Chimpanzee Information

Sarah Baeckler of CSNW is exploiting the Sanctuary Chimpanzees

2012-01-27T07:35:00.000-09:00

Dear readers;
In a previous post I talked about how Sarah baeckler was using the sanctuary chimps in a magazine. Exploiting I say! Why is it ok for her to do that but when private owners exploit their chimpanzees it's the most awful thing in the world? IN my opinion her sanctuary and some of the zoos don't agree with Chimps in the entertainment business because if they are the only ones with chimps, they get to make money off of them.

Funny how Sarah was put at Sid Yost ranch to spy on him, when he was in fact one of the best trainers I ever meet. I spent 2 weeks with his chimps and him. One of which was Angel who was about 220 lbs. She laid in the hammock and let me tickle her, we did gardening together, she was just like an adult person. Now IF she had been abused at ALL, she would not have been out of her enclosure walking around the ranch. So Sarah and Bruce Wagman of the ALDF had a plan to set him up, she lied, and his chimps were taken away. For a reward........ she got the tiny little sanctuary, which by the way is in the coldest part of the country with her little troupe of 7 chimps. A thank you per say for lying. I know she lied about me! She along with others of her statue will lie to gain popularity. In my opinion she is a want to be, the worst kind of chimpanzee people. Those chimps should NOT be in such cold weather. How many times a year do you think they go outside? For years they never even had an outside enclosure. To me that's abuse!
After posting the previous article I received this comment about her, which in my opinion is right on the mark.

Comment from one of my readers
This is hideous. Is there no other way for the hypocrites to gain noteriety and donations other than to pat themselves on the back and bring down others?

Ms Baeckler, well known in the small chimp circles she runs with, has been used as a pawn and figurehead for their advocacy of non-exploitation for almost seven years now.

She has made a career out of whoring herself for her own noteriety and fame, at the expense of others.

Is she truly a primatologist?

Is she truly and advocate?

Or is she just a mouthpiece for the Goodall's and the Fouts' of the world - who used the bespectacled mousey little make believe scientist to lie about Yost, advance her own personal agenda, and reward her with her little seven chimp sanctuary in the hills of Washington.

Hey Beackler, if you really want to do something valuable with your life, why don't you drag your sorry little lying ass in front of the cameras and tell the world all of the horrific things that the US Government is still doing to chimps - I don't see you advocate for them.

Glamour Schlamour.

Bruce Wagman at the ALDF doesn't want to help a chimpanzee

2012-01-24T13:17:00.000-09:00

Hi Readers;
As promised previously, here is the e-mail that I sent to Bruce Wagman, (whom I thought was a friend of mine and ALL animals.) I suppose helping me with my ex-Chimp, Mikey wasn't glorious enough for him.

The person mentioned in the e-mail was Steve Ross, one of the people on the SSP Board. I will talk about him and post his e-mails on another day, along with the story of when we dropped our chimpanzees off at the Little Rock Zoo..

I swear all of these people that pretend to want to help ALL animals are in for one thing only, their reputation!!!!!

The e-mail:
Hi Bruce;

This is not an e-mail I thought I would ever write, however, I am asking you for your help again.

If, you have not heard the very sad and devastating news, Louie our little chimp at the Little Rock Zoo has passed away.

Needless to say we are both devastated and crying is back to a way of life for us today.

Would you be willing to represent me on behalf of Mikey to get him transfered to a sanctaury? He is fixed, is all alone now, and I fear for his health and safety. It has been almost 3 years now and the zoo has not gotten them with the troupe. Now Mikey has no chance at all with the 2 very large dominate males they have which will result in him never going outside and staying in the little dungeon under the ground that they call a habitat..

I have contacted a friend of mine at a sanctaury ( I removed the name of the sanctuary) and offered to build a cage large enough for Mikey and a few more chimps. I am waiting to see if this is possible. I also contacted Steve Ross (the one that guaranteed me their safety) and asked him to consider the transfer or I would go to the media.

Here is the e-mail I sent to him:

"Hi Steve;

Well I never thought for one second that we would receive the devastating and heart breaking news I did today.

I am going to ask you nicely because I know you can make this decision.

I would like Mikey to get transferred to a sanctuary! I have money now and am able to purchase a primadome for the sanctuary. It isn't fair to Mikey that he doesn't have anyone. He is fixed and has no chance at all with the troupe you have there at the zoo. It has been 3 years now and still he is not with the troupe. I can't believe that we did not get this information until Louie died!!!!! Nothing like not giving us the chance to say good bye to him. After all we did raise him from a baby and for over 5 years. How fair was that to us? to Louie? and now to Mikey? I hope for every ones sake that nothing happens to Mikey when he decides not to eat because of the lose of his brother.

I'm really hoping that you will agree to this "in writing" so I can start making the arrangements.

I have a list of media #'s that I want to call right now, but will wait for your reply, please don't hestitate.. You know that I am a very determined person, and I will tell everything I know, including when Chance was transfered with a big chimp and upon arrival he almost bleed to death. Mikey is my love and I want him safe and happy.

I look forward to your reply ASAP

Judie "

The Little Rock Zoo Made the worst Zoo List - Yeah

2012-01-22T12:52:00.002-09:00

For those of you readers that are new to this site The Little Rock zoo had 2 of my ex-chimps, one if which, Louie at the age of 7 passed away in their care! He was still a baby. Never sick one day in his short little life. We love you Louie Louie. I have been trying to get the other one out of there (have a place for him) before he dies also. In the past 3 years they have has 2 infant chimps die, one adolescent, and a gorilla. I hope this brings awareness to not only the elephants but also the Chimpanzees!
I HATE this zoo for allowing my little chimp to die. He was cared for with a vet that specializes in Reptiles! For Goodness sake/ if you scroll down you can read all of the posts about our little Louie and the uncaring way they told us about him. Our hearts are broken to say the least. We thought they would be well taken care of. My other chimp, Mikey is still being housed all by himself after 2 years. I believe they have no idea what they are doing. Sometimes it just seems as though no one cares. I even contacted Bruce Wagman of the aldf (whom I thought was a friend of mine and cared for all animals,) BUT he wasn't interested in helping me get Mikey out of there where he could be safe and with other chimps. The place where he should be I have been there dozens of times and actually placed a monkey there who is thriving with his female friend.

If anyone can help my little chimp who I love soooo much please contact me through this blog. The writer of this article, if you would like to know some of the real truth about this zoo, I'm the one to tell you. I would be more than happy to tell you everything from my own experience and things that were told to me by one of the caretakers of the zoo. Just google my name for my history.

Story;
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Catherine Doyle, 323-301-5730, Catherine@idausa.org

Little Rock, Ark. (January 17, 2012) – The 2011 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants, released yesterday by In Defense of Animals (IDA), once again exposes the hidden suffering of elephants in zoos, where lack of space, unsuitably cold climates and unnatural conditions condemn Earth’s largest land mammals to lifetimes of deprivation, disease and early death. The list is in its eighth year.

A promising trend toward the closure of inadequate elephant displays continued in 2011 and includes zoos that have appeared on IDA’s annual list. The most recent are the Central Florida Zoo and Southwick’s Zoo in Massachusetts. The Toronto Zoo’s appearance on the 2009 list sparked a campaign that led to the closure of that exhibit in 2012. This brings the number of zoos that have closed or will close their elephant exhibits to 22, and zoo experts expect that number to rise.

The Little Rock Zoo appears for the first time on IDA’s list with the following entry:

Little Rock Zoo (Arkansas) – Two’s not a crowd. After the death of Mary in 2011, IDA urged the zoo not to seek a cage-mate for remaining elephant Ellen but to instead close its outdated exhibit and send Ellen to a spacious, natural-habitat sanctuary. Instead, the zoo recklessly rushed in two older elephants acquired from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus – even though Ellen and one of the elephants were predictably incompatible – in order to meet the required AZA minimum of three elephants. Ellen died less than a month later, and the zoo found itself with two elephants and again out of compliance. With a shortage of elephants in zoos, it’s only a matter of time before this zoo is forced to end its elephant program. It should save Little Rock taxpayers some money and the elephants a lot of misery by ending its elephant program now.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park (California) earns yet another dishonorable mention, and the San Antonio Zoo (Texas) becomes the newest inductee into the Worst Zoos for Elephants Hall of Shame, a special honor reserved for the worst repeat offenders.

Another result of IDA’s relentless advocacy for elephants in zoos has been the creation of an historic management policy by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The new policy calls for an end to handling that requires keepers to share the same unrestricted space with elephants. If the AZA is serious about enforcing this policy, it will facilitate an end to the use of the bullhook, a weapon used by keepers to threaten and often inflict painful physical punishment.

“IDA’s Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants list illustrates the many serious problems that condemn elephants to lives of misery in zoos,” said IDA Elephant Campaign Director Catherine Doyle. “These include abnormal repetitive behaviors, hyper-aggression, social isolation, and deadly conditions such as foot and joint disease caused by lack of space and movement.”

“Scientific research has shown what elephants need: space to walk miles every day, large families with whom to spend their lives, and rich natural environments,” said Doyle. “Caging elephants in zoo displays is not humane and it is not conservation.”

For more information, please visit www.HelpElephants.com.

Contact: Catherine Doyle, 323-301-5730, Catherine@idausa.org

In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization located in San Rafael, Calif. dedicated to protecting animals’ rights, welfare, and habitat through education, outreach, and our hands-on rescue facilities in India, Africa, and rural Mississippi.
Story credit here

_____________________________________________________________________________

IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS • 3010 KERNER BLVD. • SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901 • 415-448-0048

Do you think you know Judie Harrison?

2012-01-08T15:24:00.001-09:00

This post is for the 2 lovely people that made comments to me insulting me.
Not to go too deep into my personal life, yet would like to tell some of the truthful side of this article and your comment.

First off, you have no idea what the kids are like, how spoiled, jealous, and vindictive they were and still are.
I have 3 kids, 1 adopted, one step and one natural, not that that makes any difference.

