Are walruses right-handed?(Research news from BioMed Central journals)(Brief Article).

Walruses are 'right-flippered', according to research published in BMC Ecology. The first study of walrus feeding behavior in the wild shows that the animals preferentially use their right flipper to brush sediment from buried clams. The finding implies that tool use is not a necessary precursor of handedness.

A team of scuba-diving researchers went to Northeast Greenland to film feeding walruses. Their videos show that the animals use their right flipper about nine times more than their left flipper when foraging for food. Anatomical studies revealed that walruses have longer bones in their right flipper than their left; notably, right handed people also have longer bones in their right arm.

BMC Ecology 2003.3:9.

Source Citation
"Are walruses right-handed?" The Scientist 17.22 (2003): A4. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .

Gale Document Number:A111303945

Previous Next