Archive for the ‘Apes’ Category

Chimpanzee Builds Fire and Roasts Marshmallows – Casually Signals End of Human Dominance

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

With Dawn of the Planet of the Apes just around the corner, this couldn’t be a more timely reminder of how things can change.

Remember how dramatic of a moment it was when Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes stands up and yells “NO!” to the treatment of his kind and then mankind gets whipped into submission by their primal cousins?

That moment has already happened in a much more relaxed and quiet way.

Kanzi, a famous Bonobo who’s met Oprah and communicates very comfortably with humans via sign language, has quietly signaled the clock is ticking not by tossing us out by windows or spearing us with broken broom handles. Nope.

He’s roasting marshmallows…

And flipping burgers.

No. Really. He flips burgers too.

[Gawker]

Posted in Alternate Reality, Apes, Chimp, Chimpanzee, Gorillas, Monkey | Comments Off on Chimpanzee Builds Fire and Roasts Marshmallows – Casually Signals End of Human Dominance

Chimp Gets Cable – Prefers Sexier Premium Channels

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

While we all wait for the scenes in Planet of the Apes to play out in real-life, a female chimp named Gina will give us all a glimmer of hope that at least a small percentage of our future primate overlords will need us for a little sumthin’ sumthin’…

Even if that something’s acting out her favorite love scenes from high-quality fare like ‘Slappin’ Bumpies 2′.

For those still catching up…

Gina is a female chimp at the Seville Zoo in Spain. As part of the zoo’s enrichment program, Gina was given her very own remote control for a television mounted to a wall near her cage.

Not long after Gina began figuring out how to work the remote, she also found that she preferred certain channels over others.

Those ‘certain channels’ were the ones that featured the people that kept her in cages riding one another like pack animals (obviously we’re skirting the ‘P’ word because that tosses red flags).

Pablo Herreros, the zoo’s primatologist wrote in his paper on Gina and her viewing preferences:

“The surprise was when they found that within a few days, Gina was not only using the remote control perfectly well, but that she also used to choose the p**n channel for entertainment, as many of us would have done.”

At least we know there’ll be a few sympathizers we can count on when we end up in cages with bad day-time television blaring at us.

Even if they just want us for our bodies.

We went there.

[New York Daily News]

Posted in Animal, Apes, Chimp, Chimpanzee, Monkey, Monkeys, Nature | 1 Comment »

Great Apes Might Be As Smart As Humans

Monday, November 1st, 2010

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It looks like we’ve misunderstood how smart great apes. Is this the beginning of the end for us?

Great apes might be much more similar to us — and just as smart — than science has led us to believe.

A new study will examine the extent to which common designs of comparative psychology research, which rates humans as more advanced than apes, are fatally flawed.

You maniacs! You ruined it!

[Science Daily]

Posted in Apes | 1 Comment »