Monkeys In The News

Monkeys Thought To Be Extinct ‘Rediscovered’ In Indonesia

2012-01-20T09:56:00.000-05:00

Scientists working in the dense jungles of Indonesia have "rediscovered" a large, gray monkey so rare it was believed by many to be extinct.

They were all the more baffled to find the Miller's Grizzled Langur - its black face framed by a fluffy, Dracula-esque white collar - in an area well outside its previously recorded home range.

The team set up camera traps in the Wehea Forest on the eastern tip of Borneo island in June, hoping to captures images of clouded leopards, orangutans and other wildlife known to congregate at several mineral salt licks.

The pictures that came back caught them all by surprise: groups of monkeys none had ever seen.

Full story here.
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Rare Monkey Caught On Camera In The Wild For The First Time

2012-01-18T13:08:00.000-05:00

Myanmar snub-nosed monkeys, previously only known from one dead specimen, have been photographed living in the wild for the first time, conservationists say.

The animal was photographed by a camera trap operated by a joint team from Fauna & Flora International, Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association, and People Resources and Conservation Foundation.

Full story here.
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Grandpa The 'Psychic' Monkey To Predict GOP Winner In New Hampshire Primary

2012-01-06T13:32:00.000-05:00

Grandpa, the wise, old spider monkey who calls the Staten Island Zoo home, views life through Yoda-like eyes — and his fans say that eerily accurate is the future he sees.

His keepers have been testing his supposedly psychic powers by having him pick the winners of tennis matches and pigskin tilts. But the Daily News is giving Grandpa his toughest challenge yet — choosing which candidate in the crowded GOP field will claim victory in the New Hampshire primary.

On Monday, the day before the showdown in the Granite State, The News will have Grandpa pick a banana from a bunch. Each banana will have written on it the name of a GOP candidate — and pity all who are not the chosen banana.

In the past, Grandpa has shown himself to be an ace at beating odds in sporting matches that break down to a simple flip of a coin, like his triumph in picking the Green Bay Packers to win the Super Bowl last year.

But The News’ test will confront the zoo’s “elder statesman” with a race that has proven to be chaotic and a cast of characters whose fates have changed wildly. Even though former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is running well ahead of the pack in New Hampshire, where he owns a summer home, the zoo’s head curator says it is impossible for mere mortals to know how Grandpa will pick ’em.

Full story here.
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New Vaccine Protects Monkeys Against Primate Version of HIV

2012-01-06T13:28:00.000-05:00

Researchers have developed a vaccine that protects Rhesus monkeys against SIV, the simian version of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS in humans. Scientists say the experiment could lead to improved treatments for AIDS, and speed development of an effective HIV vaccine.

Building on the results of a large experimental AIDS-vaccine trial in Thailand reported in 2009, researchers developed a two-stage vaccine made up of proteins from the simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, that protects a significant percentage of Rhesus macaques against the disease. SIV is a model for HIV because the human virus cannot infect monkeys.

Colonel Nelson Michael is a molecular virologist with the U.S Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute, and senior author of the research.

“We have now very good evidence, with new generation vaccines that we are seeing, the kinds of promising results in animals that would propel us to spend significant resources to test these vaccines in humans, which is what we are planning to do,” said Michael.

Full story here.
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FaceTime For Apes: Orangutans Use iPads To Video Chat

2012-01-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

Orangutans living in captivity will soon start using iPads for primate play-dates, using Skype or FaceTime to interact with their brethren in other zoos, according to zookeepers. The great apes have been playing with iPads for about six months at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and they’ve been such a hit that other zoos plan to introduce them, too.

The “Apps for Apes” program started after a zookeeper commented online about getting some iPads for her gorilla charges. Someone donated a used iPad, and it turned out the gorillas didn’t care for it. But the orangutans loved it, as the LA Times says.

The apes don’t typically get to hold the pricey tablets, because they’re strong enough to break them in half, zookeepers said. Instead, a keeper will hold the iPads up to a primate cage and let the apes interact with them. The orangutans have been playing with apps like Doodle Buddy by sticking their fingers through their cages’ mesh. One orangutan, 31-year-old MJ, is apparently a huge fan of David Attenborough nature programs, the BBC reports.

A group called Orangutan Outreach, which is involved in the Apps for Apes effort, is waiting for the iPad 3 to come out so the original iPad will become obsolete and cheaper for zoos to obtain. The Houston Zoo has one iPad but hasn’t introduced it to the orangutans yet, while Zoo Atlanta, the Toronto Zoo and the Phoenix Zoo are waiting to get iPads. When they do, zookeepers across the institutions plan to set up play-dates when the apes can chat via Skype or FaceTime.

Full story here.
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Whiff of "Love Hormone" Helps Monkeys Show a Little Kindness

2012-01-06T13:23:00.000-05:00

Oxytocin, the "love hormone" that builds mother-baby bonds and may help us feel more connected toward one another, can also make surly monkeys treat each other a little more kindly.

Administering the hormone nasally through a kid-sized nebulizer, like a gas mask, a Duke University research team has shown that it can make rhesus macaques pay more attention to each other and make choices that give another monkey a squirt of fruit juice, even when they don't get one themselves.

Two macaques were seated next to each other and trained to select symbols from a screen that represented giving a rewarding squirt of juice to one's self, giving juice to the neighbor, or not handing out any juice at all. In repeated trials, they were faced with a choice between just two of these options at a time: reward to self vs. no reward; reward to self vs. reward to other; and reward to other vs. no reward.

"The inhaled oxytocin enhanced 'prosocial' choices by the monkeys, perhaps by making them pay more attention to the other individual," said neuroscientist Michael Platt, who headed the study and is director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. "If that's true, it's really cool, because it suggests that oxytocin breaks down normal social barriers."

Earlier work by Platt's group had shown that macaques would rather give a reward to another monkey when the alternative is no reward for anyone, a concept they call "vicarious reinforcement." Their data in the latest study show an apparent improvement in vicarious reinforcement about a half-hour after exposure to oxytocin. Interestingly, for the first half-hour, the monkey was more likely to reward itself.

Full story here.
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Banana Sam Back At SF Zoo

2012-01-06T13:21:00.000-05:00

Banana-Sam was resting comfortably behind the scenes at the San Francisco Zoo on Sunday, with staffers keeping close tabs on the squirrel monkey after his weekend kidnapping ordeal.

The 17-year-old primate spent New Year's Day recuperating out of the public eye after a nearly 40-hour adventure that began with his abduction late Thursday or early Friday.

The 2-pound creature was shaking, hungry and cold when police returned him to the zoo Saturday evening, but he was relatively clean and with no obvious trauma, said Danny Latham, a zoo spokesman.

"We have no idea the conditions in which he was kept," he said.

Latham said it was unclear when Banana-Sam would return to his exhibit with his 17 squirrel monkey friends.

Full story here.
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Kanzi The Chimpanzee Can Start A Fire, Cook His Own Food

2012-01-06T13:16:00.001-05:00

A chimpanzee living in Iowa knows how to use tools and can even start fires and cook, animal researchers say.

Kanzi, a male bonobo chimp, lives at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, where scientists taught him to use matches.

Now Kanzi enjoys roasting marshmallows over an open fire and pan-frying hamburgers, the New York Daily News reported Friday.

"Kanzi makes fire because he wants to. He used to watch the film 'Quest for Fire' when he was very young, which was about early man struggling to control fire," trust scientist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh said.

Full story here.
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'Chimera' Monkeys Created In Lab by Combining Several Embryos Into One

2012-01-05T15:17:00.000-05:00

Roku and Hex from OHSU News on Vimeo.

The world's first monkeys to be created from the embryos of several individuals have been born at a US research centre.

Scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre produced the animals, known as chimeras, by sticking together between three and six rhesus monkey embryos in the early stages of their development.

Three animals were born at the laboratory, a singleton and twins, and were said to be healthy, with no apparent birth defects following the controversial technique.

The chimeras have tissues and organs made up of cells that come from each of the contributing embryos. The mixtures of cells carried up to six distinct genomes.

"The cells never fuse, but they stay together and work together to form tissues and organs," said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who led the research. "The possibilities for science are enormous."

Scientists named the singleton Chimero, and the twins Roku and Hex, meaning six in Japanese and Greek. Hex was born after merging six individual embryos, according to a report in the journal Cell. "To our knowledge, these infants are the world's first primate chimeras," the authors write.

Full story here.
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Cheetah, Chimp From Tarzan Films, Dies

2011-12-28T11:54:00.000-05:00

Condolences poured in to a Florida primate sanctuary Wednesday after the death of Cheetah, a chimpanzee who starred in the Tarzan movies during the 1930s.

"I grew up watching Tarzan and Cheetah from a boy," a man identifying himself as Thomas from England wrote on the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary's website. "God bless you Cheetah. Now you and Tarzan are together again."

The chimpanzee died Saturday after suffering kidney failure the week before, the sanctuary foundation said on the site. He was roughly 80 years old, Debbie Cobb, the sanctuary's outreach director, told CNN affiliate WFLA.

Cobb recalled Cheetah as an outgoing chimp who loved finger painting and watching football and who was soothed by Christian music, the station said.

Cheetah appeared in the Tarzan moves from 1932 through 1934, Cobb told WFLA. According to the website Tarzanmovieguide.com, "Tarzan the Ape Man" was released in 1932 and "Tarzan and his Mate" in 1934.

Full story here.
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US Will Not Finance New Research On Chimps

2011-12-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

The National Institutes of Health on Thursday suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees and accepted the first uniform criteria for assessing the necessity of such research. Those guidelines require that the research be necessary for human health, and that there be no other way to accomplish it.

In making the announcement, Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the N.I.H., said that chimps, as the closest human relatives, deserve “special consideration and respect” and that the agency was accepting the recommendations released earlier in the day by an expert committee of the Institute of Medicine, which concluded that most research on chimpanzees was unnecessary.

The report and the quick response by the N.I.H. do not put an end to research on chimps, but they were claimed as victories by animal welfare groups that have long been fighting for a ban on such research, arguing that chimps should not be subjected to experimental use. They said that the move was a step toward eventually ending chimp research, already a tiny segment of federal research.

Full story here.
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Got Those Post-Monkey Day Blues? We Have A Solution...

2011-12-15T11:47:00.001-05:00

Everyone is recovering from the blur that was Monkey Day, wiping the fuzz from their eyes, only to realize that it will be a whole year until the next chance to celebrate again. So, what do you do until then?

How about lifting your spirits and gaining some karma by doing something charitable and donating to some primate sanctuaries in need? Here is an alphabetical list of sanctuaries that are always looking for willing donors, please help them however you can:

(Please leave a comment if you know of one that I left off the list!)
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Happy Monkey Day 2011!

2011-12-14T00:39:00.002-05:00

Has it really been a year already? Well, I guess you've been patiently waiting a whole year for it, so here are your top 10 Monkey and Primate 2011 News highlights to help you celebrate Monkey Day!

10) Monkey Related Deaths

I'm not really sure what these poor people did to piss off these monkeys, but I'm definitely going to leave an extra banana or two under the monkey tree this Monkey Day just in case any angry simians are lurking around:

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Man Falls To Death From Rooftop After Monkey Attack

Monkey Pushes Stone, 1 Dies On Spot, 2 Injured

Woman Falls To her Death After Monkey Pounces On Her
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9) 'Alien' Monkey Causes Panic In Chinese Village

I want to believe.

8) Drunk Zoo Visitor Attacked By Monkeys After Climbing Into Pen

I did this once in the Llama pen, I woke up with a new wool sweater.

7) Experiment Creates Advertisements To Sell Food To Monkeys

For some reason I'm imagining a monkey forced to stare what at a flashing screen while Beethoven's Ninth Symphony plays in the background. Welly, welly, welly, well...

6) Monkey 'Witch' Burnt To Death By Community

Joke time! What do you say to an angry witch? Ribbit.