My son became mentally ill at the age of 12. One night at the dinner table he said to my husband that he wished he had died when he had the car accident he had. My husband yelled at him. He, being so spoiled he jumped up from the table, pushed the table over and ran to his room. I went down to talk to him and received a slam of the door. You see I never hollered at my kids, I was the GREAT preacher. Spending many hours talking things through instead of punishment. The following morning I told him I would drive him to school since he was still upset about the hollering. I told him I would pick him up from school. When I arrived he was getting in his Fathers (we were divorced) truck. I had no idea what was going on.
I then called over to his fathers an hour later; my son would not speak to me. I called every day for a week, but got the same result. Finally I told my ex just to let him live there with him if he wasn’t happy living with us. This is what he did, for over a year. He wouldn’t return my phones calls.

One day I get a call from him saying that his father had put him in a mental hospital. To my surprise I didn’t even know he was sick. He said they were doing cavity searches on him because of the drug abuse there.. I went nuts! I drove over there immediately and signed him out. He then wanted to live with us, so he did. While he was home, he broke into my computer, stole pictures, e-mail addresses of important people and tried to make trouble for me. After I guess he got all he wanted he returned back to his fathers. Now my son had friends in the neighborhood, I took him where ever he wanted to go. We had game night every night with all 3 children; or whoever was home. I took them to the beach 2 times a week. He had 3 computers in his room because that’s what he wanted. He had 3 TV’s also so that way when his friends came over they could all play their games on their own TV. These were just some of the things he had and the time we spent together. It would take forever to give you a background of his and I’s relationship.

He hadn’t talked to me in a few years because he hated my husband. A husband that he had been with for 15 years. I left their father when Jason was 9 months old. I wanted a child so bad, no husband but knew that wouldn’t be right. I went through a 10 hour operation after seeing many fertility dr.'s Then my little miracle was born. He was the shining star in my life. As teenagers we all know how hard they are to raise and their needs are great, so knowing that we forgive allot.

My son was always in trouble, from stealing things at his friends’ houses, to stealing my bus in the middle of the night, letting it run out of gas and leaving it there. He never said a word. I called the police as anyone would think someone had broken into our house, stole my keys and drove off with it. Come to find out it was him, at the age of 15.

He also shut down one whole school districts computer system, they had to call a tech and we had to pay the outrageous amount. This was in middle school. For high school we got him into a tech school. At this school, he broke into their computer system and sent all of the personal information of every teacher, staff member, and all parents to all students’ information to everyone in the school! He was thrown out. There went his brilliant mind. He refused to go to any school then. I finally talked him into going to school. I talked to the staff there and told them of his history and that I would like him to be in classes with his step sister. She was really the only one that could keep him calm. Well that lasted 2 weeks. Then he was home all of the time. He asked if he could build an underground fort. I thought, why not, the outside air and sunshine would do him good. So he dug and dug until he had a 25’ wide and 12’ deep hole. He came in one day and said he couldn’t dig anymore, I asked why. He said that when he was digging all he wanted to do was to hit his friend in the head with the shovel. Now don’t think for one second that I didn’t get him help. Every week we would go to his therapist and he would sit there, not saying ONE WORD for an entire hour. She would ask him questions and he would stare at the walls as if she wasn’t there. He was and still is on many medications. He has never had a job in his life, never finished high school, can’t drive and all because my husband hollered at him? Come on. Well, a person can only take so much.

When he came home he wanted me to open up a business for him since everyone else was involved in one. So I asked him if he wanted to run a party store. He was all excited. He and I went all over the place looking for the right location and price. We found a really cute building by itself. So we both decided this was the one. Before I signed the lease he and I went over what kind of inventory we would have. He started to argue with me saying that if it’s his business he should be able to order everything himself and make all decisions. I told him I couldn’t allow him to do that because I would be on a budget and I already had retail experience. He got mad, didn’t want to do it and then he left again saying I was unfair.

After the last time he left, he tore our house up, went out in the front yard at night and started hollering. He wouldn’t come back into the house and with his anger, size and weight I was afraid for everyone. I called his father, the neighbors called the police. They arrived about the same time. He went home with his father for the last time.

Most of the time that the Chimps were with me, he lived with his father. My younger chimp he never met until he was about 4 years old. I believe that because I lost my only son I needed someone else to love and to love me back. Oh forgot to tell you that the morning I drove him to school, he told me that I had to make a choice, either him or my husband. I tried to explain to him that they are 2 different kinds of love and I could not and would not make that choice. I guess that’s why he called his father to come and pick him up.

Oh and the most important things is that when he left that day, we didn’t have any chimps, yet!!!!!!!

My step daughter

Came to live with us at the age of 14. She didn’t want to live with her alcoholic mother anymore.

She was my right hand person. She went all over the United States with me working the chimps. We were good buddies. She loved the chimps as much as I did, I thought. She never had a jealous problem. She got to meet all kinds of stars and she wanted to be a tiger handler.

We opened up a zoo because she wanted a tiger cub and I just couldn’t do that in a neighborhood. The rent alone there was 4K a month, all for a tiger for my step daughter. I wanted to make her lifelong wish come true, like mine had with the chimps. I took her to SC to be with people that were tiger handlers for years and years so she could get some education on them. Then I took her to Iowa to visit someone that had a baby lioness. In the pouring rain I stood outside for hours while she played with her and went and visited all of the other tigers.

The zoo was doing well; I had a deposit on a tiger cub. One day during an educational presentation she took the tiny little spurred tortoise down to talk about him with the kids. I went down to see how it was going and she had put a lid locked on the top of the container with him inside. When I saw it, I immediately took the lid off, asked my other daughter to finish the [presentation and took her to the kitchen and talked to her about it. I just couldn’t believe that someone I had raised around animals would be that stupid at the age of 21 years old!

A few hours later my 2 daughters were whispering at the counter. When I walked up, my step daughter walked away. I asked my other daughter what was going on. She said that her step sister was going to leave and was trying to talk her into leaving also. She walked out that day and we didn’t even know where she went. We called her mother, some of her friends that we knew and nothing. Then I find out from the neighbor’s kid that she was living with some boy. Well this boy had purple and green long hair, had been in and out of jail several times, uneducated, unemployed and foul. She married him and then called us and asked us if she could come over to talk to us. We said sure! Of course. Well she springs the news on us with bringing him. We tried, we had him for pizza dinner, and he joined us for Christmas. It’s hard to be nice to someone when you know they aren’t being nice to your loved one. She said she wanted to get back into the business so we let her. My husband took her on a job, her husband followed them!? Half way through the presentation he takes her out of there and says she has to go home and babysit. Then why make the commitment? So they left. He and she had a MySpace page. Here she is about 6-7 months pregnant, nude, drinking and rubbing all over another nude girl. We couldn’t believe our eyes! Her husband and her put these videos up for anyone to see. He was the one videotaping. What kind of husband would enjoy something like that? YUK! That’s when we decided that we just couldn‘t deal with it anymore. A person can only take so much slapping in the face and breaking your heart. So do you think this had anything at all to do with the chimps? NO… it’s called hormones.

So because she left the zoo and my other daughter left, we ended up closing down, breaking our lease and that was the beginning of our bankruptcy. With a 65K set up charge, not including the caging. You see, I had to bring the animals back and forth every morning and every evening. I didn’t want any of the primates left there at night without someone there.

My adopted daughter

She always said that she couldn’t wait to be 18 so she can move out. Of course I think we all felt that way with our parents, so I really didn’t pay too much attention to it. After she graduated she told me she was leaving. I asked where to, knowing that she couldn’t afford it. She was going to live with her father for the first time since she was 13 months old. Go figure! So off she went. A few months later she calls me and asked if she could come back home. I said yes of course!

When she came home she felt slighted because my step daughter got to work with me on the road. At this point I had a few businesses; chimp encounters, Party Safari Zoo, and monkey business. So to make her happy I started a business for her. I called it “jungle Friends” where she brought a snake, a monkey and a large bird and did educational programs. I advertised, and booked all of the parties for her. For each party they got 50.00 each, if my other daughter went and if not 100.00 for just her. I paid for the gas, the car insurance, the upkeep for all of the animals. They usually did 4 a weekend with each one only being an hour in length.

We left her in charge of the animals at the zoo while we had to go to CA for an USDA requirement. The first night I called and called and she wouldn’t pick up the phone, nor return my messages. I was beside myself thinking that she was injured and worrying about all of the animals. Finally the next evening we spoke. She told me some sort of lie because later on I found out that the very night we left she was having sex in OUR bed with a guy which we didn’t even know she had. She had meet him while at her fathers.

I was worried so we came home a day early. We stopped at the zoo first to check on everyone. I turned the key in the knob and opened the door. To my surprise and deep disgust I walked in on her and her boyfriend having sex in my office chair. I made him leave. I think this was the maddest I have ever been. I actually started hollering at her. I saw the boy outside pacing, not knowing what to do. I told her to bring him home and then come back so we could talk about why this was wrong. While she was gone I checked on the animals. There were 6 birds dead, 2 snakes dead, one snake missing, and a dead desert lizard. At 21 years old she couldn’t even be responsible enough to take care of the animals she was well trained to take care of. She came back and I questioned her about the animals. She got mad, got in her car and left. By the time we had gotten home she was gone. Back to dads.

She then calls me a few months later and says she pregnant. Not married, and no job for either one. She shocked me. The only thing I could say was “what would you like me to do?” I guess because all their lives I spent trying to make them happy. So I told her I needed a few days and would call her back.

My husband and I talked about a solution. We did something that I thought was a great thing to do, even though my husband totally disagreed!

We gave her boyfriend a job, under the table making 400.00 a week cash. Then they needed a place to live so they moved into these really nice apts across the street from the zoo. We paid for the deposit and paid for their rent every single month. We had problems with her boyfriend not doing his job at the zoo and talked to him many many times. He would just lie to me. We then sat both of them down and explained to them that if he didn’t do his job right we would have to let him go. Did they understand? I thought they did, but they didn’t. I was always a push over when it came to my kids. 2 weeks later we had to let him go. My daughter was so mad! BUT at 21 yrs. old they should be able to understand that even though the ride was sweet, they still needed to be grown up with their own responsibilities.

