A study has found that wild gorillas are predominantly right-handed after long-term observations of several gorilla troops by a team of researchers from Kyoto University and other institutions.
The finding is expected to provide clues into why most humans are right-handed, which is said to be about 90% of the population.
The team observed 21 wild western lowland gorillas, which were estimated to be between the ages of 2 and 18, at a national park in Gabon, central Africa, from 2017 to 2019. The scientists observed about 4,200 patterns, including such movements as gathering African ginger, a staple in the gorillas' diet.
The data showed that while the gorillas used both hands to remove the contents of the plant, one hand was used more deftly to perform the more complicated movements. Fifteen gorillas were observed to be right-handed and six were observed to be left-handed.
The study was published in an American academic journal.
Other primates such as chimpanzees and bonobos have also been perceived to be mostly right-handed, but as most of the observations were made in captivity, the influence of imitating keepers and using tools in the zoos could not be denied.
Some have suggested that humans are the only species that have a dominant hand, and humans evolved to use it as language developed. However, the research team said, "The use of a dominant hand may have originated in the evolutionary process before language was invented."
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