5) Monkeys Urinate On Themselves To Attract A Mate

Coming soon to a perfume counter near you.

4) Gorilla Gains Internet Fame After Walking Upright

I was going to make a Robin Williams falling into a gorilla exhibit joke, but it just seems a little too obvious. Let's just move on.

3) "Elvis" Monkey Among 200 New Species Discovered In Vietnam

Hunk-a-hunk of burning monkey. Wait, wasn't that a few stories back?

2) Lab Chimps See Daylight For First Time

After 30 years of captivity, these chimps see sunlight and grass for the first time. It's pretty amazing to watch their reaction. The heartbreaking and heartwarming story of the year.

1) Research Finds Poop-Throwing By Chimps Is A Sign Of Intelligence

That's right, throwing feces is a sign of brain development. Now, everybody get out there and celebrate Monkey Day!

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Wild Monkeys To Measure Fukushima Radiation

2011-12-12T10:05:00.000-05:00

Scientists in Japan are struggling to assess the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster amid continuing concerns over high levels of radiation. Now help is at hand in the form of the area’s wild monkey population.

Radiation levels in the woods near the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster is now going to be measured with the help of the primates.

Researchers from Fukushima University have designed special collars for the monkeys which will feed information to scientists.

Each of the collars contains a small radiation survey meter and a GPS transmitter and can be unclipped by remote control, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Saturday.

This will enable the research team, led by robotics professor Takayuki Takahashi, to recover them and collect data one to two months after releasing the monkeys back into the wild.

Currently, radiation is measured using helicopters – a method which has proved incapable of obtaining the most accurate estimates.

The project has also been designed to check radiation exposure in wild animals. The monkeys will allow the scientists to compare radiation levels on the ground and in the air, as they spend much of their time sitting high up in trees.

The two-month project is to kick off in spring 2012.

Full story here.
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Kentucky Police Purchase Monkey In Undercover Drug Sting

2011-12-12T09:58:00.000-05:00

"Monkey business in Rowan county," says Chief Deputy, Joe Cline, of the Rowan county sheriff's office.

Sheriffs deputies in Rowan county have been cracking down on drug trafficking, making under cover buys. It was at Jerry Mynhier's house, where they found more than what they were looking for, "We received a lot of complaints about this guy. While we were in there doing our buys, we were able to find out that he had a monkey,That he wanted to sell," adds Mynhier.

After talking with Mynhier in jail, he says the monkey was his pet, "It was named, when I got it, Snickers."

He says he bought Snickers from a friend and that he became part of the family, "I have a little house next door that it was kept it in. It lived in a cage and I also let it run loose in there.

Sheriff's deputies say that Snickers appeared neglected, but Mynhier says he took care of her,"I fed it bananas, peanuts, and grapes."

Sheriffs deputies working undercover paid $500 for the spider monkey.

"It required some extra contacts and calls and a lot was done prior to the transactions. We wanted to make sure that we didn't have monkey on our hands, not knowing how to take care of one, or where to take it," says Cline.

Sheriffs deputies say that Mynhier faces several felony charges for possessing oxycodone and likely a misdemeanor charge for possessing a primate.

"Selling the drugs is what I'm confused about, but having a monkey that was stupidity," says Mynhier.

Full story here.
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Freezing Lemur Found On London's Tooting Common

2011-12-12T09:54:00.000-05:00

A ring-tailed lemur, native to the east African island of Madagascar, was found collapsed in sub-zero conditions on a south-west London common.

The primate, who has been named King Julien after the character in the animated film Madagascar, was found on Tooting Common on Tuesday night.

The animal has been treated for shock and hypothermia at an animal hospital and is making a good recovery.

It is not known how it came to be on the common.

The lemur was also suffering from severe dehydration when it was taken to the Blue Cross animal hospital in Victoria, central London.

It was put on a drip and put in the hospital's isolation unit for close monitoring.

Full story here.
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"Elvis" Monkey Among 200 New Species Discovered In Vietnam

2011-12-12T09:51:00.000-05:00

A monkey with an Elvis haircut and a psychedelic gecko and are among 208 new species described last year by scientists in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia.

The animals were discovered in a region that is threatened by habitat loss, deforestation, climate change and overdevelopment, the WWF said.

The newly described species include a "psychedelic gecko" in southern Vietnam and a nose-less monkey in a remote province of Burma that looks like it wears a pompadour.

"While this species, sporting an Elvis-like hairstyle, is new to science, the local people know it well," the group said in a report.

Full story here.
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Chimps 'Trade' Like Humans - Some Even Indulge In 'The Oldest Profession'

2011-12-08T09:33:00.000-05:00

What was the basis for the earliest friendships? If wild chimps are any guide: support in a fight, borrowing a valued tool, and a bite to eat now and then. Quite similar to our friendships today, in fact. Indeed, some chimps are so modern they have relationships that we would classify as friends with benefits.

Primatologists are reassessing the complexity of chimpanzee society in the light of new findings that also suggest answers to a long-standing question: why share things with non-relatives?

For the first time wild chimps in Senegal have been observed taking plant foods and tools from other chimps, who don't react to the intrusion. The chimps donating their stuff don't get paid, but neither do they protest. Instead, the trade appears to help build social cohesion.

What's more, in another west African study, this time in Ivory Coast, a "market" has been described where chimps exchange commodities in the shape of both social behaviours including grooming and sex, and resources such as meat.

Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, says we have only recently begun to appreciate the time and energy chimps invest in reciprocal relationships, and he compares chimp relationships to friendship. "These findings have prompted primatologists to use some terms that have in the past been reserved for humans."

Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames and colleague Stacy Lindshield documented a kind of proto-trade in savannah chimps (Pan troglodytes verus) living in the Fongoli area of south-east Senegal. They witnessed 41 transfers of plant foods and tools. Chimps are known to share meat, but this is the first study to document them sharing other types of goods.

Food or tools were transferred from males to females 27 times. In most cases this was the result of a female simply taking the item and the male doing nothing to stop her. In other chimp populations males may lash out in this situation but at Fongoli males outnumber females and have to be nice to them if they want to have sex later.

Pruetz suspects that item transfer is a social lubricant. "It seems like the ulterior motive is social group harmony on some level," she says.

If a male is transferring goods to another male, then Pruetz predicts that the male will expect support from the recipient of his largesse in any future aggressive encounter with other males. If a male shares with a female he is likely to expect sexual benefits from her. "But other age-sex classes were also involved," says Pruetz, "and I think this reflects the cohesive nature of this chimp community."

Full story here.
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Pakistan "Arrests" Indian Monkey For Crossing Border

2011-12-05T12:32:00.000-05:00

A monkey, which had crossed the Indian border, was arrested by wildlife officials in Bahawalpur, Express News reported on Monday.

As soon as the monkey entered the Cholistan area of Bahawalpur, locals tried to capture it but failed as the monkey dodged past them.

The residents of the area then informed the wildlife officials, who after some investigation and struggle, managed to capture the monkey.

The monkey was later placed at the Bahawalpur Zoo and has been named Bobby.

This is not the first case of such cross-border animal arrests.

Last year, Indian police held a pigeon under armed guard after it was caught on an alleged spying mission for Pakistan.

Full story here.
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Research Finds Poop-Throwing By Chimps Is A Sign Of Intelligence

2011-11-30T13:54:00.000-05:00

A lot of people who have gone to the zoo have become the targets of feces thrown by apes or monkeys, and left no doubt wondering about the so-called intellectual capacity of a beast that would resort to such foul play. Now however, researchers studying such behavior have come to the conclusion that throwing feces, or any object really, is actually a sign of high ordered behavior. Bill Hopkins of Emory University and his colleagues have been studying the whole process behind throwing and the impact it has on brain development, and have published their results in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

Hopkins and his team have focused their research on chimpanzees, mainly due they say, to the fact that chimps are our closet living relative and that they are the only other species besides humans that regularly throw things with a clear target in mind. He and his team have been watching chimps in action for several years and comparing their actions with scans of their brains to see if there were any correlations between those chimps that threw a lot, and those that didn’t or whether they’re accuracy held any deeper meaning. Surprisingly, they found that chimps that both threw more and were more likely to hit their targets showed heightened development in the motor cortex, and more connections between it and the Broca’s area, which they say is an important part of speech in humans. The better chimp throwers, in other words, had more highly developed left brain hemispheres, which is also, non-coincidently, where speech processing occurs in people.

Such findings led the term to suggest that the ability to throw is, or was, a precursor to speech development in human beings.

After making their discovery regarding the parts of the brain that appear to be involved in better throwing in chimps, the team tested the chimps and found that those that could throw better also appeared to be better communicators within their group, giving credence to their idea that speech and throwing are related. Interestingly, they also found that the better throwing chimps didn’t appear to posses any more physical prowess than other chimps, which the researchers suggest means that throwing didn’t develop as a means of hunting, but as a form of communication within groups, i.e. throwing stuff at someone else became a form of self expression, which is clearly evident to anyone who has ever been targeted by a chimp locked up in a zoo.

Full story here.
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Monkeys Eat Like Kings In Annual Lopburi Buffet

2011-11-28T12:46:00.000-05:00

A local monkey population in central Thailand has been treated to a lavish feast of fruits and vegetables, as well as dishes prepared by five-star hotels, in a bizarre annual tradition designed to draw in tourists.

The annual 'monkey buffet' festival takes place on the last Sunday in November at the Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in the town of Lopburi, situated 150km north of Bangkok.

The ritual offers thanks to Lopburi's 2,000 monkeys for providing good fortune and prosperity, and tourists.

Locals filled tables with fresh produce, desserts and giant ice blocks, which were then destroyed by the monkeys as locals and foreign tourists looked on with delight.

Full story here.
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Leading U.S. Primate Lab Accused Of Illegal Chimp Breeding

2011-11-28T12:42:00.000-05:00

The largest primate research facility in the United States has been accused of breeding chimpanzees in violation of government rules, and possibly the law.

At the heart of the case is whether the New Iberia Research Center systematically broke National Institutes of Health rules while breeding chimpanzees, or simply made a few honest and subsequently corrected mistakes.

However, the NIH branch responsible for investigating the allegations has done so opaquely, with apparent reluctance.

“They’ve signed contracts and grants saying that they won’t use federally owned chimps to breed,” said Kathleen Conlee, animal research program director with the Humane Society, who formally filed the accusations in March with the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services. “We have evidence that they’re breeding federally owned chimps.”

New Iberia and the Humane Society are old adversaries: In 2009, undercover video taken by Humane Society activists led to a government investigation of disturbing Animal Welfare Act violations at the facility, which houses 350 chimpanzees used in disease research. Some of the chimpanzees are owned privately by companies or universities, and others are government owned.

Full story here.
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112 Monkeys, Baboon To Get New Home After Bankruptcy

2011-11-28T12:31:00.000-05:00

A wildlife shelter that went bust will be transferring 113 primates to a nearby sanctuary after a bankruptcy judge on Monday approved the move.

"We don't have definitive historical numbers on rescues, but it is clearly one of the largest single rescues we know of," Adam Roberts, executive vice president of Born Free USA, told msnbc.com.

Born Free expects to receive the 112 macaque monkeys and one baboon in a few months at its primate sanctuary in Dilley, Texas. The animals are currently at the San Antonio-based Wild Animal Orphanage, which last year filed for bankruptcy.

"This is a heartbreaking situation particularly for this large group of primates who would otherwise likely be euthanized without our humane intervention," Roberts said in a statement. "Every day wild animals need to be rescued from 'pet owners,' laboratories, roadside zoos, and other abusive circumstances, but this time it is about a large sanctuary having to shut down completely — and demonstrates just how challenging wildlife rescue work is."