Now their apt. We were renovating our home so we thought that we would give them all of our furniture, dining room set, hutch, sofa, bed, huge TV and some other things. I went shopping and bought her all of the things that a new homemaker needs. From kitchen to bath to bedroom. I gave her Mikey my chimps crib because he was only in it for 2 weeks and that’s what she wanted.

So anyway she got mad and I didn’t hear from them for a few weeks. We drove over to their apt. (or ours I should say) and banged and banged on the door. Finally some strange guy answers the door half naked, with a girl and a baby. I asked where my daughter was and he said he thought they went to NY. NY? For what? How? The guy at the door said that she said they could live there until they got back but didn’t know when that would be. Nice so we were paying for others to live there. The place was a disaster! I asked if I could come in and get my numbered prints that I told her she could hang there until she could replace them. So he helped us load them into the car. Now these were worth some money and every year for the first 5 years of our marriage we bought one. They had sentimental value.

About 30 minutes later we get knock on the zoo door. It was a cop! Here the guy that helped us load OUR PRINTS had called her; she called the police and said we stole “her pictures.” The cop said that since our name was not on the lease regardless if we paid the rent on not we can’t just go in and take something. Because of the value it was Grand theft. He told us to return them. I wasn’t about to do that. They were ours but we didn’t have any receipts. Who saves receipts for 10 years? We had to hire a lawyer to protect ourselves from our daughter. We went to court. Our lawyer said we had a hanging judge so therefore it would be better to make a deal. So we did. We had to give her back our prints.

A few days later we see she is selling them on e-bay and we found out that the painter had died and they were worth allot of money.

I called over to the apts and told them that she and her boyfriend were no longer living there and that I was going to stop paying on the apt. I asked if I could go in and get my furniture back. Some of the things were really nice. She said no. Within 90 days the other people were out, and the apts. kept all of our things. I don’t know where they went and I haven’t seen my granddaughter since she was 2 weeks old. Sad for all of us, especially my granddaughter.

We now live on the other side of the map and have no idea where they are.

These are only the highlights of what my kids put both my husband and I through. Children that were loved very much, had everything they asked for, had me at their beckoned call. It had nothing at all to do with the chimps!!!

You know you can’t believe everything you read or watch. The media has a way to make things different. One of the printed sentences was 2 parts of 2 separate sentences which made it more fun for the readers at my expense.

No one knows what goes on behind closed doors except for the people behind them. Even they will lie not to look bad.

You should read my latest posts. Our little chimp died at the little rock zoo. Never a sick day in his life. Zoos are bad! Worse than private owners.

Is Little Rock Zoo Hiding Something? Is Steve Ross a fake!

2011-12-19T13:08:00.001-09:00

Well folks as can read from previous e-mails, we entrusted the Little Rock Zoo with both our juvenile chimps, Mikey and Louie. Louie has passed away at the age of 7 years old!!!!! How in the world does a small chimp that we raised from 6 months old, DIE? He was such a healthy chimp. God, chimps in the wild don't even die from what they said he had. Mikey is in a cage all by himself. They haven't even gotten him in with a chimp family yet. For goodness sake private owners could have had that done already.

We contacted the State Attorney General of the state of Arkansas, and they refuse to give us the information? Why do you suppose that is when they are "suppose " to honor all FIOA's. Perhaps the little rock zoo had something to do with that? Hiding something Little rock zoo?

There have been 2 main caretakers for the Chimps, one of which is named Kristin.
She was "suppose" to give us an update on the chimps whenever we asked for one. It was an agreement that we had made BEFORE we even allowed the chimps to go there. So... for the first year Kristin would give me those updates. Then all of the sudden she stops. We accepted the fact that perhaps she was tired of it. THEN, Louie dies and we get a very unemotional e-mail telling us because she knew I would hear it through the media. So why was that promise broken? We didn't even get a phone call when Louie was sick.

I tried to get Mikey transferred out of there through Steve Ross. I had a really nice sanctuary that was willing to take him that have other chimps. I have been to this sanctuary dozens of times. If you don't know who Steve Ross is google him. He use to experiment on chimps and now he thinks he's this great scientist, writing books about their behaviour. What about all of the chimps you infected with diseases, that you watched day in and day out sit in tiny little concrete cages with no enrichment, house by themselves and tortured. Now why would he have the right to have a different view about the chimps. You either love them or you don't. Steve Ross has increased his career on people like myself, Jeanne Rizzotto and other private owners. Steve Ross told me that if I helped out their cause with not owning Chimps as pets that I would be apart of the SSP's special program. (I am not going to write the name I don't want him getting any recognition anymore from me.) I was excited about this program because it would have been with other private chimps. I agreed since my chimps were gone. UM I wonder if he promised Jeanne Rizzotto the same thing?

My husband wrote to Kristin at the little rock zoo on her PERSONAL e-mail account, not her's at the zoo on November 4th. We get an e-mail back from the director at the Little Rock Zoo named Mike Blankey stating that Kristin doesn't work there anymore. First off, how did her e-mail get to him? Did she send it to him? Secondly, is it true that Kristin isn't working there anymore? or did Mike Blankey lie? If Kristin isn't there doesn't it seem odd that after working at the Little Rock Zoo for many years, why would she leave a short 2 months after Louie passes away. So... Was Kristin fired? did she leave because of Louie? Is Mike Blankey lying?, and if so Why?

My next post will give you information on the day we dropped the chimps off, who got bit, and what little chimp got a few of his toes bitten off when in transfer from one zoo to the Little Rock Zoo. Stay tuned. You see I just don't care anymore about telling the truth of the secrets I hold when it comes to the entire placing Mikey and Louie at the Little Rock Zoo. I will also go more into detail about the type of person Steve Ross is, along with posting some of his uncaring e-mails to me during our bereavement time.

Here are the e-mails from Mike Blakely at the Little Rock Zoo

From: Blakely, Mike [@littlerock.org]

Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 3:30 PM

To: Gregg Harrison

Subject: FW: Chimp Response Mr. Harrison, I just wanted to let you know that Kristin is no longer a keeper at the Little Rock Zoo. By the way, Mikey is doing fine. Mike Blakely

From: Blakely, Mike

Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 3:15 PM

To: 'gharrison@amsred.com'

Subject: Chimp Response Mr. Harrison, The Little Rock Zoo is appreciative of the donation of Mikey and Louie to the Zoo. Both have received the best of care while in our custody. It is very unfortunate that Louie passed away, but his death was not due to any lack of care from our Zoo staff. The Zoo will continue to provide excellent care for Mikey, just as it does for the other chimps and all our animals at the Zoo. Thank you for your interest in Mikey’s welfare and for your support of the Little Rock Zoo. Mike Blakely, DirectorLittle Rock Zoo

The Little Rock Zoo has no answers for us about our Chimp Louie dieing! Nor do they care!

2011-09-09T12:34:00.002-08:00

So many questions and no answers
by Greg Harrison

It has now been over 2 weeks since we received the email informing us of Louie’s passing, and while the grief, emptiness, and sadness is still unbearable at times, in those moments when we have some time to ponder lucid thoughts, all we are left with are many, many questions….and no answers.

Judie has always given you, her readers across the globe, the opportunity to probe and discuss while learning about apes and monkeys ion ways no other site on the internet provides. Her point of view is like no other, as we have owned primates, worked with primates, and when challenged with the ultimate questions that have confronted so many private owners before us – “What do you do when you know they can’t be with you any longer?” – We answered with what we thought at the time was the correct thing to do – and we placed them.

Here is a link to the story that was posted on the internet - fed by a press release by the PR folks at the zoo – and not really reported on. Take a quick second to read the link below, and then save the link so you can follow along with the tale:

http://www.katv.com/story/15298888/zoo-sadly-reports-loss-of-louie-the-chimp

Now that Louie has passed on from this world, and we have begun the grieving process, this blog would like for you readers to take a few minutes and ponder the questions that are running through our collective brains today:

1. Why weren’t we informed that Louie was sick? Why weren’t we asked for any of the “gen etic records” that the press release claims that could have “aided in the diagnosis” of Louie’s disease?

2. The zoo knew where the chimps were born. We discussed that with them at length before they went there. Why didn’t the zoo veterinarian call the facility, or us, to discuss her needs?

3. What resources did the vet tap into across the world for help with Louie’s condition? Did she call the CDC? Did she call the NIH? Was there any investigation into this condition?

4. The following link, easily found in a 30 second search on the internet, quotes a world renowned researcher, Dr. Alessio Fasano at the University of Maryland “"Apes, monkeys and chimpanzees rarely develop autoimmune disorders…” – so why was the zoo veterinarian convinced that what Louie had developed was indeed an AID?

http://www.physorg.com/news171565111.html

5. Was there an environmental trigger at the zoo that, if Louie had been born with this condition would have triggered his response? We find it very coincidental that this same zoo, in the past three years, has had three infants die, and now 7 year old Louie die. Chimps are very hearty, durable animals. Louie had maybe had two colds in his whole life before he got to Little Rock. He had a great appetite, was as strong as an ox, and in this picture taken at the zoo in June (found on Flickr by us last month) he looks pretty good – maybe even a little heavy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30866950@N07/5915794195/sizes/o/in/photostream/

6. Lastly – we have asked the USDA to investigate the treatment and care that Louie received from the zoo in the past several months. Now we know by reading this blog that this poorly run governmental agency has had its own disagreements with Judie and I – but we must try to find a way within ourselves to trust the system to do the right things and investigate his death the right way. We promise to keep you readers informed of the progress of things from here on out, and we are going to be working on a tribute site to Louie where readers will be able to see many pictures of Louie, his media work, and some real good stories that we will share with you.

Thank you all for your readership

Louie Our Chimpanzee Dies at the Little Rock Zoo

2011-08-20T16:23:00.000-08:00

My husband Greg wrote this for Louie. I still can't write anything. The tears come down so hard I can't see.

"Our youngest son died yesterday morning. He was a week and a day short of his eighth birthday. The email said that he had an auto immune disorder that he had been fighting for several weeks, and that the doctors and the care staff had made every effort to save his little life, but, as they said in the email, it just wasn’t meant to be.

So sad that these people that had truly come to know our son would seem so indifferent to the only mother and father he had ever known when they described his passing to us. They fed, played, and cared for him for almost three years, and I believe in my heart that they had come to love him too, but not like Judie and I did.

