To whoever is doing the study on "handedness" -
 
    About a year ago I reviewed a manuscript authored by Phil Clapham which
I believe has now been published on "handedness" (or "flipperedness") in
humpback whales for the journal "Animal Behavior." Turns out that there are
only two groups in which there is a consistent bias - primates and cetaceans
(whales, dolphins, and porpoises).  In his lit review, he came up with
several papers testing handedness in rodents and found that, while there was
often a bias within the individual, it was broken up 50% each way in almost
all other species tested.  In both primates and cetaceans right-handedness
was dominant in about 80-85% of cases.  Its a good paper - worth looking up
for your study.  Please also post your ferret results to the newsletter - I
for one would be interested in seeing if you found anything different!
 
[Moderator's note: The April 22, 1995 issue of Science News (Vol 147, No 16,
Page 253) has a report from Bruce Bower at the annual meeting of the American
Association of Physical Anthropologists.  At the meeting, Bower reports, two
seperate research teams have reported that hand use preferences does not occur
in groups of wild chimps, with one exception - with certain types of tool use
chimps seem to favor one hand, but it varies by chimp, being split about 50%
left and 50% right.  The report concludes that the "evidence to date for ...
strong right- or left-handedness in nonhuman primates is 'very dicey'".  BIG]
 
Best - Mason, Slinky ("Handedness?  For a treat?  Its for my mouth,
not my paw!"), Pogo ("What's a paw?"), and Leila the cat ("Now they're
going to wrestle over handedness.  Thanks!")
[Posted in FML issue 1192]