explained.

“But it is very difficult to study, because once the person leaves a group, it is difficult to keep an eye on them.”

Since 1967, working in partnership with Diaan Fosy Gorilla Fund at a field site, Ms. Martignack and her colleagues were able to track those movements.

Through decades of information about animal life, scientists followed the “spread” of 56 women mountain gorillas – checking which new group they chose to include and why.

Gorillas avoided groups who belonged to men whom they belonged to, but the presence of women they knew that “very much meant”, Ms. Martignac explained.

The women turned to their “friends”, even if the animals have separated for many years.

They often gravated for a group with women with whom they grew up, even though he was several years ago. He also searched for the people with whom he had made a social relationship – maybe played and recently interacted.

Ms. Martingnack said that Gorillas will invest in these relationships as they provide major social benefits.

“New arrival usually begins at the bottom of social hierarchy,” she said. “Resident women can be very aggressive towards them, as they are potentially a competitor.”

Walking is something that is also important in shaping human society. And researchers say that studying their roots in other great apes can highlight the evolutionary driving forces behind it.

“The movement is a large part of our way of living,” said Ms. Martignac. “But those decisions do not make fossils.

“So we see him in his nearest evolutionary cousin.”

This new insight into Gorillas’s social life, he said, “How do we think about women-women social relations”.

“They are very important for these animals as much as we thought.”