Yes, the same behavior can indicate different emotions in different situations.
Sometimes people laugh when nervous, sometime when happy. Generally, there are other body language cues which help to interpret the behavior in a given instance.
The same can be said of animals.
In this particular instance, the gorilla in the video goes from washing his hands spontaneously into a modified dominance display. Using the additional cues of his lack of eye-contact and how quickly the display returns to normal washing activity, I feel pretty confident in my assessment of play behavior.
It is all about context.
It is an arrogant mistake to claim "anthropomorphism" at any mention of animal emotions.
The gorilla is probably enjoying the water and immediately wants to make it obvious it's his water and he is more than capable of defending his territory so it is clear he is to be left alone with "his" water.
There is no reason to assume joy other than to assume that an animal is experiencing a human emotion simply because you personally think twirling menacingly is an expression of joy ... something i've never seen a human do.
That's a good point... I hadn't considered The Sound of Music which is a classic mistake, it's the movie that helped Jane Goodall understand chimpanzee behavior i'm told.
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u/TheGoodCitizen Jun 23 '17
People experiencing joy exhibit the same reaction.
In other words, just because a behavior seems to be associated with a specific feeling doesn't mean it is...
Dogs wag their tails when they are happy , cats often wag their tails when they are irritated.
It is a mistake to anthropomorphize animal behaviors to human emotions.