Proud Daddies? Study shows male Barbary macaques use infants as status symbols
Check out this interesting New York Times article, which describes unusual behavior in Barbary macaque males. They use infants -- their own and others -- to facilitate bonding with other males, toting infants as status symbols. Dr.
"Retired" entertainment chimps: a very real problem
If you're a frequent visitor to our website or belong to our online community*, you may have heard us explain that entertainment chimpanzees generally can't be retired to zoos, because they haven't learned chimpanzee social skills and therefore don't fit in easily with established chimpanzee groups.
New study links chimp aggression to resource gain
A new study shows that male chimpanzee groups move into the territory of other chimpanzee groups to attack them and ultimately take over the territory or mates. But the scientists who conducted the study say they are reluctant to draw comparisons to human warfare. Instead, they are emphasizing the individual cooperation involved.
The Guardian quotes scientist John Mitani, a primate behavioral ecologist at the University of Michigan:
Scientists study orangutan gestures and body language
Scientists have identified more than 40 gestures used by orangutans to communicate.
To initiate play, for example, the apes used gestures including back rolls and blowing rasberries, while, quite familiarly "nudge and 'shoo' movements meant an ape wanted to be left alone."
Two scientists from the University of St Andrews in Scotland observed 28 orangutans at Twycross Zoo in the UK, Apenheul Primate Park in the Netherlands, and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey.
Thanks, Nat Geo!
National Geographic posted this video of a chimp baby in Tanzania doing what "kids" do best -- playing!
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Doctors perform ear surgery on zoo chimpanzee
New Zealand surgeons have performed what is thought to be the first ear surgery ever done on a chimpanzee.
NGeo Video: Self-Recognition in Apes
You may have read about the "mark test" or "mirror test." It's a way scientists study self-awareness or self-recognition. They surreptitiously put a colored dot or other mark on a subject -- often somewhere on the face. If, while looking in a mirror, subjects touch their marks or adjust their position to see them better, it's clear they understand they're looking at an image of themselves, rather than at other beings. Species that have passed the mark test include all great apes, bottlenose dolphins and magpies.
In Fort Pierce, bringing the doctor to the chimps
Save the Chimps, a sanctuary in Ft. Pierce, Florida for former laboratory and entertainment chimpanzees (including the "astrochimps" the Air Force used in research), found a creative solution to the problems created by transporting chimpanzees for medical care: a mobile vet lab.
Climate Change Figured in Ancient Apes' Disappearance
A new study reports that great apes were wiped out in ancient Europe when climate and environmental changes replaced forests with grasslands. The change meant monkeys thrived but great apes did not. "Ancient relatives of modern orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and gibbons were able to survive in Asia and Africa, where those changes were not as drastic," reports the BBC.