Full story here.
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Endangered Baby Gorilla Born At Chicago Zoo Dies

2011-11-28T12:25:00.000-05:00

A preliminary exam shows that an endangered baby gorilla born nine days ago at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo died of head trauma.

Zoo workers discovered the baby gorilla was dead Friday morning, as she was being carried around by her mother.

The zoo says workers allowed the mother, 16-year-old Bana, to keep the baby for several hours "to make peace with what happened." She was a first-time mother.

The cause of death was determined later in the day during a necropsy, the animal version of an autopsy.

The baby's father was a 22-year-old silverback gorilla named Kwan.

The baby was the first Western lowland gorilla born at the zoo since 2005. She had not been named.

In a statement, the zoo says the baby appeared to be fully developed.

Full story here.
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Exterminators Arrested For Orangutan Killings

2011-11-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

The police have arrested two palm oil plantation workers for allegedly killing dozens of monkeys and orangutans in Puan Cepak village in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan.

The suspects, both exterminators, claimed that they were paid to kill the animals under orders from a supervisor.

“They received Rp 200,000 [US$22] to kill a monkey and Rp 1 million for an orangutan,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said on Monday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The suspects claimed that they killed 20 orangutans and monkeys between 2008 and 2010, although police believe the true number of slaughtered animals number to be much higher.

Saud said that the men would send dogs to find and kill the animals if they could not be shot.

“If [the animals] had already been shot and killed, they would take pictures and ask for pay from the company,” he said.

Among items taken into evidence by investigators were photographs of the slain animals and buried bones unearthed near the plantation.

When asked whether or not the police would arrest the managers, Saud said, “We are developing [the investigation].”

Full story here.
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Palm Coast Monkey Shot With Tranquilizer Dart Flees Police

2011-11-21T10:44:00.000-05:00

Flagler County's latest fugitive threw a bit of a monkey wrench at law enforcement Sunday.

A rhesus monkey perched in a tree fended off capture for six hours and then gave officers the slip.

Joyce Ramirez, a Palm Coast resident, saw the monkey in a patch of woods at the corner of Colorado Drive and Covington Lane. She reported it to law enforcement about 9:30 a.m.

She spotted the monkey at eye level, but it soon scurried up to the top of the tallest tree it could find.

"I've seen deer," said Ramirez, who moved to Flagler County from New Jersey. "I've seen snakes. But a monkey? You've got to be kidding me."

Ramirez tried to coax the primate to the ground with cantaloupe and bread, but it chose to stay in the tree, much to the chagrin of law enforcement watching helplessly on the ground.

Authorities weren't monkeying around with the rhesus. During the standoff, two animal control trucks, two sheriff's squad cars, a sheriff's sport utility vehicle and a truck from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were parked near the primate. A Palm Coast fire department ladder truck arrived just before the monkey escaped.

Animal control hit the monkey with a tranquilizer dart, but officers could not find a way to safely get the groggy primate out of the tree.

Once the sedative wore off, the monkey made a dash for freedom. Officers chased it about a block to Colchester Lane, where it was last seen.

With the monkey alert and on the move, authorities conceded defeat and called off the chase.

Mike Lagana, a corporal with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, was one of the first officers to arrive. Lagana said he never could have anticipated spending his day staking out a monkey.

"It's always something new," Lagana said during a break in the action. "It's what makes you want to come to work."

This is the first time a monkey has been reported on the lam in Palm Coast, Lagana said.

Authorities suspect the primate might have come from a troop of wild rhesus monkeys that lives in Ocala's Silver Springs State Park.

Full story here.
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Drunk Zoo Visitor Attacked By Monkeys After Climbing Into Pen

2011-11-18T12:52:00.000-05:00

A drunk zoo visitor was taken to hospital after he climbed into a monkey enclosure to "play" and suffered a series of painful injuries when the animals attacked him.

The incident was captured on camera by an amateur filmmaker, whose footage shows the man swimming across a pool towards a group of spider monkeys.

Joao Leite Dos Santos, a mechanic from Sao Paulo, Brazil, had been drinking alcohol when he went to the Sorocaba Zoo on Sunday.

He climbed over a fence, pulled off his shirt and made his way towards the animals as tourists at the popular city zoo looked on, with many taking photos and videos of his stunt.

As Mr Dos Santos swam towards the primates, two can be seen reaching out from the side of the pool in a bid to grab hold of him.

The animals scratched and bit at his arms and shoulders as he moved closer to their group.

Full story here.
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Chimps' Days In Labs May Be Dwindling

2011-11-18T12:48:00.000-05:00

Chimps’ similarity to humans makes them valuable for research, and at the same time inspires intense sympathy. To research scientists, they may look like the best chance to cure terrible diseases. But to many other people, they look like relatives behind bars.

Biomedical research on chimps helped produce a vaccine for hepatitis B, and is aimed at one for hepatitis C, which infects 170 million people worldwide, but there has long been an outcry against the research as cruel and unnecessary. Now, because of a major push by advocacy organizations, a decision to stop such research in the United States could come within a year. As it is, the United States is one of only two countries that conduct invasive research on chimpanzees. The other is the central African nation of Gabon.

“This is a very different moment than ever before,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States. “Now is the time to get these chimps out of invasive research and out of the labs.”

Full story here.
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Mother Monkeys Help Sons Find Right Girl For Mating

2011-11-10T09:43:00.000-05:00

If you are a male human, nothing puts a damper on romantic success like having your mother in tow. If you are a male northern muriqui monkey, however, mom's presence may be your best bet to find and successfully mate with just the right girl at the right time.

In a study of wild primates, reported this week (Nov. 7, 2011) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist Karen B. Strier describes a monkey society where equality and tolerance rule and where sexually mature males, still living at home, seem to get helpful access to mates by the mere presence of their mothers and other maternal kin.

The new study, which combines Strier's long-term behavioral studies of wild muriquis with new genetic assays obtained from their scat, is important because it can inform conservation practices for critically endangered primates. But the study's big surprise, says Strier, was evidence that could extend the 'grandmother hypothesis,' the notion that human females evolved to live well past their reproductive years because of the rearing advantages conferred by post-menopausal women on their grandchildren.

Full story here.
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Panzee The Chimp Demonstrates Understanding Of Speech

2011-11-10T09:39:00.000-05:00

A 25-year-old chimpanzee named "Panzee" has just demonstrated that speech perception is not a uniquely human trait.

Well-educated Panzee understands more than 130 English language words and even recognizes words in sine-wave form, a type of synthetic speech that reduces language to three whistle-like tones. This shows that she isn't just responding to a particular person's voice or emotions, but instead she is processing and perceiving speech as humans do.

"The results suggest that the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans may have had the capability to perceive speech-like sounds before the evolution of speech, and that early humans were taking advantage of this latent ability when speech did eventually emerge," said Lisa Heimbauer who presented a talk today on the chimp at the 162nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in San Diego.

Heimbauer, a doctoral candidate and researcher at Georgia State University's Language Research Center, and colleagues Michael Owren and Michael Beran tested Panzee on her ability to understand words communicated via sine-wave speech, which replicates the estimated frequency and amplitude patterns of natural utterances. "Tickle," "M&M," "lemonade," and "sparkler" were just a few of the test words.

Full story here.
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Experimental Drug Slims Obese Monkeys

2011-11-10T09:34:00.000-05:00

An experimental drug that targets and kills fat cells in the blood appears to help obese rhesus monkeys lose weight, a new study suggests.

In the future, this approach may help obese humans lose weight, according to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers.

"Targeting blood vessels of white fat tissue is a novel conceptual approach against obesity," said study author Dr. Wadih Arap, the Stringer Professor of Medicine and Experimental Diagnostic Imaging at M.D. Anderson. "Adipotide is a new drug candidate against obesity to be translated into potential clinical applications in humans."

The report was published in the Nov. 9 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

The usual way drugs work to counter obesity is either by suppressing appetite or by increasing metabolism to try to burn calories faster, the investigators noted.

However, this new drug works by attaching itself to fat cells in the blood vessels and triggering a synthetic protein that causes the cell to die. These cells are then reabsorbed and metabolized, the researchers explained.

When the drug was tried on monkeys that were naturally obese they lost about 11 percent of their body weight over a month, Arap's team found.

In addition, the treated monkeys also improved their insulin resistance, which is a marker for developing type 2 diabetes. After treatment, the monkeys used 50 percent less insulin, the researchers found.

Full story here.
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'Junk DNA' Makes Us Different From Chimps

2011-10-27T10:47:00.000-04:00

For years, scientists believed the vast phenotypic differences between humans and chimpanzees would be easily explained – the two species must have significantly different genetic makeups. However, when their genomes were later sequenced, researchers were surprised to learn that the DNA sequences of human and chimpanzee genes are nearly identical. What then is responsible for the many morphological and behavioral differences between the two species? Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have now determined that the insertion and deletion of large pieces of DNA near genes are highly variable between humans and chimpanzees and may account for major differences between the two species.

The research team lead by Georgia Tech Professor of Biology John McDonald has verified that while the DNA sequence of genes between humans and chimpanzees is nearly identical, there are large genomic "gaps" in areas adjacent to genes that can affect the extent to which genes are "turned on" and "turned off." The research shows that these genomic "gaps" between the two species are predominantly due to the insertion or deletion (INDEL) of viral-like sequences called retrotransposons that are known to comprise about half of the genomes of both species. The findings are reported in the most recent issue of the online, open-access journal Mobile DNA.

Full story here.
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Rare Titi Monkey Born At Lincoln Park Zoo

2011-10-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

A rare Bolivian gray titi monkey was born this week at Lincoln Park Zoo, officials said today.

Born Monday, October 17, and is one of only approximately 50 individuals of this species in accredited zoos.

The new arrival, yet to be sexed or named, was born Monday as the eighth offspring for mother Delasol and father Ocala.

Mom and baby both appear to be doing well, zoo officials said. There are only about 50 individuals of this species in accredited zoos.

“We are delighted,” said Curator of Primates Maureen Leahy in a news release. “Delasol is the oldest Bolivian gray titi monkey on record to have given birth, and the newborn’s father and older siblings are already pitching in.”

Full story here.
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Chimp Breaks Out At Texas Zoo, But Doesn’t Get Far

2011-10-27T10:35:00.000-04:00

Dallas Zoo officials said a chimpanzee escaped from her enclosure on Tuesday morning.

Officials said Koko got out of her bedroom and roamed into the hallway. Zoo keepers were cleaning her cage when they realized she was not in her normal area. She got out of her bedroom, but was still in a confined area.

As a precaution, the Wilds of Africa exhibit was evacuated. A Code Red was issued. That means a dangerous animal is on the loose.

The female chimp was discovered and tranquilized.

"It took us a little while to get in a position where we could get a dart into the animal," said Greg Hudson, Dallas Zoo director.

No one was hurt.

Full story here.
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Endangered Monkey Pushed To Be 2016 Olympic Mascot

2011-10-27T10:31:00.000-04:00

Rio de Janeiro environmental officials are hoping to make an endangered monkey species the face of the 2016 Olympics.

According to the state's environmental ministry, the muriqui or woolly spider monkey is one of several animals native to the state that is at risk of extinction.

The monkey is native to the Atlantic rainforest, which covers several Brazilian states, as well as Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Centuries of deforestation and development have seen the rainforest shrink from 1.2 million square kilometres to under 100 thousand square kilometres today.

At the launch of their "Muriqui Rio 2016" campaign, environmentalists displayed merchandise bearing the proposed mascot.

Full story here.
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Baby Monkey Born At Vancouver Aquarium

2011-10-27T10:29:00.000-04:00

The Vancouver Aquarium's monkey population just got a little bigger with the recent birth of a Goeldi's monkey.

Ginger, the aquarium's female Goeldi's monkey, gave birth Sunday morning.

"Mother and baby are slowly bonding and are doing well," said Dr. Dennis Thoney, director of animal operations.

