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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Oral sex - a human invention?

Mystique came back. She’s the dog that lives on the chicken farm next door and everyone calls her Mystique because she appears out of nowhere and then disappears. Her foot had been caught in an antelope snare and the wire had cut so tightly into her paw the flesh had healed around it.

Brian cut the knot and pulled it out, a perfect circle. It must have been incredibly painful, having a noose around your limb that cuts into your flesh so severely that soon it becomes part of you.

It happens to chimps and bonobos all the time. Except the wire gets so tight their hands and feet become gangrenous and fall off. At a field site in Uganda, half the chimps have snare injuries.

Mystique looked better after we pulled out the wire. Except then Luozi, the little punk in the nursery, chased her into the forest

Today I had a new one. Mwanda jumped on my shoulders, wrapped her arms around my head and tried to push her clitoris in my mouth. I didn’t let her. But I was so shocked I nearly yelled at her and that would have been a big mistake. Here is Mwanda and her rogue clitoris.

Tory has seen heaps of oral sex during her tests. Today Isiru touched the clitoris of Lukaya with her mouth. Yesterday it was Kikongo and Malou. The day before it was someone else.

It cracks me up because humans think we’re so inventive and original with all our sexual activity. Bonobo champion Prof. Frans de Waal saw quite a bit of bonobo oral sex. Brian said he saw a photo in a de Waal lecture and it got him interested in bonobos. Some scientists said de Waal's bonobos only had oral sex because they were in a zoo enclosure with nothing better to do. Well, these bonobos aint in a zoo - they live in a 35 hectare forest and they still do it plenty.

Today Vanga tried to pickpocket Yvonne.

But she forgave him because you can’t be mad at someone this cute.