Rainforest Sounds and Gorillas

It is interesting. At the risk of being provocative, I think a decent captive environment for the gorillas would also have a soothing effect and from what little I know of the gorillas at Buffalo Zoo, that is something they are seriously lacking.
 
I do wonder how that natural sound effect would work on other species as well. Makes sense they would feel more comfortable in an environment that sounds like the habitat they are supposed to be in. Some things are just hard wired in there.
 
The article itself doubts that the assumption postulated here is correct.

Quoting the article: "Previous research on how music affects zoo-housed gorillas produced mixed results. One study found adult gorillas were more agitated and aroused by rainforest sounds. Another paper found that the animals appeared more relaxed in response to music – whether classical or forest tunes – than when no music was played to them."

“I don’t think it’s as simple as classical vs. rock vs. natural sounds,” Margulis explains. “It probably has more to do with [differences in] the rhythm or tempo.”

There are many factors to be taken into account: the choice of music, the accoustics, the quality and frequency of the broadcasting, ambient noise, the individual tested gorilla specimens and their social group (personally, I'm neither a fan of Chopin or Muse, and probably wouldn't enjoy listening to them again and again, while others would) etc. And how should captive-bred gorillas know what their original habitat sounds like? The "natural rainforest" sound tapes I've heard in zoos and elsewhere are usually a wild mix from all corners of the world and designed for human ears, with the occasional screaming piha thrown in.
I recall a report from SD Zoo that in some birds in the tropical aviary, playing taped recordings from the wild triggered mating. However, I doubt that the very different hearing abilities of the various animal species kept will allow for concluding results. Personally, I find some of the "natural sounds" played at or in some exhibits rather annoying, and would probably show "signs of hair-plucking and regurgitating and re-ingesting food" if having to listen to them for too long...;)
 
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Earlier two studies shown exactly the opposite - gorillas prefer classical music to 'jungle sounds'. Most gorillas also don't like walking on grass and in many zoos prefer indoors over outside exhibits. So not what you'd expect.

BTW, why no zoo installed a radio or recorder and let great apes choose themselves? Some zoos have TV sets, but apes cannot choose channels. Would be relatively easy and terrific environmental enrichment.
 
Jurek7 said:
Earlier two studies shown exactly the opposite - gorillas prefer classical music to 'jungle sounds'. Most gorillas also don't like walking on grass and in many zoos prefer indoors over outside exhibits. So not what you'd expect.

BTW, why no zoo installed a radio or recorder and let great apes choose themselves? Some zoos have TV sets, but apes cannot choose channels. Would be relatively easy and terrific environmental enrichment.
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... I'd totally want to see if apes could figure out how to work radios and TVs, and switch it to things they want. I'm sure they could, and it would be interesting to see what kinds of things they would choose if they had the opportunity. I do know of chimpanzees playing with iPads...
 
Jurek7 said:
Earlier two studies shown exactly the opposite - gorillas prefer classical music to 'jungle sounds'.

BTW, why no zoo installed a radio or recorder and let great apes choose themselves? Some zoos have TV sets, but apes cannot choose channels.
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But who says so and how do they know.?...Was it judged on their behaviour?The apes can't really tell us what they like, or if they like any music at all so how can we know? I am afraid I am sceptical about this, as I am about ape 'sign language' too.

Similarly with their so-called T.V. 'preferences'. Its often use as publicity for a zoo but do Apes actually understand what the T.V. shows? They may look at the screen but is it just some movement to them or can they really interpret what they see? At Zoos I've seen with T.V. actually playing in an enclosure for Apes (as opposed to being switched off) I have never seen them show any interest in looking at it.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
... I'd totally want to see if apes could figure out how to work radios and TVs, and switch it to things they want. I'm sure they could
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Many great apes kept as pets knew it and watched TV. I remember a picture of the famous gorilla Koko sitting with the remote control watching videos of other gorillas, in a failed attempt to breed her.

I also remember a very old study where a lot of different animal species were presented with different sounds and earlier taught to operate the switch off button. Among the findings was that no animal tested liked loud rock music.
 
Jurek7 said:
I remember a picture of the famous gorilla Koko sitting with the remote control watching videos of other gorillas, in a failed attempt to breed her.
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Koko was so humanised and messed up she didn't know what she was- hardly surprising they couldn't get her to breed, even if she did understand what she was seeing on a T.V. screen.

And again I dispute how much is actually true of all the sign language and other abilities they attributed to her.
 
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