"The newborn has been nursing and the mother appears to be comfortable in her habitat with the newborn on her back. To allow mother and newborn time to bond, we will be closely monitoring but not disturbing them — as such, the sex of the newborn will not be known for another few weeks."

Full story here.
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Posse Kills, Captures Escaped Animals; Monkey Still Loose In Ohio

2011-10-19T20:51:00.000-04:00

Armed deputies have found and killed nearly all the animals — including lions, tigers and bears — that escaped from a Zanesville, Ohio, private preserve on Tuesday, the local sheriff told reporters early this afternoon.

Investigators believe the preserve's owner, Terry Thompson, freed the 50-or-so animals and then killed himself. He was found dead at the scene.

Throughout the day, police hunted the animals because they said they posed a threat to public safety. At a press conference, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said he felt there was no alternative — deputies do not carry tranquilizers, aren't trained to subdue animals with them and were faced with the prospect of dozens of dangerous animals getting into areas where people live.

As night fell, all but one of the 56 escaped animals had been captured or killed. A monkey was still at large and police managed to capture a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys alive. They were taken to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

Full story here.
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Army To Phase Out Nerve-Agent Tests On Monkeys At Aberdeen Proving Ground

2011-10-18T11:49:00.000-04:00

After sustained pressure from animal rights groups and a member of Congress, the Army has agreed to stop injecting monkeys with high doses of a nerve-blocking drug meant to simulate a nerve gas attack.

The practice, carried out at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County, Md., is designed to train Army medical personnel to respond to chemical attacks on troops.

Last month, Aberdeen received a shipment of 20 male African green monkeys from a Florida company, Worldwide Primates, for the tests, which the Army has been carrying out since at least 2005. Army documents show the monkeys were to be anaesthetized, injected with a nerve-blocking agent, physostigmine, and observed by Army medical personnel before receiving an antidote.

Worldwide Primates obtained the monkeys from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, according to Army documents.

Army spokesman Michael Elliott confirmed Thursday that the Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense at Aberdeen will “phase out” the nerve tests on the primates, also known as vervet monkeys, although he did not provide a timeline.

Full story here.
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Escaped Monkey On Loose In Bandera County

2011-10-18T10:58:00.000-04:00

The Bandera County Sheriff's Department on Monday was searching for a monkey that escaped from its cage.

Sheriff's officials said the 30-year-old monkey named "Obie" escaped from a property in the Lake Hills area near Medina Lake on Friday night.

The monkey is about 2-feet tall and is not considered to be dangerous, sheriff's officials said.

Even though the monkey is not aggressive, residents are urged to stay away from him and call the sheriff's department at 830-796-3771.

Full story here.
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Teen Fined For Terrorising Capuchin Monkeys At Alma Park Zoo

2011-10-18T10:55:00.000-04:00

A Gold Coast teenager who went bananas at Brisbane's Alma Park Zoo, terrorising the monkeys, has been fined $1000 and ordered to perform 150 hours of community service.

Bryce Samuel Boothby, 19, and two friends broke in to the zoo three times earlier this year, gaining access to the enclosure of the park's three black-capped capuchin monkeys.

Boothby faced Southport Magistrates Court today, pleading guilty to three counts of entering premises and two counts of wilful damage.

The court was told that on one occasion the monkeys became so frightened they went in to hiding inside the zoo.

It was weeks before they were found and returned to their enclosure.

Wearing an Adidas tracksuit, Boothby offered no excuse or apology for his behaviour when confronted by media outside the court.

Boothby's defence lawyer Chris Rosser, who told the court the only witnesses to the crimes "were monkeys", said the friends had been drinking heavily before deciding to visit the zoo.

Full story here.
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Monkey Invades High Speed Rails Station, Sustains Electric Shock

2011-10-18T10:53:00.000-04:00

A wild monkey that got into a high speed rail station in southern Taiwan on Sunday morning suffered burns from an electric shock as it ran around trying to escape, according to the Kaohsiung City Fire Bureau.

The monkey, identified as a protected species known as the Formosan Rock Macaque, was running between the platform, the train track and the rain shelter on the platform to escape the firemen and the city's Agriculture Bureau staff who were trying to catch it.

The Fire Bureau had responded to a call at around 10 a.m. that a monkey was in Zuoying Station of the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. and could pose a threat to the trains' operation.

The catchers tried to lure the macaque with food, but to no avail. They then shot it with an anesthetic dart, but even that failed to quiet the monkey. It continued to run around until it touched a high-voltage cable and received an electric shock, then fell onto a train that was not in service at the time.

The Agriculture Bureau staffers took the animal back to their base, where it was treated for burns on its paws and back.

Full story here.
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Alberta, Star Gorilla At San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Found Dead

2011-10-18T10:43:00.000-04:00

On Friday, the San Diego Zoo reported that one of its gorillas had died.

Named “Alberta”, the 32-year-old western gorilla spent nearly its entire life at the zoo’s Safari Park division and was hand-raised by animal care staff, said zoo official Jenny Mehlow.

The animal was one of six gorillas at the park, Mehlow said.

Alberta was born in 1979 at the Fresno Zoo before coming to the Safari Park and Mehlow added that western gorillas are considered to be critically endangered, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Before her death, Alberta was the mother of three infants born in 1988, 1996 and 1992 and was said to have “adopted” a baby gorilla from another mother.

A necropsy will be performed to determine just what happened to Alberta.

Full story here.
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Iran Space Monkey Launch Attempt Fails

2011-10-12T15:54:00.000-04:00

Iran acknowledged as a failure on Wednesday its attempt to send a live monkey into space last month -- touted as its first step towards launching a man into space.

"The Kavoshgar-5 rocket carrying a capsule with a live animal (a monkey) was launched during Shahrivar," an Iranian calendar month spanning Aug. 23 to Sept. 22, Deputy Science Minister Mohammad Mehdinejad-Nouri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

"However, the launch was not publicized as all of its anticipated objectives were not accomplished," Mehdinejad-Nouri told reporters.

He said the launch of a live animal into space was "strategic, and a priority," and expressed hope that future launches would attain more of the objectives set.

Full story here.
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A Moment Of Duck Gorilla Zen...

2011-10-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

This huge gorilla and tiny duckling became unlikely friends after the bird escaped into the ape's zoo enclosure.

Visitors to the Bronx Zoo in New York were stunned when the baby duck suddenly appeared inches from the massive primate.

Fearing the 90kg western lowland gorilla might react badly to the feathered visitor, onlookers held their breath to see what would happen.

But rather than attacking or teasing the duckling, the four-and-a-half foot gorilla became fascinated with the bird and inspected its new friend with a nearby stick.

The 15-year-old female ape, called Fran, happily let it waddle about before the duckling was removed by zookeepers.

Full story here.
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Baby Gorilla On Black Market For $40000 Is Rescued

2011-10-12T15:43:00.000-04:00

The black market for baby gorillas is growing, officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Tuesday, after a fourth incident this year led to the arrest of alleged poachers trying to sell one infant for $40,000.

This year marks "the highest number of baby gorillas confiscated from poachers in a single year on record," the Congolese Wildlife Authority said in a statement.

"We are very concerned about a growing market for baby gorillas that is feeding a dangerous trafficking activity in rebel controlled areas," said Emmanuel de Merode, warden of Congo's Virunga National Park. "We are powerless to control the international trade in baby gorillas, but our rangers are doing everything they can to stamp it out on the ground."

The park, Africa's oldest, is home to mountain gorillas, lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants and buffalo. The park has also seen fighting inside its borders and nearby during an ongoing 12-year civil war.

The four rescues so far this year, which happened between April and last Thursday, follow the one to two a year saved since 2003, when accurate records were first kept, park spokeswoman LuAnne Cadd told msnbc.com.

"If four have been caught since April, the question is how many have been missed?" she asked. "How many more are being captured and sold?"

The latest rescue came when Virunga rangers, acting on a tip, posed as potential buyers of the infant, an eastern lowland gorilla that was hidden inside a small backpack. The three suspects, who wanted $40,000, were arrested once the undercover rangers had possession of the gorilla.

"Like all the infant gorillas we see immediately after confiscation, he was extremely tense and stressed, holding his legs and arms tight up against his body, and turning his head away when he got too frightened," said Jan Ramer, a veterinarian with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinarian Project (MGVP) who treated the gorilla afterwards.

Full story here.
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Evolution: Sugar Helped Separate Human Ancestors From Apes

2011-10-12T15:40:00.000-04:00

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say that losing the ability to make a particular kind of sugar molecule boosted disease protection in early hominids, and may have directed the evolutionary emergence of our ancestors, the genus Homo.

The findings, published in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are among the first evidence of a novel link between cell surface sugars, Darwinian sexual selection, and immune function in the context of human origins

Sialic acids are sugar molecules found on the surfaces of all animal cells, where they serve as vital contact points for interaction with other cells and with the surrounding environment, including as targets for invasive pathogens. For millions of years, the common ancestors of humans and other apes shared a particular kind of sialic acid known as N-glycolylneuraminic acid or Neu5Gc. Then, for reasons possibly linked to a malarial parasite (http://health.ucsd.edu/news/2005/Pages/09_08_Varki.aspx) that bound Neu5Gc, a gene mutation three million or so years ago inactivated the human enzyme involved in making the molecule. Instead, humans began producing more of a slightly different form of sialic acid called Neu5Ac, the precursor of Neu5Gc.

"This occurred at about the same time as early humans were apparently becoming major predators in their environment," said Pascal Gagneux, PhD, an evolutionary biologist and associate professor of cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego. "It's hard to be sure exactly what happened because evolution works on so many things simultaneously, but the change in sialic acid meant that early humans developed an immune response to Neu5Gc. It became viewed by their immune systems as foreign, something to be destroyed. At about the same time, they started eating red meat, a major source of Neu5Gc, which may have further stimulated the immune response."

Full story here.
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Monkeys Use Minds To "Feel" Textures Via Computer

2011-10-05T13:39:00.000-04:00

Monkeys have feelings too. In a mind-meld between monkey and computer, rhesus macaques have learned to "feel" the texture of virtual objects without physically touching a thing. In the future, prosthetic limbs modelled on similar technology could return a sense of touch to people with amputations.

Using two-way communication between brain and machine, the monkeys manoeuvred a cursor with their minds and identified virtual objects by texture, based on electrical feedback from the computer.

Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues implanted electrodes into the brains of two monkeys. The electrodes recorded activity in the motor cortex and somatosensory cortex (SSC) – brain areas that orchestrate voluntary movement and sense of touch. Electrical activity from the motor cortex was sent to a computer, which translated the neural chatter into instructions that moved a cursor on screen. The monkeys learned what patterns of thought reliably changed the cursor's position.

The team then assigned a unique texture to each of three identical circles on the screen. When the cursor hovered over each circle, the computer zapped the monkeys' SSCs with the same electrical impulses that occurred when they touched each texture in real life. Finally, the team taught the monkeys to associate a particular texture with a reward.

Full story here.
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Mystery St. Cloud Monkey Dies After Capture

2011-10-04T10:27:00.000-04:00

A mysterious monkey captured in St. Cloud on Wednesday has died.

The Osceola County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the monkey seemed to be doing well, but took a turn for the worse and died around 8:45 a.m.

Officials said the cause of death will not be determined until a necropsy is performed, but noted that the male monkey, believed to be a Rhesus, fell as many as 100 feet when he was tranquilized in a tree canopy Wednesday evening and captured by Animal Control.

"This is very unfortunate and sad. It was our goal to trap him and have him relocated to a setting that would be both safe for him and the community," said Animal Control Director Lee Radebaugh.

St. Cloud police said there was a sighting of a monkey Wednesday afternoon. Our news partner Local 6's helicopter Sky 6 saw the animal in a wooded area near a neighborhood around 5:30 p.m., and it was captured shortly after.

