Children's behaviour, when it comes to choosing toys, is well documented. We have all watched as a small boy manages to create a gun out of a piece of toast, while his sister can turn a ketchup bottle into a doll.
There has been a lot of debate about the reasons for this difference in orientation, with arguments ranging from genetics to parental role models to environment. No real hard and fast rule seems to exist, but the facts do remain.
It now seems that this behaviour is being observed in primates as well. A study conducted in 2010 has shown that when primates were presented with a range of human toys, the females in the group chose the "doll" types of toys, while the males tended towards weaponry.
Further studies on chimpanzees in particular have shown that, when given generic sticks to play with, the females tended to carry them in a manner similar to that used to carry infants, while the males again tended to chase their siblings around using the sticks as weapons.
Seems like we are not all that different from our fellow primates after all!
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