Chimpanzees sharing their food for Sex, a quick reaction

Kimberley:

I actually do have a BA in Anthro/Archaeology even if it is 30 years ago...and my scientific mind put a couple of things together today, you can judge whether or not I'm potentially onto something...perhaps all those hours staring into primate habitats at the San Diego Zoo (circa 1972-77) have paid off!

 

My initial reaction on reading that the chimps were more readily sharing the cultivated food is the following:

The wild food is hoarded because it is more nutritionally valuable in some respect!  (My hypothesis, since cultivated foodstuff have been bred for convenience, sugar, taste, predictable ripening, etc. it only seems reasonable that the nutrition value has suffered...we haven't bred them to increase their nutritional content!)

 

The interesting recent study of women versus men and how well they could point to the highest caloric foods in a market comes to mind...the women were better at pointing out the most high caloric items, and all the food in general!

 

So, the idea that chimps could know what is most nutritious could be part of their nature, as it appears to be part of ours!

 

Here's my blog reference to why women are better shoppers than men, and why they prefer pink, and why those things are related and something called a frishbergism, a word my father coined...he being Frishberg the Elder.

 

http://nonshoppingchannel.blogspot.com/2007/08/frishbergism-word-coined-in-late-1940.html

 

Enjoyed your article, thanks!

http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0000886#aff1

--
Cheers,

Frish
Michael W. Frishberg 

Makes me want to move to Russia (on Wednesdays anyways!)

IF IT IS WEDNESDAY, IT MUST BE MOSCOW!

 

 

Skip work, make babies, says Russian governor

Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:58AM BST

By James Kilner

ULYANOVSK, Russia (Reuters) - The governor of a central Russian province urged couples to skip work on Wednesday and make love instead to help boost Russia's low birth-rate.

And if a woman gives birth in exactly nine months time -- on Russia's national day on June 12 -- she will qualify for a prize, perhaps even winning a new home.

"It's normally something for the home -- a fridge or a television set," Yelena Yakovleva at the Ulyanovsk regional administration press office, said.

"It doesn't matter if it's a girl or a boy."

Newly-weds Karina and Anton Bukhanovsky walked hand in hand down the main street of the regional capital of Ulyanovsk. They live in St Petersburg but travelled to Ulyanovsk to soak up the atmosphere on Wednesday.

"I used to live here," said Karina, aged 19.

"We plan to come back on the same day next year and try for a baby and the prize nine months later," she said.

Anton, aged 21, kissed her gently on the cheek and they strolled off arm in arm.

Regional governor Sergei Morozov told employers to contribute to a Kremlin campaign to boost the birth rate by giving couples Wednesday off to have sex.

Russia wants to reverse a trend in which the population is shrinking by about 700,000 people a year as births fail to outpace a high death rate boosted by AIDS, alcoholism and suicide.

This is the third year Ulyanovsk region, famous as the birthplace of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin, has dedicated a day to encouraging couples to produce more babies.

Prizes will extend equally to unwed women who produce children on the right day, though the biggest prizes will go to married couples.

On Russia Day this year, a family won a jeep after their fourth baby was born on the holiday.

Next year, the top prizes will include an apartment, Morozov told Reuters. "We need more people," he said.

This year a record 78 babies were born on June 12 at the main hospital in the regional capital of Ulyanovsk, beating the 2006 total of 26, said chief doctor Andrei Malykh.

"The scheme is working. People want the prizes," he said.

A mass wedding and special lessons for children at school on how to deal with having a brother or sister are also planned in Ulyanovsk city, which is about 900 km (560 miles) from Moscow.

At the town's central post office, a sign urges locals to write love letters for free to anywhere in Russia, with postage pre-paid.

This week First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a possible successor to President Vladimir Putin, said he wanted to stabilise the population at about 142 million by 2015 and boost it back to 145 million by 2025.