Witnesses told Local 6 on Tuesday that they spotted the primate several times, which they said is around 4 feet tall when standing.

Animal Control officers searched for the monkey in a blocked off an area near New Jersey and Wisconsin Avenues.

The 30-pound monkey was tranquilized in order to be captured and was taken to Animal Control.

Full story here.
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Born Free USA Rescues Baboon From Basement

2011-10-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

The 3-year-old baboon who was surrendered to Dane County (WI) Animal Services this summer and cared for temporarily by the Dane County Humane Society after living in a basement laundry room is doing “great” at his new, permanent home at the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary in Dilley, Texas. In August, the olive baboon joined 13 other baboons in a 2.5-acre enclosure at the 186-acre sanctuary, home to 532 primates, many of whom were rescued from laboratories, roadside zoos and private possession.

In addition to experiencing other primates and the outdoors for the very first time, the baboon — who arrived with the name Monkey — is getting used to his new name, Dane, chosen by a Born Free USA supporter, to honor the Dane County Humane Society, which took care of him during his transition. More than 150 supporters wrote to Born Free USA agreeing with the organization that he deserved a new, more suitable name now that he has a new, more suitable home.

Full story here.
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Monkey Lost, Found In Doniphan

2011-10-04T10:23:00.000-04:00

A small monkey was lost through a pet door of the home it was staying on Monday. The monkey lost, found in Doniphan, is now safe and warm, awaiting transport to its permanent home.

As a retiring therapy monkey, the grivet was temporarily staying at a central Nebraska home during his relay to a permanent retirement home. No danger was involved since the monkey is vaccinated and not carrying rabies. However, a bite is a possibility if cornering a scared animal, of any species, when unused to its surroundings and the people.

Groene meerkatHelping Hands, a non-profit organization serving quadriplegic and other mobility impaired people, generally use the capuchin monkey as helpers trained to aid people. Other species, such as the grivet monkey lost in Doniphan, Nebraska, are often trainable to suit needs of people.

According to the Grand Island Independent, using a trap baited with gummy bears, a blanket and other familiar items, the Central Nebraska Humane Society was able to catch the monkey about 3pm Thursday. Catching and securing a small monkey may need more than meets the eye, as the lost monkey escaped the room it was being held in at the humane society. A short jaunt through the gift shop likely taught the humane society workers to never underestimate the speed and intelligence of a monkey in unfamiliar surroundings.

Full story here.
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Four Orangutans Rescued From Malacca Resort

2011-10-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

Four orangutan have been seized from a resort here after the animals were reported to be kept in squalid conditions.

The primates, which included a five-month-old baby, were tranquillised and transported to Malacca Zoo to be quarantined before a decision is reached over whether to release them into the wild or to keep them captive.

A Department of Wildlife and National Parks spokesman said yesterday's morning operation to transfer the orang utan was needed after the management of the resort, which also manages an animal park, failed to comply with Wildlife Conservation Act regulations.

“We gave the management ample notice and reminders but no effort was made to improve the living condition of the primates.”

The spokesman said the enclosure of the orang utan was not built according to the department's specifications.

Furthermore, he said, several non-governmental organizations and animal lovers had pressed for the animals to be rescued.

“The primates were found to have been neglected by the management,” he said.

Four more orangutan at the same resort were expected to be seized tomorrow and sent to Zoo Negara in Selangor, he added.

“There are a total of eight orangutan at the resort and we are seizing all of them,” he said.

Full story here.
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Apes As Family: First Film Made For Chimps

2011-10-04T10:16:00.000-04:00

Primate Cinema: Apes as Family is an intriguing new art installation currently being shown in the UK. Half of it represents a human's attempt to make a movie specifically for chimps... while the other half shows how chimpanzees react to it.

Los Angeles based artist Rachel Mayeri is behind the dual-screen installation, which juxtaposes her specially made 22-minute primate drama with reactions from chimps in the Edinburgh zoo. You can see a video up top that details Mayeri's project. Coming hot on the heels of the first chimp-geared advertising campaign, Primate Cinema: Apes as Family is the first piece of inter-species entertainment.

Full story here.
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Texas Deputy Takes Down Monkey on the Lam

2011-09-21T09:53:00.000-04:00

After a monkey bit a game warden's arm and managed to elude authorities for several days, Sowell on Wednesday morning directed a deputy to shoot and kill the animal. The monkey had been released during the wildfire evacuations by its Waller County owners.

"There had been several sightings in the last two days, but he wasn't going to be captured," Sowell said. "Safety is my priority and it was my direction to take it down."

In addition to the monkey sinking its teeth into a game warden, Sowell said he received reports from residents who had been startled by the monkey when it climbed on top of their vehicles and started jumping up and down.

A deputy and officials with the Waller County Animal Control Unit located the monkey in the West Magnolia Forest near Plantersville after residents reported its location.

It was one of 10 rescued monkeys kept on a ranch in Waller County, Sowell said, adding he didn't have many details about the owner or where the Rhesus monkeys were rescued from.

Of the other nine, seven were back with their owner and the other two likely died in the fire, but may still be on the run, Sowell said.

The body of the monkey shot by a Sowell deputy was taken to Baker Veterinary Clinic in Hempstead, where a rabies test was conducted, officials said.

Full story here.
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Smoking Ape Goes Cold Turkey

2011-09-12T14:04:00.000-04:00

Shirley the chain-smoking orang utan is being given the “cold turkey” treatment at the Malacca Zoo to help her kick the habit.

The primate will be placed under intensive rehabilitation for two weeks before being transferred to Sarawak.

“Actually, Shirley picked up the smoking habit while living in a longhouse as a pet in Sarawak and not in Johor Zoo,” Perhilitan deputy director-general Dr Zaaba Zainol Abidin said.

He said the officer in charge of the rehabilitation would have to be very “strict” with Shirley by not entertaining her request for cigarettes.

Dr Zaaba also said the Malacca Zoo would conduct a thorough medical check-up on the female orang utan to determine whether Shirley suffered from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer or difficulty in conceiving.

Full story here.
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Marmoset Babies Born At Colchester Zoo

2011-09-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

Baby primates have been born at Colchester zoo following two successful breeding programmes.

Gizmo, a Geoffroy’s marmoset, gave birth to a healthy set of triplets and are already on show at the zoo’s rainforest walkthrough enclosure.

Not to be outdone, Olive, the zoo’s silvery marmoset, gave the birth to a single offspring the very next day.

The mother and baby are doing well and can be viewed at the Worlds Apart Walkthrough exhibit.

The latest editions to the primate families were born on August 28 and 29.

Full story here.
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Lab Chimps See Daylight For First Time

2011-09-12T13:56:00.000-04:00

In just one day tens of thousands of people have watched a stirring video of joyful and tentative laboratory chimpanzees getting their first taste of sunlight.

“They hugged, they laughed,” said Michael Aufhauser, founder of the Gut Aiderbichl Affen-Refugium near Salzburg in Austria which has taken in and built new enclosures for the chimps.

“Imagine, one is 30 years imprisoned in an elevator, and then suddenly the door opens,” he told the German television station RTL which filmed the moment.

“They have never learned to climb. They had been placed as infants in the laboratory.”

Some, like the 37-year-old chimp Susi, had been in a lab for three decades.

In the video, the first three chimps crowd a doorway, heads swivelling back and forth, as they absorb the sights and smells and feel of outdoors. The trio hug, glance around warily, then venture out as a fourth and then a fifth chimp appears in the doorway.

Liberated, they stroll around the grass gleefully.

Full story here.
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'Mosaic' Fossil Could Be Bridge From Apes To Humans

2011-09-12T13:30:00.000-04:00

A pair of fossils from a South African cave have scientists both excited and puzzled. Scientists say the fossils — an adult female and a juvenile — could be the long-sought transition between ape-like ancestors and the first humans.

The bones belong to creatures related to the famous Lucy fossil found in Ethiopia in the 1970s, but their owners lived more recently — just 2 million years ago.

The reason for the excitement? Ask anthropologists what they dream about, and many will tell you it's the fossil of the last pre-human ancestor that led directly to us. Nobody's found it, and any who claim to usually get publicly whacked by their peers.

Lucy and her kind — the diminutive, ape-like Australopithecus that lived 3.2 million years ago — may well have evolved into us, the genus Homo. But a lot happened in between Lucy and the earliest humans, who emerged just over 2 million years ago. The true "transitional" species must have lived about the time we emerged.

Full story here.
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Men Charged After 15 Monkeys Found Dead At Los Angeles Airport

2011-09-12T13:08:00.000-04:00

Two men were charged with animal cruelty after 15 monkeys they were shipping from Guyana to Thailand were found dead at Los Angeles International Airport, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Florida-based wild animal broker Robert Matson Conyers, 44, and Akhtar Hussain, a Guyana supplier, have each been charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty, Los Angeles City Attorney's spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

Conyers appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, Mateljan said, while Hussain remains and large and was thought to be in Guyana, in South America. Each man faces up to six months in jail and a $20,000 fine if convicted.

Mateljan said Hussain sold around two dozen primates to a buyer in Bangkok in February of 2008 and hired Conyers to deliver them.

Conyers attempted to ship 14 Marmosets, five white-fronted Capuchins and six Squirrel Monkeys from Guyana to Bangkok through Miami, Los Angeles and then China, but the animals were refused transit in China because of an irregularity with shipping documents, Mateljan said.

Fourteen of the monkeys died of neglect, starvation and hypothermia in transit back to Los Angeles, he said, and another had to be euthanized. The surviving animals were taken to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for further care.

Full story here.
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New Monkey Species Discovered In The Amazon

2011-08-30T09:23:00.000-04:00

Scientists on a WWF-backed expedition in an unexplored part of Brazil have discovered a new species of monkey. It’s still being studied, but is thought to be a previously unknown kind of titi monkey. The discovery of this and other ‘new’ species highlights the importance of protecting these remote areas of the Amazon.

The unknown monkey species was discovered during a 20-day expedition to one of the last unexplored parts of Brazil’s Mato Grosso state in December 2010.

This long-tailed, ginger-tinged little primate is believed to be a titi monkey, from the Callicebus genus, but has features on its head and tail never seen before in other titi monkey species in the area.

A specimen is now being studied at Brazil’s Emílio Goeldi museum, in order to provide a description to mammal experts and primatologists worldwide. This will also help expand awareness of the wildlife of this remote area.

Full story here.
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Three-Month-Old Child Rescued From Monkey

2011-08-30T09:19:00.000-04:00

A three month old was rescued from a monkey by residents of a Hazaribag village on Saturday after the animal took away the child and perched atop the roof of a house.

According to a villager, after feeding the child the mother lay the baby on the bed and was doing household chores when the monkey entered the house by braking open a portion of the roof. The animal picked up Satyam Kumar, the son of Ishwar Mehta, quietly from his bed before jumping to the roof the house.

Noticing the monkey sitting with the child on the roof, some villagers raised the alarm.

Immediately, The people of the locality surrounded the house and made frantic efforts to bring down the monkey by luring it. But the animal refused to budge and did not respond to the provocation. It kept on sitting firmly on the roof with the child on its lap, building tension in the area.

Seeing no other alternative, some villagers climbed on the roof and tried to snatch away the child from the monkey. In the process, two persons were injured and the child also received some bruises. However, after a short fight, the animal gave in and the child was handed over to his parents.

The child was taken to a private hospital for treatment.

Ajay Kumar, a resident of the area, said some monkeys had created a reign of terror in the region for the past six months because of which they apprehended sending their children to school. "The monkeys are entering the houses of the villagers and damaged valuable articles, including clothes and food," he alleged.

The villagers demanded that the forest department take immediate steps to drive away the monkeys and give suitable compensation to them.

Full story here.
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Basement Baboon Finds New Home At Primate Shelter In Texas

2011-08-30T09:14:00.000-04:00

Monkey, the 3-year-old baboon that had been living in an East Side laundry room until it was surrendered to the Dane County Humane Society earlier this month, has found a new home at a primate sanctuary in Texas.