We met Louie on Christmas Eve in 2003. The owners of the facility where we had adopted his brother, Mikey, sent us an email with a picture attached of a fuzzy little baby boy. He was 4 months old at the time. They said in the email that we just had to have him – that he was going to be small and was very lovable. We fell in love that cold Christmas Eve, and three months later he was home with us.

Louie was a very special son. He was smart, kind, gentle to all living creatures, and had a wonderful disposition. He loved his Vitamin Water and his Saturday morning pound cakes. He loved puppies and his big brother. He loved bellies – fat or skinny, old or young – he never met a belly he did not love. He bottle fed bear cubs, baby monkeys, and even a few children. But most of all, he loved Judie and I. He touched tens of thousands, maybe millions of lives. He performed at schools, nursing homes, colleges, people’s backyards, and on the television. He worked with Conan, Human Giant, All Time Low, and for Oprah. He was the face of Monkey Butt Powder, Citizens Bank, and at times the powerful Philadelphia radio station WMMR.

But in our lives, he was just our little Boo-Boo – the cutest little snaggle- toothed sweetest chimpanzee that anyone will ever know. Judie and I loved him with all of our heart, and all of our soul. In the last few months that the chimps lived with us, our hearts were broken because we knew that as they got older and stronger, our ability to keep them safe from harm and all of the world’s dangers were quickly coming to an end and that we needed to find for them a place where the dangerous world we live in would not bring them harm, and Little Rock Zoo offered them a sanctuary of sorts. They would be safe, and they would be together, and they would never have to leave. That was less than three years ago. Now Louie is gone to this mysterious disease, and Mikey is left all alone, missing his baby brother. Our hearts ache for the loss of our Louie, but they ache more for Mikey’s loss of his true best friend and his companion of over seven years.

I missed Louie every day as I went about my life since the chimps left, as familiar things I would think of or see would bring back the sweet memories of our time together. Just walking through a grocery store would take me back to things they love, and then it would take hours sometimes to shake off the emptiness that I would feel after seeing a simple container of pudding on a shelf. It has been said that losing a child is the hardest thing any parent will ever have to face, and now we understand. The hurt is profound, and the sense of loss is unbearable. We love you little Boo Boo, and we always will. Please watch over your big brother as he searches for your soul in the wind. We are sorry we couldn’t have been there to help you in your time of pain and suffering, and for that I will never forgive the people that we entrusted your care to – as they never even told us you were sick. We will cross our celestial paths once again in whatever lives there are beyond this one, and I will look for you to give me your biggest hug and shake your little butt for me as you did here on earth.

Louie My Chimpanzee has died at the Little Rock Zoo SOOOOOOO SAD!!!

2011-08-19T15:25:00.002-08:00

This is probably the hardest and the most hurt we have ever felt in our entire lives. This to us is like losing a child. A child that was only 7 years old and had at least 40 more years with his brother Mikey.

This will be brief, for now. My husband and I will be doing a nice segment on Louie when we are able to stop feeling such great lose and hurt. Please check back.

One of the two loves of our lives has passed away at the Little Rock Zoo.

I entrusted this zoo to take care of Louie and Mikey, my ex-chimps, but now Mikey is alone and Louie at the age of 7 years old is gone and Mikey is still not with the troupe even after 3 years.

I am working on some angles with Mikey which at this point I can't disclose.

Because Mikey and Louie did allot of jobs in the media, they met allot of people that loved them. I'd like to give anyone the opportunity to e-mail us with your comments, stories of yourself and Louie or just to say goodbye to a wonderful, sweet little chimp.

You can e-mail us at

louiethechimp at gmail dot com

or you can post a comment here on this post. Thank you.

We love you Louie and you will always be our hearts.

Any media that would like to interview me I would be more than happy to tell you their story at the Little Rock Zoo. You can e-mail me at the same e-mail addy listed above.

Sarah Baeckler of CSNW is exploiting the Sanctuary Chimpanzees

2011-07-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Hi Readers;
This is one of the Sanctuaries that I truley believed in, until now! Sarah once wrote a horrible article on me when I had my chimps in the entertainment business. She had said that I was one of the worse "back yard" trainers. Even though Sarah never knew me or my chimps, she voiced a very harsh opinion of me with nothing to back up her opinion. No facts at all. Now the very same Sarah Baeckler is exploiting the chimps at the sanctuary where she works in Glamour Magazine? Shame on you Sarah. Sanctioned is not exploiting. Carole noon would NEVER do such a thing if she were still alive.

Basically Sarah is doing the same thing that the entertainers do, exploit their chimps for money. Being in this magazine will bring in money, the same as trainers when they do jobs using the chimps. The only difference is the word "sanctuary"

This news article was sent to me.....

April 2011 News
Glamour Magazine!

CSNW Executive Director Sarah Baeckler is pictured, along with Burrito and Missy, in the May issue of Glamour Magazine. Don't worry - Sarah hasn't switched careers to become a model. The article is in the "Real Stories" section of the magazine featuring her work to uncover the abuse of chimpanzees in the entertainment industry. Pick up a copy today!

Gini Valbuena The "animal Abuser" has a TV show? OMG

2011-07-11T09:55:00.002-08:00

OK Folks if anyone wants to know what type of person Gini Valbuena is and has been, here is just a "SMALL" bit of information on her. I have just about every article on this blog about her, including the one where when she got married. Instead of having flowers she had Orangutans. Yes folks that's right, live baby orangutans, an endangered species. Babies that were ripped off of their mothers screaming for Gini Valbuena's entertainment.

Her newest Chimp named Eli (the one where there was a battle over) and Gini Valbuena now have a show called Mommy Chimp. It just breaks my heart that with so much education out there on why Chimpanzees should not be pets, how could a production company make such a decision? For 45 years Gini has been buying, trading and selling Chimps when they are of no use to her anymore. She gets a new baby about every 2 years and then either trades them for younger ones or send them off to a trainer to get more money from them. Example: Steve Martin.

Don't people understand that chimps aren't cute anymore? That's why GINI VALBUENA dumps them before they reach that dangerous age. She can't handle them unless they are babies.
Buying baby chimps only feeds into the breeding and the taking of the babies to be put into entertainment, bred or used as play dates.

No one is suppose to know Gini's secrets. BUT when people like Carole and myself know her, and speak the truth about her, she lies about the very people that tell the truth about her.

In the next few months I will be disclosing information about what Gini Valbuena did to me, how she got one of the members of my family in deep trouble not only with law suits but with FEDERAL charges brought against all parties involved.

Article;
Gini Valbuena

When Carole Baskin and Big Cat Rescue became known for trying to stop the trade in exotic cats as pets, Gini Valbuena began slandering them in an attempt to draw the attention off the subject; Exotic Animals as Pets, which is not a subject anyone can defend, and try to misdirect attention in any way she can.

Gini Valbuena runs a photography studio in her home where people pay to come have their pictures taken with a baby chimp or baby orangutan. She also uses the babies for photos by themselves, by dressing them up in baby clothes, for calendars and such. She keeps one adult chimp (at least) in a barred cage in her back yard and she has turned a room inside into a cage as well. She hands out cards that say Valbuena Photography and Valbuena Chimps and defines herself by the latter. On her website she proudly displays disturbing photos of naked and nearly naked children with chimps doing things like sticking their fingers in a crying baby's mouth. Read about how dangerous zoonosis is HERE

She claims to have owned 15 chimps and 4 orangutans, but says she only owns two chimps now named Kenya and Tanzee. When she has been profiled in the news she refuses to say where her chimps and orangutans end up when she is through using them. She will only say that they always go to a great sanctuary...but that isn't likely. Great sanctuaries are accredited and as such they do not enable people like Gini Valbuena to continue to use, abuse and discard primates. Before giving her a moment's worth of your time, find out where these primates really end up, who is footing the bill for their care for the next 40 years and make sure you see them in person.

These people often use aliases, false addresses and other methods to hide their real identities when they spread their libelous claims because when their background becomes known, it is apparent that there is no truth to their assertions. It is all a ruse, meant to distract from the real issue which is that exotic animals should not be kept as pets.

The letter that Carole Baskin wrote advising neighbors of exotic animal owners about a public workshop to address the proposal that neighbors be notified in the event of an escape is posted below:

See an interactive online map of exotic cat owners. See people being stupid with big cats, endangering themselves and others HERE. See the awful conditions that many captive cats endure HERE.

The letter that Carole Baskin wrote advising neighbors of exotic animal owners about a public workshop to address the proposal that neighbors be notified in the event of an escape is posted below:

Dear Exotic Animal Neighbor, October 2, 2007

Did you even know that there are people living right next to you who own dangerous Class I and Class II wild animals? It could be anything from a bobcat to a tiger. While they may be caged now, what happens in a hurricane? The cobras and black mamba sort of neighbors are even more prone to escape. We post a list of the big cat escapes, killings & maulings on our website.

Keeping wild animals in private collections is cruel to the animals and dangerous for you.

At a recent meeting of the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission they voted down a recommendation that neighbors be notified BEFORE someone moves in next to them with dangerous wild animals because the breeders, dealers and exotic pet owners were there but their neighbors weren’t. They decided to offer two more meetings for neighbors to respond before voting on whether you should be notified when a dangerous wild animal escapes near you.

Of course, just like all of their other meetings, you won’t be notified by them of when and where.

We think you have a right to know.

DATE AND TIME: October 8, 2007, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

PLACE: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry Auditorium, 1911 SW 34th Street, Gainesville, Florida 32614.

DATE AND TIME: October 9, 2007, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

PLACE: The Ft. Lauderdale City Commission Chambers, 100 N. Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 33301-1016.

For more information on the meetings contact Captain Linda E. Harrison, FWC Division of Law Enforcement Linda.harrison@MyFWC.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To find out who in your neighborhood has these animals will cost you $50.00 (and a lot of frustration, because the FWC doesn’t want you to know) but you can try to get the list from FL Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Attn. Debbie Manderfield 2590 Executive Center Circle, Suite #200 Tallahassee, Fl 32301. We purchased the list and found your address to be adjacent to one of the owners of Class I or Class II wildlife. We thought you ought to know.

