Last night there was a show on PBS (Nature) about primates, so I figured it was about me and watched it. [Please note, especially since this is the first installment, I joke about things, most frequently myself, so if you took that first sentence seriously, just because I am a scientist, time to revise your view. Remember…Silly Science].
Anyway, the show started with a troop of gorillas in an idyllic mountain forest setting. The troop silverback was strutting his Dom-self all over the jungle, breaking branches and wielding them, chest thumping, teeth barred, false charges. He was protecting his territory and family, and damn, was he powerful in doing so. He was a badass – an example of what may be the most dominant male in the animal kingdom.
After presenting that side of the silverback, it showed him sitting peacefully in the jungle foliage when and youngster, most certainly one of his, came swinging in on a vine and ran into his head. The silverback knock him off the vine and started playing with him, at one point sending him tumbling down a small hill. The program then showed him, in all his powerful glory, laying on the jungle floor, holding tenderly onto several of his family, while multiple little ones played on and around him. His gentleness was quite profound.
The presenter then said that research indicates silverbacks with loving, nurturing demeanors are actually more prolific, siring up to five times more children than other silverbacks that lack those traits. In other words, this particular silverback is getting lots of lovin’ from the ladies.
Draw your own conclusion (how very un-scientist of me), but it seemed to me that the genetics of females wishing for strong, protective, dominant males that also have a sensitive, gentle and loving side, goes a long way back in human evolution.
So, if you have a Dom like that in your life, it is perfectly fine to call him a gorilla – it’s actually a compliment.
Peace
