"Gorillas' Chest Beating: Conflict Prevention, Not Provocation, Study Reveals"

A new study based on years of observation of mountain gorillas reveals that chest beating serves as an honest demonstration of body size, with larger males producing deeper sounds to broadcast their dominance and keep rival males away. The thumping is believed to diffuse fights rather than provoke them, as smaller males use their own chest thumps to alert dominant males of their presence while demonstrating they're no match physically. Additionally, the chest thumps correlate to reproductive success and may influence female behavior, with future studies set to explore their impact on attracting females from other social groups.