For the cats,
Carole Baskin, Founder

Curious? You can get closer

For $100, you can spend an hour with an chimp. The money goes toward the owner's medical bills.

By LEONORA LAPETER

Published October 13, 2006
CLEARWATER - On Cheri Pierce's list of things to do before she dies: hold a chimpanzee.
So Pierce, who lives in New York, traveled to a home in Clearwater last week for her very own private chimp encounter.
Noah, a 7-month-old chimp, pulled her blond hair, swatted her cheek and kissed her on the mouth. Gini Valbuena, Noah's owner, hovered in the background.
Valbuena has owned and raised dozens of chimps and monkeys over the past four decades. She currently has three chimps at home. For 20 years, Valbuena cared for her menagerie with the money she made from running a photo studio out of her home.
But in August, she had gallbladder surgery and racked up $50,000 in medical bills - all without insurance.
Suddenly, she needs the chimps as much as they need her.
"I fully supported them for many years," Valbuena wrote in an e-mail. "Now we work together doing something they love. ... We've hit a bump in the road due to circumstances we could not foretell, but we'll steer around it together."
* * *
Her first monkey - a capuchin, the kind used by organ grinders - was a gift from her parents when she was 12 years old.
Valbuena can't explain why, but she connected with the monkey.
More followed: gibbons, chimpanzees, orangutans. She owned some of them, but also raised many for other people. She also has had several big cats, including a lion. Valbuena also married, had four children and divorced. To this day, her daughter picks up her kids' toys with her feet - like a chimp.

Back then, there were no laws against owning chimps or lions as pets. Today, by law, you can own them only if it involves a commercial use.
Valbuena took photos of regular folks but she also photographed the chimps in dresses and suits and sent them to greeting card companies.
A few years ago, her photo studio went under and she began offering chimp encounters for $100 an hour. She also takes her chimps to Naples for a few months each year for corporate events at a private preserve.

One of her chimps, 5-year-old Kenya, is over 40 pounds and is not allowed to participate in the encounters. Usually when her chimps reach sexual maturity, between ages 7 and 9, Valbuena sends them to an 82-acre farm she won't name somewhere in Florida.
She continues to raise them from afar.

* * *

In Florida, you can swim with dolphins, manatees and stingrays, pay to have a tiger cub climb your leg and touch a legless lizard named Jimmy Dean.

About 55 people and companies in Florida are licensed to exhibit chimps, which cost anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000. They include Busch Gardens in Tampa and Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Valbuena, who doesn't want to give her age but is in her 50s, is one of them. She's locked in a continuous battle with animal rights activists, who disapprove of private ownership of wild animals or using them for amusement.
Valbuena says chimps love the interaction and she loves them like children. She does not sell her older chimps to research centers, and figures anything that keeps the species going is a good thing.

In August, after her gallbladder was removed, Valbuena began advertising her chimp encounters more. "It is very enriching for the chimps as they become bored easily and we are always looking for ways to entertain them," she says.
But then she wonders. Her parents raised dozens of foster children.
"Sometimes I think about Mom and Dad raising all those foster babies all those years. All that time and attention, and I know there are all these children out there, and sometimes I feel guilty about giving it all to an animal, but these are just like my children. They are my family."
* * *
Valbuena sits on a stool as 3-year-old Kira, dressed in a Bugs Bunny diaper, clings to her. Dr. Darryl Heard, a University of Florida professor and zoological medicine specialist, gives Kira anesthesia.

"It's okay. Kisses. I know. Sorry," Valbuena coos, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

The chimps are her life. They eat five or six times a day and need round-the-clock care, like human infants. And now Kira needs a tooth extraction, at a cost of $500.
Valbuena knows of at least three chimps and four monkeys who have died under anesthesia.

Is she doing the right thing?

About 45 minutes later, the doctor calmly tells Valbuena the tooth came out, but there is something wrong with Kira's breathing.

Valbuena's chin quivers.
"There's so much happiness and joy in them and when one is the sick, it's the worst," she cries.
Kira, however, is fine. Valbuena cradles the groggy chimp. "Hi, darling, Mommy's so glad you're better."

Before heading back to Clearwater, Valbuena sits in her Dodge Caravan in the parking lot and slides Kira into a toddler-size pink one-piece with white eyelet trim along the back.

"Put your jammies on, darling," Valbuena says. "Mommy's so sorry you had to go through that."
All is well.

* * *

Behind Valbuena's home on a deck with two large cages, Pierce arrives to play with Kira. Valbuena makes the New York woman wash her hands with a disinfectant first.

Heard, the UF animal doctor, says chimps and people can give diseases to each other. Valbuena, however, says her animals have all their shots and have been checked for diseases. She's more worried about people giving the animals diseases.

Pierce has gifts for the chimps, a xylophone and a pair of maracas. Kira quickly breaks the xylophone's mallet in two and hides one of the maracas in the crook of her leg.
Then she leaps into Pierce's arms and gives her a big hug.
"Oh, I love you," says Pierce, her blue eyes fixed on the chimp's craggy face. "Want to come home with me?"
Kira and Pierce kiss, then Kira does a somersault.
"I don't know how you do it," Pierce tells Valbuena. "I'd play with them all day."

The chimp smiles, revealing a gap in her front teeth. Then she looks around for Valbuena, who's standing off to the side, monitoring the encounter.

"Mommy's not going anywhere," Valbuena says.

[Last modified October 13, 2006, 06:30:58]
Chimps aren't pets

The story of a woman who owns chimpanzees presented Gini Valbuena as an animal lover who is now "working together" with her chimpanzees to raise the $50,000 she racked up in medical bills because she didn't have health insurance.

According to the article, Valbuena is promoting a $100-per-hour "chimp encounter" to individuals and groups. In the past, Valbuena also "raised monkeys for other people." And when the chimps reach sexual maturity, "Valbuena sends them to an 82-acre farm she won't name somewhere in Florida." Is it no wonder animal rights activists have been in a "continuous battle" with Valbuena?
Anyone with common sense would be in conflict with her. Chimps should not be pets, and they don't belong in diapers and children's clothing.
Allowing people the freedom to "own" wildlife, from chimpanzees to python snakes, is unconscionable. And the Times' choice to write a piece that touts exploitation as humanitarian is revolting.
As a former director of an animal welfare organization, I will tell you that every story like this negates what we try to do to mitigate the overpopulation of pets in this country. Shame on you.
Marylou Doehrman, Spring Hill

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ON CHIMP PIMPS

Shame, shame!

SHAME ON YOU for promoting Amazing Animal Actors ("Talking with the animals," June 28, 2002).
These chimpanzee babies belong with their mothers, not with a chimp pimp renting them for $200 an hour. Chimpanzees have long childhoods, like us; in the wild they are not weaned until about 5 years old and stay near mother until about 9.
Chimpanzees are not furry little humans, and must not be treated like animated toys for human amusement. What will really happen to these youngsters when they are no longer cute and cuddly? Raised away from chimpanzee society, they have not learned to act like chimpanzees, and no reputable zoo will take such misfits.
Sadly, when chimpanzee children have grown too big and strong to be easily controlled, they are typically sold into biomedical research or to ramshackle roadside zoos, or are forced to breed a new generation of performers. Chimpanzees can live to be 60 years old, but entertainers are usually discarded before they reach 8.
Because chimpanzees are just like us in all the ways that matter, it is wrong to use them for amusement. Shame on your newspaper for giving free advertising to a chimp pimp.
Cyn Krueger

Stop Experimentation on & Exploitation of Chimpanzees (SEEC), Mercer Island, Wash.
'Pay to play' chimp program is the problem
Re: A chimp play date, story, July 5.

On behalf of the Chimpanzee Collaboratory, I would like to point out that your July 5 article on Gini Valbuena's "pay to play" chimpanzee program in Clearwater omitted a few important details.

We are a group of scientists, public policy experts and attorneys that includes world-renowned primatologist and advocate Jane Goodall. We are dedicated to improving the lives of chimpanzees and other great apes. Programs such as Valbuena's are exactly what we are trying to protect chimpanzees and other great apes from.

Captive chimpanzees in this type of situation are usually taken from their mothers at infancy and are denied the opportunity to grow up in a normal chimpanzee family. Later in life, they become too strong for a "hands-on" approach by even the most caring human guardian.

Chimpanzees are extremely social beings, but they become so humanized when raised in this manner that, once placed in a sanctuary with other chimpanzees, they do not know how to interact and they suffer horribly from social isolation. Those are the lucky ones. More often than not, chimpanzees used in entertainment end up being sold to biomedical laboratories or roadside zoos, where they may remain for decades.
Readers who wish to learn about the true nature of chimpanzees and their plight can contact the Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care in Boynton Beach (www.savethechimps.org). This sanctuary, run by Chimpanzee Collaboratory member Dr. Carole Noon, is home to chimpanzees who previously lived in an Air Force laboratory. She also provides sanctuary for chimpanzees who were orphaned by their owners, who initially kept them as pets but were no longer able to take care of them.

Noon provides true sanctuary for these individuals and allows them to be who they are - chimpanzees, not props for our entertainment.
Liz Clancy Lyons,

The Chimpanzee Collaboratory, Washington, D.C.
Cruel advertisement

October 11th, 2006 by admin
Recently, a disturbing advertisement appeared on the popular online community, Craigslist.com. The ad featured a photo of a baby chimpanzee and offered “hands-on” encounters with chimpanzees for $100/hour. The ad promised, “Your encounter may include holding, feeding, playing with and photographing a young chimpanzee.”
The ad was placed by Gini Valbuena, who operates a business (Valbuena Chimps) out of her home in Clearwater. In addition to “Chimpanzee Encounters,” she also rents her chimpanzees for commercials, trade shows, etc. Unfortunately, this is not illegal. But it is certainly exploitive and teaches horrible messages about these endangered animals.
Posted in News

4 Responses to “Help us get cruel advertisement offline”

on 12 Oct 2006 at 8:24 pm Lisa

When will this disgusting, inhumane and cruel practice be put under the spot light and eliminated. Cannot Gini Valbuena be charged with anything?

on 12 Oct 2006 at 9:02 pm Bridget Devaney

Gini needs to get a job that requires her to work instead of her poor animals that have no choice in the matter. I’d respect her if she was charging for “Gini Encounters” for $100 an hour.

on 18 Jan 2007 at 8:29 pm Sam Hunah

That’s just awful. And you know I have done some research on this Gini and it looks like she’s had about 20 chimps in her lifetime. Where did they all go?

on 18 Jan 2007 at 8:34 pm forthechimps

She’s a Godshame. She has dumped soooo many chimps over the years that she needs her own sanctuary just to keep her unwanted retirees.

