Retrieving human behavior in the animal kingdom used to be an effective means of expressing one's disapproval of them. But since we are obliged to no longer see ourselves as the crown of creation, the opposite can occasionally be observed. Which follower of a sexual behavior that has already been called "free love" does not delight in primatologists' statements on the promiscuity of bonobos?
Now habitual users of psychoactive substances can rejoice. As a psychologist from the University of Warwick and a linguist from Birmingham now write in the journal "Primates", our early ancestors must have already felt the urge for mind-altering experiences – when today's beverage technology or pharmaceutical means were not yet available. The two researchers conclude this from observations of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans, which on lianas or ropes provided by their zoo rotated as quickly as human dancers, circus artists or dervishes.
The British scientists used an innovative primatological research method: They analyzed 40 YouTube videos showing the animals during this activity. The monkey was then noticeably dizzy, the researchers want to have observed. They conclude that the animals must therefore have targeted exactly this state with their activities.
The two authors do not see their thesis about the evolutionary validity of their data affected by a possibility, which they freely admit in the press release of their universities: that the monkeys, most of whom lived in captivity, could simply have been bland and that the spinning served to stimulate their senses. There are also supposed to be people who drink or smoke out of boredom. You can't do anything, we already have that in the evolutionary family tree.