A three-year study of 17 wild chimpanzees in Tanzania found that 12 of them used their left hands when using sticks to probe for termites.
Only four were right-handed, as one used both hands to dig out the ants.
The strange thing is, the researchers (from Emory University in Atlanta)reported a right-handed preference when the chimps cracked open nuts.
Thursday 13 November 2008
Southpaw chimpanzees
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2 comments:
Carole, I agree that most of us would be fairly ambidextrous if left to our own devices. I'm right handed yet I use scredrivers and scissors with my left hand. Somehow cutting seems to make sense with my left hand and feels wrong with the right hand. And if you need to twist something clockwise, eg screwing in a screw then the left hand is stronger. I also remember as a kid learning to write that I sometimes forgot and wrote everything as the mirror image - from right to left. It always seemed arbitrary to me that we should start on the left and go right.
Hi Kath
Yes, there must be a reason why we have two hands! Interestingly, my niece writes with her left hand but does all other tasks with her right.
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