How this woman is still allowed to treat her babies like this is just a huge question to me.

How does she think the baby chimps feel when they always see the older ones that grow up with gone one day…doesn’t she understand that they know what their future holds?

Doesn’t she care?

I hate her.

See an interactive online map of exotic cat owners. See people being stupid with big cats, endangering themselves and others HERE. See the awful conditions that many captive cats endure HERE.

Register to comment, but be advised that this site is monitored by real people who will only approve content that is relevant.

Article and all links can be found here

Going Out of the Country

2011-04-11T11:04:00.002-08:00

Dear Readers;
My bags are packed and I have my passport in hand. I will be out of the country for approximately 2 weeks. Please feel free to comment and when I return I will post and reply.

While your here, please read some of the educational articles that allot of people have contributed, along with some of my experiences with some people that are mentioned in the articles, such as but not limited to Jeanne Rizzotto, Gini - Virginia Valbuena, and Connie Casey Braun.
Thank you for your continuous readership and dedication to learning about the wonderful species of Primates.

When I return I'm sure there will be allot to catch up on.
Judie Harrison

Orphan Chimpanzees Successfully Released Into the Wild 2 years ago and are doing great

2011-04-08T06:27:00.001-08:00

Six males and six females between eight and 20 years old were released in June 2008. Over two years after the release, nine chimpanzees remain free-living with two males and three females forming a group at the original release site. Two of these females gave birth to healthy offspring and another female successfully integrated into a wild chimpanzee community. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Kent)

The release was the first of its kind to use VHF-GPS store-on-board ARGOS tracking collars to monitor the progress of the chimpanzees. The ARGOS system emits GPS points to satellites downloadable via the internet. It is also only the second time that rehabilitated chimpanzees have been released back into the wild in an area where other wild chimpanzees live.

Dr Tatyana Humle from the University of Kent is the scientific advisor to the project, which is being carried out by the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre in the Haut Niger National Park, Guinea, West Africa. This centre is one of 14 Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA)-accredited sanctuaries caring for chimpanzee victims of the pet and bush meat trade.

Six males and six females between eight and 20 years old were released in June 2008. Over two years after the release, nine chimpanzees remain free-living with two males and three females forming a group at the original release site. Two of these females gave birth to healthy offspring and another female successfully integrated into a wild chimpanzee community.

The release presented a number of challenges for researchers including finding a suitable release area, assessing its overlap with the home range of other wild chimpanzees to minimize competition and the risk of aggression, and ensuring the chimpanzees' ability to survive independently of human assistance.

The GPS points stored on the collars allowed researchers to monitor the chimpanzees' behaviour including their habitat use, day travel range and association patterns. The ARGOS system also facilitated several rescue missions to retrieve chimpanzees when they strayed too far from the protected release site.

The release project has brought significant conservation benefits to the local area. Environmental education and awareness raising programs have been established in and around the park, illegal logging activities have stalled and illegal hunting and fishing activities have been reduced.

Other sanctuaries and conservation centres are set to benefit significantly from the project's pioneering use of new technology.

Dr Humle, from the University's School of Anthropology and Conservation, said: 'This release demonstrates that under special circumstances the release of wild-born adult chimpanzees of both sexes is a viable strategy, which can also function as an effective conservation tool.

'The lessons learnt and the experience gained so far will benefit other sanctuaries that are also considering the option of releasing suitable candidates in the future. We still have much to learn about how rehabilitation, pre- and post-release procedures, and monitoring protocols impact release success. We can only hope that increased collaboration among academics, conservationists and sanctuaries will help bridge these gaps.'
Story Credit Here

Chimp-Human Pseudogene

2011-04-08T06:07:00.003-08:00

"Science and the Sacred" is pleased to feature essays from various guest voices in the science-and-religion dialogue. Please note the views expressed here are those of the author, not necessarily of The BioLogos Foundation.

Today's post was written by Dennis Venema and Darrel Falk.

In our previous post, we likened comparing genomes of related organisms to reading alternative history novels. We noted that before two species diverge, they share the same “backstory” but then go on to accumulate changes after separation.

One interesting feature of looking at genomes is that often we can find the mutated remains of once-functional genes. These are called pseudogenes, or “false genes.” Pseudogenes might be part of a shared backstory for two species, or they might crop up independently after two species go their separate ways. Either way, they are easy to spot at the molecular level because they retain a lot of similarity. For example, here are the DNA sequences for the start of one particular gene1 in several species (for our purposes, its function is not important).

As you examine the sequence of letters above, note that DNA contains a four letter code. This string of “letters” is made up of the molecules adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine strung together within the large super-molecule, DNA. Our cells read the encoded instructions and, interpreting the code, build each of the different proteins required for the maintenance of life.

Note that the instructions have changed a little since these five species had a common “backstory” (ancestor). Despite the changes, for the dog, mouse and chicken, the protein is fully functional. This is not so, however, for the chimp and human. The “dot” (highlighted by the red arrow) means that one single letter of the instructions has been deleted. This change would be like finding this sentence in the first edition of a book:

THE BIG RAT HIT THE RED MAT.
But, in the second edition of the same book, we find this instead:

THE BIG RAT HTT HER EDM AT
The sentence has no meaning anymore, but, as we compared the first and second versions of the book, we would be able to tell exactly what had happened: the letter “I” had been deleted from the sentence, and everything following would be messed up. A single deletion throws off the whole code from that point on. Thus, for chimps and humans, the instructions become gibberish, and the protein molecules produced according to that gene’s instructions are now badly mangled and unable to function.

As you go back and examine sequence in the human/chimp pseudogene, notice how both species carry the exact same deletion. This suggests that the occurrence of this single deletion occurred in one individual, a common ancestor with whom both species have a shared backstory.

Let’s return to our book analogy. Presumably all copies of the second edition had the exact same non-functional sentence about the BIG RAT. If someone was to examine two second edition copies of the book, each of which were missing that same letter, “I,” it would be unthinkable to propose that the exact same mistake occurred independently in the printing of each of the two books. Similarly, it would be incorrect to propose that the new incoherent sentence had some important meaning which literary scholars will discover some day. We would know, plain and simple, that a mistake had occurred. Anything other than that would be highly contrived.

Today both chimps and humans carry the exact same mutation because they both have the same backstory. However, it is even more poignant than that. There are 20,000 pseudogenes in the human genome. Each has its own unique backstory. Each can be traced out in the same manner we have just done for this one.
The hypothesis of common ancestry makes precise predictions about how pseudogenes will be distributed in related species. Once a gene has been mutated into a pseudogene in a certain species, that pseudogene with its specific inactivating mutation will be passed on to all descendents of that species.

The figure below demonstrates this for a specific pseudogene, which we will term pseudogene “y.” Note that in a very specific individual at a very specific time, gene “y” underwent a change in its code—it mutated. That altered code was passed on to the subsequent generations and ended up in two daughter species, Species A and Species B.

Now consider a second gene, which we call “x.” It also underwent a mutation, but did so earlier in the lineage. Let’s call the new mutated form of this gene pseudogene “x.” This is shown in the next figure. Since this mutation occurred earlier in the lineage in an organism that was a common ancestor to Species A, B, and C, all three of these species carry the abnormal, non-functional version of “x.” The lineage to species D, however, had already broken away. It does not carry the mutated version of “x.”

Finally, consider another gene, which we’ll call “z.” This gene is perfectly functional in Species A, B, and D. However, when you examine its code in Species C, guess what? It carries a non-functional pseudogene. What do you think has happened here? This is a recent change, so recent that it occurred in an individual whose ancestors only went on to become Species C. Here is a summary figure which illustrates the time at which each of the three mutations occurred and the ramifications of each change.

In this example, since gene “x” is mutated to a pseudogene in the common ancestor of species A, B and C, we would expect to find this pseudogene, with the same exact inactivating mutation, in these three species. Similarly, the pseudogene version of gene “y” with exactly the same code-change should be found only in species A and B. Finally, there are many cases in which a pseudogene is found only within one species, or, at most, a couple of closely related sister species. Pseudogene “z” is our example of that.

If life really does have a backstory of this sort, then you can see the power of this technique for tracing the lineage. It allows us to trace the history of life, species by species. Interestingly though, there have long been other—non-genetic—ways of tracing life’s history. Biologists have been using these alternative methods for many decades. For example, by examining fossils (paleontology) and tracing changes in body structure (comparative anatomy), the history of life had already been pretty much worked out before DNA sequencing data ever came into the picture.

For the most part, the data which are emerging from DNA sequencing projects simply verify that which biologists have known for years through these other methods of exploring life’s history. Still, the results are extremely gratifying in their consistency. In science, one looks for corroborating evidence. If the DNA data had suggested totally different lineages, then there would have been good reason to doubt the common descent hypothesis. Such is not the case though. The supporting data keep piling up; there is no longer any doubt.
Remember how science works. If there are multiple lines of evidence—each internally consistent with the central overarching principle—a consensus is reached. The theory is judged to be correct and the scientists move on to further explore its ramifications.

If the theory of common descent is true, then it also makes predictions about what we would not expect to find at the genetic level. We go on to explore this topic in our next post.
Information Credit Here

For chimpanzees, like humans, yawning can be contagious

2011-04-07T06:21:00.001-08:00

And new research offers evidence that for these apes picking up a yawn is a sign of social connection.

The researchers showed chimpanzees a video of other chimpanzees and found they yawned more frequently after watching a chimpanzee from their own group yawn than a chimpanzee from another group — evidence that they were more influenced by others with whom they empathized.

