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Friday, September 21, 2007

A new World Record

New baby not here yet. Anne Marie said tomorrow night.

Catalyst on the ABC showed a segment on our research last night: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2038245.htm

Today Tory collected 20 bottles of bonobo drool. She has 40 so far. This makes Tory the richest scientist in bonobo drool on the planet. In fact, we are tempted to contact Guiness and add a category, Owner of Most Bonobo Drool.


But it hasn’t all been roses. Bandundu refused to give drool today and just kept biting the syringe. Then when Tory gave her the cotton pad with sugar on it, Bandundu used it to wipe her bottom.

We finished the babies with the photo study today. We’re not sure yet if they prefer the stranger bonobo to the familiar, but today Chilenge waggled her clitoris over a photo of Manono, the big handsome male in group 1. Then she insisted I pat her clitoris before she continued with the study. Seriously, people look at me like I’m weird when I tell them about patting bonobo genitals being part of experimental procedure, but in the end it’s like, do you want the data or not?

Makali is better, thanks to all the concerned folks who keep emailing me about him! He's back in the enclosure and suitably chastened. In fact, I think he's much nicer now...