On Monday morning, the animal was transferred to the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary, located on 186 acres in Dilley, south of San Antonio. The sanctuary is home to more than 500 primates, many of which were rescued from research laboratories, roadside zoos, and private owners.

The animals - macaques, vervets, and baboons - live in free-range enclosures with minimal human interference.

Humane Society workers initially suspected that the Madison baboon's canine teeth had been removed, which could put it at risk if it were placed with other baboons. But during a recent health inspection, it appeared the animal's adult canines will still come in, spokeswoman Gayle Viney said.

There are 13 other baboons in a 2.5 acre enclosure where Monkey will be housed, said sanctuary director Tim Ajax. The animal will be placed next to the other baboons and will be monitored to see how the other baboons react to him, Ajax said.

Full story here.
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Baby Gorilla Rescued by Mountain Veterinary Officials

2011-08-23T10:06:00.000-04:00

In an early August effort, an extremely endangered mountain gorilla infant was rescued by Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project officials.

However, while sharing their valor tale, the officials said that when they reached the accidental scene, they found that the helpless gorilla was badly jailed by some brutal poachers.

In the meantime, while sharing the details about the case with the AFP reporters, Jan Ramer, MGVP veterinary Manager, commented, "She was clearly sick and traumatized when we found her but now she seems healthy. She is comfortable with her care givers and she’s getting more and more confident”.

Moreover, she also affirmed that immediately after the rescue plan, the infant was treated with every possible antibiotic which helped him recover from severe respiratory infection, which was supposed to the main reason behind the deaths among mountain gorillas and the deadly infection also caused some serious infections to the human beings.

Full story here.
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Orangutan At Japanese Zoo Cools Itself With Wet Towel

2011-08-23T10:04:00.000-04:00

The intelligent primate was watched by stunned visitors at the Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo as it dipped the cloth into a pool of water and used it to wipe its forehead.

Remarkably, the big orangutan shows gentle poise as it wrings out the object with both hands in a hauntingly human-esque manner.

An inquisitive little friend quickly joined to have a look at all the commotion, but the larger orangutan wasn't in the mood to share and continued with its routine.

Towards the end of the footage the orangutan then gives his 'bench' a bit of wipedown and resembles a bar tender cleaning up after a big night.

Full story here.
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Search For Escaped Monkey Ends With No Sign

2011-08-23T10:02:00.000-04:00

Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center announced it has ended efforts to locate the animal. Known only as “EP13,” the 2-year-old rhesus macaque was discovered missing on June 15.

“Despite extensive efforts by Yerkes staff, we have not been able to locate this research animal,” Dr. Stuart Zola, director of Yerkes, said in a prepared statement issued last week.

“Efforts included searching the Yerkes property numerous times, conducting multiple census counts of the research animals and working with Gwinnett County Animal Control to follow up on 26 reported ‘sightings’ in the metro Atlanta area,” Zola said.

Zola said he has directed Yerkes staff to continue taking steps to prevent any such future occurrences, including using microchip technology to better track the animals and increasing security and video surveillance at the center.

The center will also pursue any recommendations regulatory authorities may make, he said. Earlier this summer, Yerkes officials met with representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to discuss steps they had taken in the search.

Full story here.
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Study: Chimpanzees As Altruistic As Humans

2011-08-09T09:53:00.000-04:00

Female chimpanzees like to spontaneously help others rather than act selfishly, suggesting altruism may not be a uniquely human trait, US researchers said on Monday.

Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in the southeastern state of Georgia tested seven female chimpanzees to see if observations of the species' generous behavior in the field matched their decisions in a lab.

Given a choice of two colored tokens, one which guaranteed a banana treat for two and the other which gave a reward for the chooser only, the chimps tended to pick the social option, said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Previous studies have suggested that chimps tend to act selfishly in so-called pro-social tests.

The researchers also found that chimps most often acted generously when the waiting partner reminded the chooser gently of her presence but did not act up or bully her into picking a treat for two.

"We were excited to find female after female chose the option that gave both her and her partner food," said lead author Victoria Horner.

Full story here.
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Humane Society Seizes Baboon Kept In Madison Man's Basement

2011-08-09T09:50:00.000-04:00

A 3-year-old baboon living in a basement laundry room was surrendered by a Madison man this week and has a temporary new home at the Dane County Humane Society.

Patrick Comfert, Dane County Animal Services lead worker, said his office learned of the baboon after receiving an anonymous tip.

The owner, who lives on Camden Road on the city's East Side, denied owning a baboon on two separate occasions when questioned by officials. On Wednesday, Animal Services returned with an inspection warrant issued by a Dane County Circuit Court judge and the man admitted to having the animal.

"It was in pretty good condition," Comfert said of the baboon, adding the owner had erected a cage and rope swing. "But is a basement laundry room the proper environment for a highly evolved social primate? No."

On Friday the baboon, named Monkey, climbed around the impromptu, but strongly reinforced, kennel in a quarantined area at the humane society as officials put out calls and emails to zoos and primate rescues to find him a home.

Full story here.
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Baboon Beauties Are More Likely To Get Bullied

2011-08-05T11:17:00.000-04:00

Being a good-looking female baboon might bag you the most handsome male, but the latest study suggests that beauty has its drawbacks.

Scientists have found that the most desirable females – the ones that are on heat – are much more likely to be bullied than females that aren't ready to mate. What's more, it's the other females in the troop that do the persecuting.

The study also shows that if you're a good catch, and you're guarded by an alpha male, you're twice as likely to be tormented by your female peers as others that aren't guarded.

"Sexually-receptive female baboons get a lot more stick from their female colleagues than any other females do," says Dr. Elise Huchard from the German Primate Center, lead author of the study. "Our study highlights the dramatic relationship between the reproductive state of the female and the amount of aggression she faces."

The research, recently published in Behavioral Ecology reveals that sex is much more important than previously thought in shaping relationships between females in large primate groups.

"We were surprised at this finding, because it goes against the traditional view," says Huchard.

Full story here.
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Monkeys Learn To Cover Their Eyes When They Want To Be Left Alone

2011-08-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

The mandrills - the largest member of the monkey family - put their hands over their eyes when they want to be left alone.

It is a gesture that has never been seen before, and experts believe it is evidence of social culture among animals. They believe one of the mandrills made up the gesture and passed it on to her pals something that is common in humans but almost unheard of in animals.

No other monkeys use the gesture, says Mark E. Laidre, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, who reports on the mandrills in the Scientific American magazine. It is not to block the sun, and their eyes remain open.

In 1999, zookeepers saw a young female mandrill, Milly, make the gesture, but it was only when Laidre visited in 2007 that anyone realised its significance

Hed been observing mandrills in Africa, Europe and North America for more than five years.

"I saw this behaviour in the first few hours," he said. "I'd never seen this before; I knew it was very interesting. By covering their eyes with their hands, individuals possibly conveyed to others that they wanted to be left alone, and this message may have been respected as a 'do not disturb' sign."

He found that mandrills who covered their eyes gesture were generally left alone not approached or touched - by their peers.

It is believed the signal was first used by Milly and she has passed it on.

Full story here.
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Escaped Monkey Shot, Killed After Injuring Woman

2011-08-05T11:12:00.000-04:00

Bedford County Sheriff's deputies had to shoot and kill an escaped monkey that attacked a woman and a deputy.

Authorities said the Japanese macaque, also known as a Japanese snow monkey, escaped from a home on Frank Martin Road on Thursday morning.

42-year-old Michelle Pyrdum was standing in her driveway, washing her car, when the animal approached from behind.

"I had no idea he was even there. Then I could feel his teeth in the calf of my leg, and I really didn't know at that point what it was, I just knew I had to get it off me," she said.

Michelle's father said it happened so fast, they never saw it coming.

"It was weird looking, and I thought what in the world is that thing," said Charles Pyrdum. "The next thing I knew it was attacking Michelle, and she said 'Daddy, help me.'"

Michelle's mother called 911, and Bedford County Deputies arrived on scene within minutes.

Cpl. Ronnie Gault said when he arrived to help, the monkey jumped on his arm and left two deep cuts. Gault said he shot at the monkey, but it kept coming at him, so another deputy shot it twice with a shotgun and killed the animal.

Gault was treated and released. Pyrdum has a deep cut in her leg, and had to undergo surgery at Middle Tennessee Medical Center. Doctors told her she's lucky to be alive.

"Get rid of those things," she said. "I mean, there's no reason to have those things. And when they're a danger to other people, have some compassion for other people."

Full story here.
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Timmy The Gorilla Dies At 52 In Louisville Zoo

2011-08-05T11:10:00.000-04:00

The Louisville Zoo has lost an iconic figure Tuesday morning when Timmy, a 52-year-old Silverback gorilla, was euthanized because of multiple health issues.

Timmy was born in 1959 in Cameroon in west central Africa and was brought to the Memphis Zoo in 1960. Zoo officials described him as “easy-going” and said Timmy's health steadily deteriorated over the past few years with chronic medical problems such as heart disease, heart arrhythmia, and chronic osteoarthritis.

The average life span for a captive silverback is the mid-40s, said zoo spokeswoman Kyle Shepherd.

“He was an ambassador for his species,” Shepherd said. “It's a loss to the zoo world in general, and certainly to the local zoo.”

Full story here.
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20-Million Year-Old Ape Skull Found In Uganda To Throw New Light On Evolution

2011-08-05T11:08:00.000-04:00

Researchers and scientists working in Uganda said on Tuesday that they have unearthed a 20 million-year-old well-preserved fossil skull of an ancient primate in Karamoja region northeast of Kampala, Uganda.

On July 18, scientists unearthed the remains while looking for fossils near the slopes of the Napak volcano in Karamoja.

The discovery is the result of the cumulative efforts of researchers for 25 years, and it is the earliest modern sized primate skull ever found in history. Researchers hope it throws new light on the process of evolution.

The researchers team who first came to Uganda in 1985 was led by Professor Brigitte Senut from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and Dr Martin Pickford, a paleontologist from the Collège de France in Paris.

The scientists said that first analysis of the fossil showed the ape was approximately 10 years old when it died. The size of the skull is the same as that of a chimp, but its brain was smaller.

Full story here.
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Bob Barker Gives $230000 To House Chimps In Louisiana

2011-08-05T11:05:00.000-04:00

Animal activist Bob Barker has gone to bat for dogs, cats, whales, pigeons, elephants and all kinds of other animals. Five chimpanzees are the beneficiaries of his latest donation.

Chimp Haven in Keithville, La., said his donation of $230,000 last month will pay to expand the 200-acre habitat to make room for the five chimps and care for them for one year.

Barker said the chimps came from a Texas research laboratory that went bankrupt.

Barker, who lives in Los Angeles, says the chimps have spent their whole lives on concrete in cages but now they will live in the forest and because they are curious and smart, they are expected to adapt well.

Full story here.
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Captive Primate Safety Act To Ban Primate Pets

2011-07-25T10:05:00.000-04:00

A group of lawmakers is seeking to put the kibosh on transporting primates in the exotic pet trade.

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), David Vitter (R-La.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are standing up for our genetically similar, hairy friends by introducing the Captive Primate Safety Act. The measure would make it illegal to move monkeys, apes and other non-human primates across state lines in order to sell them.

The move comes after a pet chimp attacked a woman in Connecticut back in 2009, leaving her with critical injuries.

Michael Markarian, chief operating officer for the Humane Society of the United States, supports the legislation, saying, “Primates belong in the wild, not in our basements and bedrooms.”

Full story here.
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First Satellite Tagging Of Proboscis Monkey In Borneo

2011-07-25T10:01:00.000-04:00

The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) have fitted a satellite tag on a proboscis monkey in Kinabatangan.