Like chimpanzees, humans show more empathy — the ability to understand and share in another's feelings — for members of their own social group. No one has studied whether or not biases like this affect contagious yawning in humans, but the researchers believe we are like our closest living relatives in this regard.

"The idea is that yawns are contagious for the same reason that smiles, frowns and other facial expressions are contagious," the researchers, Matthew Campbell and Frans de Waal of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Georgia, wrote online Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE. "The mechanism that allows someone to reflexively mimic a smile is thought to also allow for reflexive mimicry of yawns."

Campbell and de Waal showed 23 chimpanzees from two groups video clips of other chimpanzees yawning or doing something else. The chimps yawned 50 percent more frequently in response to video of members of their group yawning versus video of the other group members yawning. The researchers note that the chimps paid more attention to the video of unfamiliar chimps.

It's important to note that humans and chimpanzees have different parameters for determining the insider who elicits empathy and the outsider who doesn't.

Humans define their own social group more broadly than do chimpanzees. So, an unfamiliar person can be included within a human social group, but an unfamiliar chimpanzee is by definition an outsider, they write. (Chimps have also been shown to yawn in response to yawning animated characters ; however, this is likely because the artificial nature of the animation prevented the chimps from perceiving the character as an outsider, Campbell and de Waal write.)

Contagious yawning has been documented in five species, including dogs, which can catch yawns from people.
Information Credit here

Protecting the gorillas in the logging concession as well as in the Deng Deng National Park is essential

2011-04-06T05:53:00.000-08:00

By: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

NEW YORK (March 28, 2011) – A new census by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released today reveals a dense and healthy population of western lowland gorillas living in Cameroon's Deng Deng National Park – and an adjacent logging concession.

But the report warns that gorillas need to be protected in both areas if the population is to remain viable.

The census estimated a total of between 300 and 500 gorillas in Deng Deng and the logging concession, with about half living in the park. According to the report, gorillas move freely between the park and logging area. However, a road separates the two areas leaving gorillas vulnerable to poachers.

"Protecting this gorilla population, and guaranteeing its future, absolutely requires protecting the gorillas in the logging concession as well as in the park," said James Deutsch, WCS Director for Africa Programs.

The results of the census came from counts of ape nests along line transects, a standard method for estimating great ape populations. The density of gorillas found in Deng Deng is about the same as Gabon's Lopé National Park and Congo's Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, both well-known ape conservation sites in Central Africa.

Created in 2010, Deng Deng National Park supports the northernmost population of western lowland gorillas and is physically isolated from potential Ebola epidemics that have affected other great ape populations in Central Africa. Chimpanzees, forest elephants, buffaloes, and bongo also occur in the protected area, though poaching and illegal logging have impacted local wildlife numbers.

Roger Fotso, director of WCS's Cameroon Program, said: "For a small area, this is an extremely important site for gorilla conservation. It is also important because this is the northern-most population of western lowland gorillas, and because it is accessible to the capital Yaoundé and so a possible future site for tourism."

WCS is grateful to Cameroon's Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and the French Development Agency AFD for working to protect the gorillas over the past three years.

The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. We do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes toward nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth. Visit: http://www.wcs.org/
Information credit here

Why do Chimpanzees and Bonobos have different social traits?

2011-04-06T05:27:00.000-08:00

It's been a puzzle why our two closest living primate relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, have widely different social traits, despite belonging to the same genus. Now, a comparative analysis of their brains shows neuroanatomical differences that may be responsible for these behaviors, from the aggression more typical of chimpanzees to the social tolerance of bonobos.

"What's remarkable is that the data appears to match what we know about the human brain and behavior," says Emory anthropologist James Rilling, who led the analysis. "The neural circuitry that mediates anxiety, empathy and the inhibition of aggression in humans is better developed in bonobos than in chimpanzees."

The journal of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience published the results April 5, the most comprehensive comparative analysis to date of the neural systems of chimpanzees and bonobos.

"By contributing to our basic understanding of how brain anatomy relates to social behavior, this study may provide clues to the brain dysfunction underlying human social behavioral disorders like psychopathy and autism," Rilling says.

Chimpanzees and bonobos diverged from a common ancestor with humans about six million years ago, and from each other just one-to-two million years ago. Despite this relatively brief separation in evolutionary terms, the two species exhibit significant differences in social behavior. Compared with chimpanzees, bonobos are more anxious, less aggressive, more socially tolerant, more playful, more sexual and perhaps more empathic.

"Chimpanzees tend to resolve conflict by using aggression, while bonobos are more likely to use behavioral mechanisms like sex and play to diffuse tension," Rilling says. "The social behaviors of the two species mirror individual differences within the human population."

Rilling heads Emory's Laboratory for Darwinian Neuroscience, a leader in the use of non-invasive neuro-imaging technology to compare the neurobiology of humans and other primates. The lab draws on resources of Emory's Yerkes National Primate Research Center.

"In addition to exploring links between neuroanatomy and different social behaviors, we're mapping the underlying biology for how species evolve and differentiate," Rilling says.

A range of imaging and analytical techniques were used in the chimpanzee-bonobo study. Voxel-based morphometry compared the gray matter in standard structural scans of the brains. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) captured the white matter connections, to compare the fiber tracts that "wire" the brain.

The results showed that bonobos have more developed circuitry for key nodes within the limbic system, the so-called emotional part of the brain, including the amygdala, the hypothalamus and the anterior insula. The anterior insula and the amygdala are both implicated in human empathy.

"We also found that the pathway connecting the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex is larger in bonobos than chimpanzees," Rilling says. "When our amygdala senses that our actions are causing someone else distress, we may use that pathway to adjust our behavior in a prosocial direction."

Chimpanzees have better developed visual system pathways, according to the analysis. Previous research has suggested that those pathways are important for tool use, a skill which chimpanzees appear better at than bonobos.

Provided by Emory University (news : web)
Information Credit Here

A chimpanzee that survives the physical and emotional trauma of capture can take years to recover

2011-04-04T05:52:00.000-08:00

A new study, published in the International Journal of Primatology, examines 11 Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) member facilities, predicting their carrying capacity for chimpanzees and provides a roadmap for long term resource, infrastructure and financial planning.

Lead author Lisa Faust, PhD a research biologist with Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo said, "The most sobering part of this study is realizing that most of these institutions already report being at capacity or close to capacity, and yet on average the group of sanctuaries are collectively faced with accepting 56 new chimpanzee arrivals every year, most of them under the age of two to three years old. Because chimpanzees are long-lived, this means that most of the sanctuaries will need to sustain or increase their current size, because they will continue to accept new arrivals as part of their commitment to chimpanzee welfare and law enforcement."

Chimpanzees are an endangered species, and while poaching is illegal it remains a major problem threatening their continued survival.
"PASA sanctuaries play a vital role in helping rescue and rehabilitate chimpanzees and other endangered primates, and that is our main objective," said Doug Cress, executive director of PASA. "But it's easy to get caught up in the day to day fight for survival and lose perspective. This study is so important because it allows us to step back and see where we'll be in the coming years and decades and to plan accordingly. Population modeling on this level is a wonderful tool."

A chimpanzee that survives the physical and emotional trauma of capture can take years to recover. But PASA member sanctuaries accept that long-term commitment, even if the only possible alternative to lifetime care -- reintroduction, the physical return of the chimpanzees back to the forest -- is a difficult and relatively new endeavor.

Chimpanzee reintroduction projects currently underway at PASA sanctuaries in Congo and Guinea have put more than 50 chimpanzees back into the wild, and three Cameroon sanctuaries are preparing to double that number through reintroduction programs in the next few years. But the cost, which can easily double a sanctuary's budget, is just one of the many obstacles to more widespread reintroduction.
Story Credit Here

Humans have more sophisticated brains than Primates because of chemicals

2011-04-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

Evolution of cognition might be down to brain chemistry”, Andy Coghlan reports, (New Scientist, 28 March 2011):

Philipp Khaitovich of the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai, China, and colleagues analysed brain tissue from deceased humans, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques to study the concentrations of 100 chemicals linked with metabolism.

In the human prefrontal cortex, the levels of 24 of these were drastically different from levels in the corresponding brain regions of the other primates. In the cerebellum, however, there were far fewer differences between humans and the other animals, with just six chemicals showing different concentrations.

This suggests that, since our lineage split off from other primates, the evolution of metabolism in the thinking and learning parts of our brains has gone much further than in our “primitive” cerebellum.

I wonder if “‘primitive’ cerebellum” will go the way of “junk” DNA?

The authors may think (they don’t say so directly) that differing brain chemistry is a cause of higher order thinking. It could just as easily be interpreted as a platform for higher order thinking, or even as a consequence of it.
Excerpt: If the error structures of the archaic DNA and one of the modern human DNA samples are similar to each other for one of many reasons, the ABBA-BABA test could report admixture when it did not in fact occur. Even a very small proportion of shared errors could cause a strong effect on the ABBA-BABA statistic. For example, small effects that we typically tend to ignore, such as shared contamination of reagents between the samples, could cause artifactual evidence of admixture.

In this podcast Dr. Patricia Fanning examines the evolutionary claim that humans evolved more sophisticated brains as a result of chemicals other primates did not have.
Story Credit here and video

Is a Monkey, Chimp, Lion or Tiger living next to you?

2011-04-01T07:34:00.001-08:00

Readers, I just posted some information today about how you can tell whether a sanctuary is a good or bad one. it's worth reading, just a few posts down. This is NOT a sanctuary!!!!!!!! This is why people get confused about what is good and what is bad. The most important thing is that a Real Sanctuary DOES NOT interact with the animals!! That is not sanction for the animals. Anyone that thinks you can take the wild out of a wild animal is disillusioned! I know I worked with them for over 15 years. Once a wild animal always a wild animal. Look at the Travis/Sandra Herold/Charla Nash case. Travis was like a child to Sandra, she slept with him, lived with him in her home and he did all of the things that humans did but...... one day his wildness came out. Not only did he attack Charla but then tried to go after the person that loved him more than anything, the person that raised him from a baby. You just can't make them domestacted no matter what you do or how long you do it for. I had rescued a toothless monkey once and even with no teeth he broke a few bones in my hand by rapid biting me.

