My midlife crisis

[daveman]

You should dedicate this thread to your project, giving us updates on the build etc... that would be very kewl.

I will, once I get started. It'll be some time, though -- I don't have a place to build it yet.

 

[waltky]

Mebbe dat's why dat monkey atta zoo been blowin' kisses at Granny...

Apes have ‘midlife crisis’ like men, scientists say
Wed, Nov 21, 2012 - MONKEY BUSINESS:A study suggests the well-being of captive apes declines in middle age then picks up as they approach old age, similar to some men’s moods

There comes a time in some men’s lives when the days seem darker, mortality more certain and the only sensible response is to blow the life savings on a sports car. Radical and often ill-advised changes in lifestyle have become the calling cards of the midlife crisis, but if it is more than a myth, then humans may not be the only animals to experience it. An international team of scientists claims to have found evidence of a slump in well-being among middle-aged chimpanzees and orangutans. The lull in happiness in the middle years, they say, is the great-ape equivalent of the midlife crisis.

The study, which was published on monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has raised eyebrows among some scientists. However, according to the authors the findings suggest that the midlife crisis may have its roots in the biology humans share with our closest evolutionary cousins. “There’s a common understanding that there’s a dip in well-being in middle age and that’s been found in many datasets across human cultures,” said Alex Weiss, a psychologist at Edinburgh University. “We took a step back and asked whether it’s possible that instead of the midlife crisis being human-specific and driven only by social factors, it reflects some evolved tendency for middle-aged individuals to have lower well-being,” he said.

The team from the US, Japan, Germany and the UK asked zookeepers, carers and others who worked with male and female apes of various ages to complete questionnaires about the animals. The forms included questions about each ape’s mood, the enjoyment they gained from socializing and their success at achieving certain goals. The final question asked how carers would feel about being the ape for a week. They scored their answers from one to seven. More than 500 apes were included in the study in three separate groups. The first two groups were chimpanzees and the third was made up of orangutans from Sumatra or Borneo. The animals came from zoos, sanctuaries and research centers in the US, Australia, Japan, Canada and Singapore.

When the researchers analyzed the questionnaires they found that well-being in the apes fell in middle age and climbed again as the animals moved into old age. In captivity great apes often live to 50 or more. The nadir in the animals’ well-being occurred, on average, at 28.3 and 27.2 years old for the chimpanzees, and 35.4 years old for the orangutans. “In all three groups we find evidence that well-being is lowest in chimpanzees and orangutans at an age that roughly corresponds to midlife in humans,” Weiss said. “On average, well-being scores are lowest when animals are about 30 years old.”

More Apes have ?midlife crisis? like men, scientists say - Taipei Times