![]() Once at Arheim, the chimpanzees all observed the arrival of a box of grapefruit. Peterson pointed out that competition often motivates individuals to deceive in order to get what they want, whether it's sex, power, or food. Eventually, Orr learned to suppress her vocalisations when mating with lower-ranking males, while she continued the habit of screaming whenever she mated with the alpha. Waal, who describes the case of Orr, an adolescent female at Arnheim, who would scream while she was having sex.ĭuring sneaked copulations with younger males, however, her screams sometimes caught the attention of the alpha, who would do his mighty best to interrupt the couple. How sophisticated can apes get with their deception? Dr Dale Peterson, in an article on 'Those Lying Apes', refers to the book Chimpanzee Politics (1982) by primatologist Frans D. The larger the average volume of a primate species' neocortex - the newest, 'highest' region of the brain - the greater the chance that the monkey or ape would pull a stunt like this one described in The New Scientist: "A young baboon being chased by an enraged mother intent on punishment suddenly stopped in midpursuit, stood up and began scanning the horizon intently, an act that conveniently distracted the entire baboon troop into preparing for non-existent intruders." ![]() Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. In a comparative survey of primate behaviour, Richard Byrne and Nadia Corp of the University of St Andrews in Scotland found a direct relationship between sneakiness and brain size. Scientists studying the development of cooperative behaviour in apes and monkeys believe the animals developed the ability to lie and deceive in order to form coalitions, get food and mate."Ī New York Times article published in 2008 claims that we have a "highly evolved propensity for deceit", and continues, "Deceitful behaviour has a long and storied history in the evolution of social life, and the more sophisticated the animal, it seems, the more commonplace the con games, the more cunning their contours. Even if Huxley had exclaimed in surprise, using a common expression for being flabbergasted, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" his response, if literally true, might have made him a bigger liar than King Kong and the Mighty Joe Young combined.Ī recent article in the British newspaper Mail Online headlined 'Why you should never trust an ape: Researchers reveal how lying may have evolved in ANIMALS', states, "We all tell the occasional white lie - and researchers believe they have finally found out why. Wilberforce reputedly ask Huxley whether it was through his grandfather or grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey. What makes the event memorable is a question that the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, asked Thomas Henry Huxley, a biologist known as 'Darwin's Bulldog' for his passionate advocacy on behalf of Darwin's theories. ![]() On June 30, 1860, seven months after Charles Darwin published his famous book on evolution (On The Origin Of Species), several prominent British scientists and philosophers got into a very heated discussion at the Oxford University Museum.
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