AFECTION

 
AFFECTION
 
Alex lies down, with his legs up and crossed, Carol is over him pressing her mouth against his. The scene lasts more than one minute. It is a demonstration of affection between them and it happens frequently during the day. There is no erotism behind their attitudes or in their relationship. Alex never copulates with Carol. He uses to masturbate, mainly when there is a woman nearby. Twenty years of a life in circus ended up causing this trauma, but did not destroy the hability to demonstrate affection to his partner everyday, with the long kiss.

Luke knows what is happening in the Sanctuary from his enclosure. We spend the morning together with him leafing through a magazine and observing him. Everytime someone he knows gets near, he does a differente sound. To Jair, who is in charge for maintenance, it is one kind of sound. If Luis, the biologist, appears, the sound gets louder, because he is more intimate with him, as long he enters his enclosure once in a while. When it is someone strange, he makes gestures and other sounds, asking for the people to go away. Luke spends all day showing his affection and feelings for the human beings who are around him. If someone he has not seen for a while arrives, he makes sounds and hugs himself, which indicates that he wants that the person gets closer to him.

At the end of the afternoon, when I am leaving, I go to Vitor?s enclosure and let him a treat. I am well dressed, so he wishes to see and touch the clothes. I demonstrate my affection with him and he gives me back a smile with his typical "OH....OH...", full of affection too.
 
In the morning, when I enter the enclosure of Guga and his group, Carol runs and jumps on my back, just like she did when she was a baby. She knows that I can?t carry her anymore, but this is her gesture of affection. She gives me a kiss and runs to play with her friends. I seat at the enclosure floor, Emilio comes behind me and hugs me, in his gesture of affection. I tickle him a bit and he does the sounds of joy.
 
Guga comes back to his enclosure, after spending all morning in an area with electric fence, and Carolina welcomes him with a hug. Carlos comes back to the enclosure and Dolores gets near him from behind. She kisses his back and does sounds of hapiness. It is like they had spent months without seeing each other, but it has been two or three hours. Carlos goes to Noel?s enclosure, where he spends some days, and they hug each other.

A recent article published at Folha On Line, quoting the work developed by Paleontology and Evolutionary Anthropology Research Center of Liverpool British University, afirms that "the stress of the chimpanzees who were victms of agression has been reduced when another primate offered them a hug or a kiss." And continuing, the text affirms, "but the kisses and hugs are only seen after a conflict situation", which demonstrates the wrong perspective of the work.
 
The episodes told above prove that the chimpanzees react with hugs and kisses to demonstrate their affection to their similars or to a human friend, and not only to calm someone after a fight or a misunderstanding. According to our experience, chimpanzess have latin blood, so they need to hug, kiss and touch one another constantly. They demonstrate their feelings to everyone who are around them during all the time, which makes them the most expressive beings of the humanity.
 
Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
GAP Project International