The reasons for the fact that gorillas hit their breasts for minutes and with a great force.

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The reasons for the fact that gorillas hit their breasts for minutes and with a great force.

What do the gorillas want to tell by hitting their breasts? Doesn’t their lives hurt because of this hard movement?

Let’s learn the unknowns about the gorillas.

While gorillas hit their breasts, they don’t use their fists as we see in theaters.

Instead, they combine their hands and hit their breasts in great speed. This technique makes a drum sound raised by the gorillas wide chest cavity and powerful pectoral muscles.

Studies on this issue show that the frequency and intensity of chest strokes is linked to the size and strength of the gorilla. In other words, larger gorillas exhibit lower frequency strokes to prove the strength of their physical structures to both members of their clusters and neighboring clusters.

Gorillas, where we can hear the fast thumb sounds from about 1 kilometer away, can make this movement for multiple reasons.

Hitting the chest in the middle of the gorillas is actually a valuable form of nonverbal connection. This behavior allows them to dominate and show their leadership in the cluster.

These sounds, which emerge thanks to their large chest gaps, give a warning signal to the opponents at the time. In other words, Gorilla, who hit his chest, wants to show his existence to his enemies.

Beating a chest, connection and dominance, as well as pulling females.

Male gorillas do this behavior with the aim of showing females their strength and expressing that they are suitable for them. Female gorillas, on the other hand, look at the chest tattoo intensity and echo of a random male gorilla or not.

Beating a chest, and also marking the region is also a behavior. The sound, which is caused by gorillas tattooing their breasts with their hands, is largely echoed and can travel long distances in the forests.

Gorilla, who does this, describes the location of the region where the gorillas on the other end of the forest is a kind of area and means “this is mine”. In this way, the risk of conflict in the middle of gorillas decreases.

Finally, baby and young gorillas often beat their breasts during the game. Especially the young ones are trying their talents through the game and they receive their interpretation of other gorillas in their clusters. In other words, there is more than one reasons behind the gorillas to do this behavior, and they all serve a different effort.

Sources: Africa-Safaris, ZME Science

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