Spinning Silverback

Leaving stoic stereotypes behind, this silverback shows his playful side with a caregiver.  Having no idea what the TV show is about, I find it best to watch the video without any sound. Thanks to the Tonia at the Gorilla Keepers Forum for pointing it out!

Dutch Biologist Receives 14-year Sentence

One of Time Magazine's "Hero's for the Planet 2000", known for discovering new species (Callicebus bernhardi, Callicebus stephennashi, etc.) and focusing his attentions on protecting the rainforest has been convicted of failing to apply for a permit on behalf of the monkey refuge in his Brazilian home. It seems that without the permit (or license)...

Enculturated Chimps learn how to use rakes better than non-enculturated Chimps

Paraphrased from EurekAlert, new research has just come out from the Chimpanzee Cognition Center at Ohio State University and it is really interesting. It is the first research of its kind to document that raising chimpanzees in a human cultural environment enhances their cognitive abilities, as measured by their ability to understand how to rake....

Ndakasi’s Dead Mother, Rubiga

Yesterday I shared with you news about the recently orphaned baby gorilla, Ndakasi. In today's post I will show you a graphic photo of his dead mother. Her name is Rubiga, and she was shot in the back of the head. A autopsy confirmed this, removing two bullets from the back of her head. I...

Ndakasi an Orphaned Gorilla Rescued After Mom was Shot “Execution Style”

So I'll be straight up honest with you here, I'm still a bit shell shocked with this comment left this evening that basically defending the bushmeat industry. I know there are always whack jobs out there, but this person really took the cake; his or her arguments for bushmeat, or 'survival foods' as they term...

Spread the word, “Choose the right biofuel or the Orang-utan gets it!”

Being 'green' or ecologically conscious is making big waves in current popular culture, especially in the United States. Many initiatives, such as clean fuels and renewable energy, seem like excellent alternatives to our energy sources we predominantly use right now. This is generally a good thing. But not all of these initiatives are ecological so...

Testing Chimpanzees for Cultural Transmission

The amount of evidence that is out there in support of chimpanzee culture is rather overwhelming if you ask me. Most primatologists will agree that these socially, intellectually, and emotionally complex great apes have unique behaviors and learning systems that begin to mimic our own cultures and social structures. In a new Current Biology research...

Rhesus Macaques are Statisticians

There's new research coming out from Nature that shows us rhesus macaques are really tuned into statistics and probabilities, they may even have neurons specialized to calculate probabilities. But don't get your hopes up too high... these monkeys will not be your bookies or be crunchin' gout some gnarly ANOVA tests with p-value significance. What...