“This is the first time in Borneo that a proboscis monkey is tagged with a satellite device,” explained Dr Laurentius Ambu, director of the Sabah Wildlife Department.

“It is the start of a long-term research and conservation programme initiated by our department and the Danau Girang Field Centre and funded by Sime Darby Foundation,” he said.

“The animal, a 24-kg male, was caught by members of the Wildlife Rescue Unit and DGFC during the course of our Proboscis Monkey Programme initiated last week, which is a collaboration between SWD, DGFC and Cardiff University,” said Dr Senthilvel Nathan, SWD chief wildlife veterinarian currently doing his PhD with Cardiff University.

“We will catch proboscis monkeys in the whole state to collect blood for genetic analyses and parasite identification, saliva for viruses and bacteria, ectoparasites and morphometric data. We will also fit 10 individuals with satellite tags in the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary,” Nathan said.

Dr Benoit Goossens, director of DGFC and leader of the programme, said the aim of the satellite tagging is to fully understand the ranging patterns of proboscis monkeys and the stressors impacting their movements and density in order to determine the adequate amount of habitat available towards sustaining a continuous viable population in the Kinabatangan region.

Full story here.
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New Rules Urged On Hybrid Animal-Human Experiments

2011-07-22T09:43:00.000-04:00

Scientific experiments that insert human genes or cells into animals need new rules to ensure they are ethically acceptable and do not lead to the creation of "monsters," a group of leading British researchers said on Friday.

While humanizing animals in the name of medical research offers valuable insights into the way human bodies work and diseases develop, clear regulations are needed to make sure humanization of animals is carefully controlled.

Extreme scenarios, such as putting brain cells into primates to create talking apes, may remain science fiction, but researchers around the world are constantly pushing boundaries.

Chinese scientists have already introduced human stem cells into goat fetuses and U.S. researchers have studied the idea of creating a mouse with human brain cells -- though they have not actually done so.

Such controversial research needs special oversight, according to a report from Britain's Academy of Medical Sciences on the use of animals containing human material.

Full story here.
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Hundreds Of Endangered Gibbons Discovered In Vietnam

2011-07-22T09:41:00.000-04:00

The lively morning calls of a rare species of gibbon has led to the discovery of the only known "viable" community of the talkative primates in remote Vietnamese forests, conservationists said Monday.

A "substantial" population of 455 critically endangered northern white-cheeked crested gibbons were found living at high altitudes and far from human settlements on the border with Laos, Conservation International (CI) said.

Researchers, who had previously found sparse groups in other areas, used the animals' "loud, elaborate and prolonged" calls to locate the creatures in Pu Mat National Park in Nghe An province, northern Vietnam.

The community represents two thirds of the total number in Vietnam and the "only confirmed viable population" of the variety worldwide.

"This is an extraordinarily significant find, and underscores the immense importance of protected areas in providing the last refuges for the region?s decimated wildlife," said CI president Dr Russell Mittermeier.

Full story here.
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'Alien' Monkey Causes Panic In Chinese Village

2011-07-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

A malnourished monkey caused panic among Chinese villagers who mistook him for a creature from outer space.

The starving animal had no hair and its skeletal frame convinced locals in Gezhai village,Henan Province, they were being visited by an alien life form.

The creature was first spotted as it munched cucumbers in housewife Mao Xiping's flat.

She was so scared of its "alien face" that she called police and told them to arrest it.

It was only later that they worked out that the animal was actually a monkey.

Full story here.
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Mandrill Monkey Makes 'Pedicuring' Tool

2011-07-22T09:33:00.000-04:00

A crude "pedicure" carried out by a mandrill at Chester Zoo suggests the monkeys are capable of more advanced tool use than previously thought.

Scientists from Durham University, UK, filmed the mandrill stripping a twig and using the resulting tool to clean under its toenails.

They published the findings in the journal Behavioural Processes.

Mandrills are the fifth species of Old World monkey seen deliberately modifying tools.

Non-human apes, including chimpanzees and orangutans, can adapt basic tools for specific jobs.

One well-known example of this behaviour is termite fishing in chimpanzees, where the animals strip down grasses to make fishing rods that they then poke into termite mounds to snag the nutritious insects.

"It is an ability that, up until a few years ago, was thought to be unique to humans," said Dr Riccardo Pansini, who led the research.

The new findings, he said, indicate that monkeys' intelligence may too have been underestimated.

"The gap between monkeys and great apes is not as large as we thought it was in terms of tool use and modification," he told BBC Nature.

Full story here.
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New Virus Jumps From Monkeys to Lab Worker

2011-07-14T21:34:00.000-04:00

It started with a single monkey coming down with pneumonia at the California National Primate Research Center in Davis. Within weeks, 19 monkeys were dead and three humans were sick. Now, a new report confirms that the Davis outbreak was the first known case of an adenovirus jumping from monkeys to humans. The upside: the virus may one day be harnessed as a tool for gene therapy.

Adenoviruses are relatively large DNA viruses—as opposed to many other viruses that replicate using RNA—that commonly cause colds and respiratory infections in humans. They're also responsible for a variety of illnesses in cattle, dogs, horses, pigs, and other animals, but scientists thought the viruses and their ailments couldn't jump between species.

Then, on 14 May 2009, a healthy adult male titi monkey—a small, reddish-brown species that calls much of South America home—came down with a cough at the Davis primate center and soon became lethargic and wouldn't eat. Staff members gave the animal intravenous fluids and antibiotics, but its condition worsened, and after 5 days staff members euthanized him. Four weeks later, another titi monkey came down with the same symptoms. Then another. And another. Within 2 months, 23 of the 65-strong population had become sick, and 19 eventually died. A team led by infectious diseases researcher Charles Chiu of the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed lung tissue samples from the dead monkeys and identified a never-before-seen adenovirus, which they named titi monkey adenovirus (TMAdV).

Full story here.
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Cigarette Smoking Monkey Weds His Lover In India

2011-07-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

The story has a tough cigarette smoking hero, his lover girl, emotional turbulence and finally a happy wedding. Sounds like usual drama? Not really. The characters in this story are monkeys who live among humans.

According to a Reuters report two monkeys tied the knot in the forests of northwestern India on Friday.

Worship of animals as avatars of the gods isn't new in Hindu beliefs. Monkeys enjoy significant role in Hindu mythology where they are worshiped as avatars of Hanuman, the mighty ape that helped Rama in his fight against evil.

Raju, the "groom," was famous in his village, attracting crowds wherever he went. He was known for eating, sleeping and smoking cigarettes with his owner, Ramesh Saini, who treated him like a son.

Two months ago Saini met soon-to-be-bride Chinki's caretaker, a priest in a nearby village, who proposed the marriage of the two monkeys.

Plans for the wedding of "Raju" and "Chinki" were welcomed by the people of the small village of Talwas, with excitement.

"I want to enjoy the feelings of a son's marriage through Raju's wedding," said Rajesh, a 38-year-old married but childless auto rickshaw driver who nursed Raju back to health after finding him unconscious three years ago.

"We will welcome the bride in our house in Banetha after the wedding with all rituals," said an excited Saini while offering tea to the newly wed Raju at a roadside tea shop.

Full story here.
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Monkeys Break Into Indian Hospital Via Automatic Doors

2011-07-11T09:52:00.000-04:00

Monkeys have invaded a leading Indian hospital after working out how to use its automatic doors.

Staff at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) told The Times of India that the rhesus macaque monkeys have been sneaking into wards and recovery rooms, having learned that the hospital's new automatic doors operate using motion sensors.

A doctor at the New Delhi hospital said: "I was at the patient recovery room when a nurse cried out that a monkey had sneaked in. The monkey had somehow entered the main corridor and was hiding in the false roof.

"As soon as the security guard moved away, it jumped inside."

Y K Gupta, a spokesman for AIIMS, confirmed that the hospital has hired two grey langurs to chase off the smaller simians. There are thought to be between 20 and 30 monkeys across the campus.

Full story here.
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Zoo Chimps' Mental Health Affected by Captivity

2011-07-08T09:43:00.000-04:00

Many chimpanzees housed in zoos show abnormal behavior that suggest mental illness, according to a new PLoS One study.

The documented behaviors, which included self-mutilation, repetitive rocking, and consumption of feces, are symptoms of compromised mental health in humans, and are not seen in wild chimpanzees, the authors say. The study found that even chimps at very well regarded zoos displayed the disturbing behaviors.

"Absolutely abnormal behavior and possible mental health issues are most commonly associated with lab chimps," co-author Nicholas Newton-Fisher told Discovery News. "This is one of the reasons we were surprised to see the levels of abnormal behavior that we did -- in chimpanzees living in good zoos."

"We conclude that the chimpanzee mind might have difficulties dealing with captivity," added Newton-Fisher, a primate behavioral ecologist at the University of Kent's School of Anthropology & Conservation.

He and co-author Lucy Birkett used both direct observations and published sources to document the behaviors of 40 chimpanzees at six zoos in the U.S. and the U.K. The collected data, covering a two-year period, was then compared to observations made of wild chimpanzees, such as 1023 hours of documentation on wild chimps in Uganda.

Full story here.
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Panzee the Chimp Can Recognize Distorted Speech

2011-07-08T09:40:00.000-04:00

A talented chimpanzee called Panzee can recognise distorted and incomplete words spoken by a computer, scientists have discovered.

That suggests that apes may be more capable of perceiving spoken sounds than previously thought, and that the common ancestor of humans and chimps may also have had this ability.

It also refutes the idea that humans have brains uniquely adapted to process speech, say the scientists who have published their findings in the journal Current Biology.

Panzee was raised from 8 days old, by humans, and was spoken to and treated as if she were human. At the same time, she was taught to use symbols called lexigrams to communicate.

"This has resulted in Panzee showing proficiency in understanding approximately 130 English words," researcher Lisa Heimbauer told BBC Nature.

That made her an ideal subject to test hypotheses about how well other species, rather than humans, might be able to understand speech.

"There is a view about the human ability to produce and perceive speech that is called 'Speech is Special'," said Ms Heimbauer, who is studying for her PhD.

Full story here.
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Saint Louis Zoo Chimpanzee Smoke Euthanized

2011-07-08T09:38:00.000-04:00

A male chimpanzee who served as the alpha male at the Saint Louis Zoo for more than a decade was humanely euthanized on Wednesday.

The veterinary staff at the zoo found Smoke was suffering from inflammation and infection from his body had moved to his abdomen.

Smoke arrived from the Philadelphia Zoo in January 1994 to foster young chimps Hugo, Jimmy and Mlinzi. Even though Hugo eventually claimed the alpha male role, Smoke seemed more relaxed afterwards, and he continued to play games with Hugo.

Full story here.
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Project Nim Documentary: A Chimp Raised Like A Human

2011-07-05T11:49:00.000-04:00

November 1973: A baby chimpanzee is born in a cage at a primate research center in Oklahoma. A few days later, his mother is knocked down by a tranquilizer dart, her screaming baby seized from her and placed into the waiting arms of his new human “mother,” a graduate student of psychology with three children of her own. Thus begins "Project Nim" arguably the most radical experiment of its kind, which aimed to show that a chimpanzee could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Under the auspices of a psychology professor at Columbia University, the chimp would be taught the sign language of the deaf and it was hoped he would soon acquire enough words and grammar to tell us what he was thinking and feeling. If successful, the consequences would be profound, forever breaking down the barrier between man and his closest animal relative and fundamentally redefining what it is to be human.

More info on Project NIM here.
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Fugitive Baboon Captured At New Jersey Farm

2011-07-05T11:30:00.000-04:00

The fugitive baboon of central New Jersey was captured on Saturday after she was spotted sitting on a fence post on a farm in Howell Township.

A crew from nearby Six Flags Great Adventure park, located in adjacent Jackson Township, arrived at the farm on Fairfield Road, and used a tranquilizer dart from a gun to put her to sleep, and return her to the 350-acre wild safari exhibit there.

The baboon is about 2 years old, according to Kristin Siebeneicher, a spokeswoman for the park.

"We are fairly confident that it is our baboon," Siebeneicher said.

Full story here.
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Gorilla Stillborn At NC Zoo

2011-07-05T11:17:00.000-04:00

Anticipation over the first gorilla birth at the North Carolina Zoo in 22 years turned to sadness Thursday morning as zoo keepers discovered that a pregnant gorilla had delivered a stillborn baby.

The baby gorilla was expected to be born sometime between July 23 and Aug. 27. It was discovered by zookeepers that Jamani, the mother, had delivered overnight.

Jamani was allowed to keep the baby "until she made peace with what had happened and abandoned it," said curator Ken Reininger.

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Koko's 40th Birthday Celebrated In Haiku Form

2011-07-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

The Gorilla Foundation, based in California, celebrated the 40th birthday of sign language-using gorilla Koko with a Twitter-based haiku contest.

The non-profit organization said the birthday of Koko, a gorilla purchased from the San Francisco Zoo and famous for using American Sign Language to communicate, inspired fans from around the world to submit haiku poems written in the primate's honor.

"Gentle lady ape / nimble fingers share her thoughts / teaching us to love," read the first place poem, submitted by Twitter user met314.

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Gorilla In France Lives With Zoo Manager

2011-06-30T09:58:00.000-04:00

A gorilla in France is living with a zoo manager and his wife in their home.

Digit, a 13-year-old female, spends her days in an enclosure with other animals at a zoo near Lyon.

But at night, she goes to stay with Pierre Thivillon and his wife Elianne who consider her one of the family.

Digit, who weighs 120kg, even sleeps on the couple's bed.

The arrangement started when Digit's mother refused to breast feed her and has stuck.

Mr Thivillon says: 'It's going very well, because we have a 13-year-old relationship with Digit so obviously we have created a very strong bond with each other.'

The arrangement started when Digit's mother refused to breast feed her and has stuck.

Mr Thivillon says: 'It's going very well, because we have a 13-year-old relationship with Digit so obviously we have created a very strong bond with each other.'

Even the zoo's vet Jean-Christophe Gerard is surprised at the close bond that has developed between the gorilla and her adoptive parents.

'It's an animal. It can have reactions. It can react violently to things it doesn't like,' Mr Gerard said.

'It's a female that was never aggressive with Pierre or Elianne so there has never been any behaviour or other concerns.

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Experiment Creates Advertisements To Sell Food To Monkeys

2011-06-30T09:54:00.000-04:00

Keith Olwell and Elizabeth Kiehner had an epiphany last year. At a TED talk, the two New York advertising executives learned that captive monkeys understand money, and that when faced with economic games they will behave in similar ways to humans. So if they can cope with money, how would they respond to advertising?

Laurie Santos, the Yale University primatologist who gave the TED talk, studies monkeys as a way of exploring the evolution of the human mind. A partnership was soon born between Santos, and Olwell and Kiehner's company Proton. The resulting monkey ad campaign was unveiled on Saturday at the Cannes Lions Festival, the creative festival for the advertising industry.

The objective, says Olwell, is to see if advertising can make brown capuchins change their behaviour. The team will create two brands of food – the team is considering making two colours of jello – specifically targeted at brown capuchins, one supported by an ad campaign and the other not.

How do you advertise to monkeys? Easy: create a billboard campaign that hangs outside the monkeys' enclosure.

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Malnourished Monkeys Removed From Lansing Home

2011-06-30T09:48:00.000-04:00

Two monkeys have been seized from a home in south suburban Lansing, according to the Cook County Sheriff's office, found stuffed in cages, "covered in excrement and cigarette butts."

46-year-old Rachel Birkenfeld is charged with possession of a dangerous animal and neglect of owner's duties, although the monkeys in question were found not at her residence but at her mother's home. She allegedly told authorities they were kept at her mother's home because there was more space.

The sheriff's office says one "undernourished" female monkey was kept in a small wire dog cage and a male monkey was kept in a metal cage designed for birds. Five dogs were also recovered, according to the office, "The dogs were also being kept in small filthy cages. None of the animals had food or water."

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Study: Psychiatric Disorders in Lab Chimpanzees Mirror Those in Human Trauma Survivors

2011-06-27T11:59:00.000-04:00

Chimpanzees used in invasive experiments show symptoms of depression, anxiety, and compulsive behaviors similar to mood and anxiety disorders seen in traumatized humans, a new study shows. The findings, published June 16 in PLoS ONE, the Public Library of Science’s peer-reviewed journal, raise new ethical concerns about harmful experiments on chimpanzees. Study lead author Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H., with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is urging Congress to consider these findings as it weighs the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act.

“Chimpanzees clearly have the capacity to suffer mental and physical anguish, much as humans do,” says Dr. Ferdowsian, a practicing physician and director of research policy at PCRM. “We now know that a chimpanzee's mind and emotional well-being are affected by experimentation in ways that parallel the psychological trauma experienced by victims of torture and other forms of abuse. This makes it critically important for the United States to join the long list of countries that have ended invasive experiments on chimpanzees.”

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Woman Falls To her Death After Monkey Pounces On Her

2011-06-27T10:24:00.000-04:00

A 35-year-old woman was today killed when she fell from the terrace of her house after a monkey pounced on her in Ranipur town of the district, police said.Poonam had gone to the terrace for some work when a monkey pounced on her. Frightened by the incident, she lost her balance and fell from the building, they said.The victim was rushed to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries, police added.

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Miami's Baby Gorilla Dies Overnight

2011-06-27T10:17:00.000-04:00

Just five days after being born, a baby gorilla was found dead Friday at Zoo Miami.

"It is with great sadness that Zoo Miami announces the tiny western lowland gorilla, born June 19, Father's Day, has died," stated a news release from the zoo.

Zoo officials don't yet know the cause of death, said general curator Steve Conners. A necropsy is being performed but the results may not be known for two weeks.

"We're pretty disappointed," he said, adding the tiny gorilla's gender wasn't known because it was never removed from the care of its mother, 14-year-old Kumbuka.

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Research Monkeys Die While Trapped At ULL Facility

2011-06-23T21:46:00.000-04:00

UL Lafayette's New Iberia Research Center violated a federal regulation in connection with the deaths of three Rhesus monkeys, a May 31 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service alleges.

The Rhesus monkeys, all one- to two year-old yearlings, died after they were "accidentally blocked" in a chute connecting two outdoor cages, NIRC Director Thomas Rowell said on Wednesday.

Michael Budkie, executive director of the research watchdog group Stop Animal Exploitation Now!, provided The Daily Advertiser with the report and a letter he sent Wednesday to the USDA seeking citations against UL Lafayette.

The USDA report, based on a self-report that Rowell submitted, states that the three monkeys' bodies had begun to decompose inside the enclosed metal chute, "therefore they had been trapped for some time and not properly monitored."

That indicates the NIRC did not follow Animal Welfare Act regulations requiring daily observation, the report states.

The monkeys probably died from dehydration or starvation, which may have taken days, Budkie said. It also probably took several days for the bodies to decompose, which means the monkeys were probably trapped inside the chute for up to a week before anyone noticed they were missing, he said.

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Florida's Mystery Monkey Spotted Again!

2011-06-23T21:38:00.000-04:00

The monkey really is alive and well. And we have video to prove it.

Following a story published this week in the St. Petersburg Times about a rhesus macaque's elusive ways, a reader who gets regular visits from the Mystery Monkey e-mailed a video he took from his home.

The 27-second video shows the young male monkey picking seeds from a brick patio and shoving them into his mouth while looking around. The videographer, who asked to be kept anonymous to keep his identity and address private, narrates the short video.

"A raccoon was just out there," he says over the video. "The monkey kind of chased him off a little bit, not much."

The videographer lives near the southern tip of Pinellas County, where the Mystery Monkey has been residing for several months and has been seen in various backyards and streets.

This latest video is perhaps the clearest image of the monkey since he has been roaming throughout the Tampa Bay area over the last couple of years.

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Research Monkey Escapes From Emory University

2011-06-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

A monkey has gone missing in Lawrenceville.

A 2-year-old female rhesus monkey was counted absent from its compound at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center near Collins Hill Road more than a week ago, according to a statement released by the center.

Officials noticed the primate, which weighs about five pounds, was missing from its compound during a June 15 veterinary exam of the center’s animals.

Each compound inside the 117-acre Emory University field office is fenced in with sheet metal at the top and “block walls” connecting individual compounds, spokeswoman Lisa Newbern said Thursday. Yerkes personnel are unsure how the monkey may have escaped.

“We don’t know, and certainly that’s something that we’re looking at,” Newbern said. “Part of this process is looking at the structural integrity, seeing if anything came loose.”

Newbern said this was the first incident of an animal escaping from the center that current employees “can think of.”

The field office, opened in 1966, sits near the intersection of Collins Hill and Taylor roads, nestled among several subdivisions and a short distance from Collins Hill High School.

Newbern said residents of the Westchester Commons, Edgewater and Richland neighborhoods have been warned about the monkey, though officials stressed that it does not have the herpes B virus, “something common” to the species of rhesus macaques.

“This animal was in the process of being assigned to a behavioral research study, which is the focus of the research at the Yerkes Field Station,” the center’s statement read. “The animal was not part of a scientific study in which it would have been infected with any disease.”

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Breakdancing Gorilla Video Goes Viral

2011-06-22T10:19:00.000-04:00

Calgary Zoo’s “breakdancing” gorilla Zola entered strange territory Tuesday as his Internet video spread around the globe and crossed over into international news.

The video collected nearly a quarter-million views on YouTube by Tuesday afternoon and stories of his funky feat showed up on news sites, blogs and Facebook pages.

With the zoo continuing with a spotlight on gorillas this month, the senior gorilla keeper was equipped with a pocket video camera so he could capture some “gorilla stuff.”

“He told us that Zola . . . (likes) to play in water and just caught this moment in time,” said Skene, adding a staff member added tunes to the video before posting it online.

The “dance” happened in an area where the zoo can transition gorillas between indoor and outdoor exhibits or keepers can check them over.

For Zola, some water was put on the floor for him to play.

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Baby Colobus Monkey Born At St. Louis Zoo

2011-06-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

A baby colobus monkey is now on view with his family. The male black and white colobus monkey was born at the Saint Louis Zoo’s Primate House on May 20, and is the first colobus to be born at the Zoo in 11 years.

“Mosi” and all Colobus infants are born with all white hair and a pink face. In contrast, adults are primarily black, with white hair encircling their face and half of their tail. They have a distinctive mantle of long white hair extending from their shoulders around the edge of their back. Infants will change color gradually until they reach adult coloration at about six months.

The 23-year-old mother “Roberta” came to the Saint Louis Zoo after attempts to introduce her to the colobus group at Binder Park Zoo in Michigan were unsuccessful. After the move to St. Louis, Roberta was easily integrated with the Zoo’s 11-year-old female “Cecelia,” and Mosi’s father, five-year-old “Kima.”

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Pennsylvania Wildlife Officers Seized Helper Monkey

2011-06-17T09:51:00.000-04:00

A suburban Pittsburgh man has been fined for illegally possessing a monkey he says acted as a helper for him and his cancer-stricken wife.

Samuel Govannucci says he got the small monkey, named Kira, about 10 years ago as he was recovering from an accident. He says the creature became more important when his wife was diagnosed with leukemia.

But the Pennsylvania Game Commission seized the monkey during a raid in April. On Wednesday Govannucci was found guilty of possession of a monkey without a permit.

The game commission says it rarely grants permits for monkeys because they can carry diseases potentially fatal to humans.

Amanda Govannucci says she has hearing problems and Kira would alert her when someone was at the door.

The Govannuccis say they'll appeal.

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