I hope when this movie comes out they don't put a spin on it that makes it look "cool" to own an exotic animal. I once met a tiger that was suppose to be put to death because he had pulled a woman with his paw to the edge of his cage and he ripped her apart through the cage!!!!!. Before the authroites could take the tiger the owners moved him to another facility and that's where I meet him. He was housed alone because he couldn't be trusted with any other tigers. People that own exotic animals should have in their wills to donate their organs because their death will surly come.

Story;
Just a few pages into a book given to him by a friend, Michael Webber couldn't believe what he was reading: Thousands of Americans keep exotic wildlife, from tigers to lethally poisonous snakes, in their homes and yards -- absolutely unregulated.

"It just seemed bizarre to me that there are some areas of the country that require you to get a dog license to own a poodle, but in that same area, you can get a tiger and raise it in your home," the Hollywood TV and film producer says by phone from Ohio. "Or you can get a venomous snake, a python, a chimpanzee, and there is absolutely no licensing requirement or oversight. Your neighbor can even stick an elephant in the back yard and there is nothing you can do about it."

The book, "Wildlife Warrior: More Tales Of Suburban Safaris" by former animal-control officer Tim Harrison, became the beginning of an odyssey for Webber, which led to the new documentary, "The Elephant in the Living Room," which opens at selected theaters in Denver next week.

The movie explores the strange and often shadowy world of "exotic" wildlife in the United States, from marketers and auctions to owners who have formed a deep attachment to their "pets." It focuses on Harrison, who has avidly crusaded against ownership and marketing of wildlife, and Terry Brumfield, an Ohio man who raised and kept two African lions, Lambert and Lacey, in his home.

Boulder native Pat Craig, founder of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesberg, appears in "The Elephant in the Living Room." Camera file photo ( JON HATCH)touching, even cute, but it's anything but. Lambert, the male lion, escapes onto a local highway, where he is reported for chasing down speeding cars (911 operators were understandably incredulous). After that, the authorities give their owner an ultimatum: give the lions away, or keep them penned up. Brumfield, who formed deep emotional attachment to the lions as cubs, when he was recovering from a severe accident, reluctantly keeps them in a cramped, filthy horse trailer, where they live for several months.

Boulder native Pat Craig, founder of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesberg, appears in "The Elephant in the Living Room." Camera file photo ( JON HATCH)touching, even cute, but it's anything but. Lambert, the male lion, escapes onto a local highway, where he is reported for chasing down speeding cars (911 operators were understandably incredulous). After that, the authorities give their owner an ultimatum: give the lions away, or keep them penned up. Brumfield, who formed deep emotional attachment to the lions as cubs, when he was recovering from a severe accident, reluctantly keeps them in a cramped, filthy horse trailer, where they live for several months.

The film mostly walks a carefully non-judgmental line, and Webber even confesses that he formed a bond with Brumfield, who comes off as well-meaning but clueless.

"These aren't evil people," Webber says. "They are people who love animals, arguably more than most people out there. They have a strong connection to their exotics, even stronger than some people have for their dogs or cats."

The story of Harrison's gentle attempts to persuade Brumfield to give up the lions is interwoven with harrowing tales of animals turning on their owners, hidden-camera footage of the people behind the exotic market and interviews with people on both sides of the debate.

But despite the sympathy he developed for Brumfield, Webber says he came down on the side of those who want to limit and regulate, if not ban, the ownership of most wildlife in the United States.

"I just experienced all the negative sides of this, for the animals and the owners," he says.

Pat Craig, a Boulder native who is founder and director of the Wild Animal Sanctuary near Keenesburg on the eastern plains of Colorado, appears in the film. He advised Webber and Harrison, and eventually took in some of the animals shown.

"For me the movie represents a great educational tool. Joe Public will see it and say, 'Wow, that is a huge problem.' I'm a real fan of the movie in that sense," Craig says.

But he is uncompromising in his refusal to "coddle" people who take in animals that they will deprive of a natural habitat and life, and for which almost all are unequipped to care for. He even criticizes Webber and Harrison for succumbing on camera to the lure of some lion cubs.

"All these people love their animals," Craig says. "But they either provide for them or don't provide. I don't doubt that (Brumfield) loved his lions. ... But we learned a long time ago that being sympathetic, having any hesitation initially (with owners) will end up costing the animals."

Craig points out that virtually all large exotic wildlife goes without any veterinary care simply because most vets won't -- or can't -- handle them. Most people have no exotic animal husbandry skills and almost none can provide a suitable habitat for say, a tiger, a bear, or even a large snake.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary permanently cares for almost 300 animals that have been abandoned by their previous owners, including about 70 tigers, 86 bears, 34 wolves and 40 African lions. The animals live on 320 acres and cost about $3 million a year to care for, Craig says. Animals are prevented from breeding through birth control. (The public may visit the sanctuary for a fee; for more information, go to wildanimalsanctuary.org.)

Terry Brumfield, an Ohio man who kept adult lions at his home, in "The Elephant in the Living Room." Courtesy photo. animals," Craig says. "But they either provide for them or don't provide. I don't doubt that (Brumfield) loved his lions. ... But we learned a long time ago that being sympathetic, having any hesitation initially (with owners) will end up costing the animals."

Craig points out that virtually all large exotic wildlife goes without any veterinary care simply because most vets won't -- or can't -- handle them. Most people have no exotic animal husbandry skills and almost none can provide a suitable habitat for say, a tiger, a bear, or even a large snake.

Since animals are considered property in most states and seizing them often results in lawsuits, Craig advocates laws requiring that owners pay for liability insurance.

"We should require a million dollars worth of insurance," he says. "It's amazing how so many owners who say they would never give up (an animal) find out they have to pay insurance premiums and suddenly say (screw) it."

Large carnivores get most of the film's attention, but it notes that Americans own everything from chimpanzees to poisonous snakes such as the deadly gabon viper. The non-profit, all-volunteer Colorado Reptile Humane Society in Longmont, which handles everything from small lizards to venomous snakes such as western diamondback rattlers, constantly battles the problem of people taking in animals they can't care for.

"Calling them exotics is funny to begin with," says associate director Jonathan Sculpin. "The only extraordinary thing is that we humans have taken them out of their natural setting. ... People put a 5-foot long snake an aquarium. But in the wild that animal has at least an acre of habitat over which it roams."

And as the film makes clear with breathless local TV stories, when wild animals behave like, well, wild animals, they tend to take the blame.

"In North America, we think the role of a tiger or a lion or a chimpanzee is to put clothes on them, to dress up a chimp in an Old Navy commercial with a spoon. But eventually, if (the chimp) tears your face, your genitalia, your hands and feet off, we say it went bad. But that is what a chimp is meant to do," Webber says, recalling a horrific 2009 incident in which a "pet" chimpanzee attacked a woman in Connecticut. News reports said neighbors were "shocked" by the animal's behavior.

An emergency room physician in the film, Dr. Roger Paholka of Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, shakes his head at the many cases he's seen of exotic pets harming people.

"We see them as safe and cuddly, as opposed to people in Africa, who see them as something that wants to eat your face," Paholka says onscreen.

But both Webber and Craig regret that public debate over the issue -- to the extent that there is any -- tends to be focused on public safety to the exclusion of the animals' welfare. The film ends with brief footage of animals rescued and released into the grasslands at the Wild Animal Sanctuary, a stark contrast to their earlier extreme confinement.
"These are non-domesticated, majestic animals," Webber says. "After the initial fascination, you become sad. Gosh, that tiger is never going to run, never hunt, and hopefully never breed. It is never going to be able to do things it was programmed and designed to do."
Story and photo Credit Here

Studies show Monkeys can count better than originally thought

2011-04-01T07:07:00.000-08:00

Researchers, led by Vanessa Schmidt from the German Primate Center in Goettingen, Germany, conducted basic numeracy tests on long-tailed macaques in an effort to show that these primates understand the concept of relative quantity.
In the first experiment, researchers presented the monkeys with two plates of raisins with one having more than the other. The idea being that the monkeys would choose the plate with the larger number of raisins. In this first experiment, the monkeys were then allowed to eat the raisins on the plate they choose. In this experiment, researchers found that the monkeys had a tendency to get this wrong and chose the plate with the smaller amount of raisins.

In the second experiment, the researchers decided to replace the raisins with non-edible objects, in this case pebbles. When presented these plates with pebbles, the monkeys did much better.

The third experiment returned to the plates with raisins, but instead of being rewarded with the raisins on the plate, the monkeys were rewarded with raisins hidden underneath. This experiment showed the same results as the pebbles.

Researchers point out that these natural impulses in the monkeys and their desire to eat the raisins interfered with their judgment in the initial experiment. Similar to young children and the reverse reward paradigm, these monkeys were not able to see past their desire to eat the raisins.

In the reverse reward paradigm, young children are presented with two piles of candies of different sizes. The children will always point to the larger pile and then this pile is given to another child. Children have difficulty understanding that by choosing the smaller pile, they will receive the larger pile. However, if this test is repeated with non-edible objects, the children are able to understand and perform the experiment correctly.

Researchers in this study point to the same interference in judgment by the monkeys when presented with food. Their desire to eat the food gets in the way of the task at hand. These researchers believe that previous studies performed on other primates using food as a test symbol may have impaired results and therefore underestimated the primate’s numeracy abilities.

Information and video here

Man caught for trying to smuggle a baby chimpanzee

2011-04-01T06:52:00.000-08:00

Although great that they caught this guy before the baby chimp could be sold, the saddest part of this is that the mother was probably killed to get this baby and now this baby has no mom and mom doesn't have a life. All for the sake of money!!!!!! So sad... Just the thought that being rich over the compassion for the Primates makes me sick!!!! Hope he rots in jail forever because no doubt he took someone elses life.

Story;
Conservationists are calling for worldwide action to stop the growing trade in endangered primates being smuggled out of Africa by criminal gangs alongside drugs and arms, writes Asha Tanna.

The Pan-African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) - a non-profit organisation that supports sanctuaries across the continent - says the situation is "critical" to all endangered species, because dollar for dollar it's more profitable than some drug trafficking.

"It's nothing small, these gangs are well organised and they're fast," said PASA's executive director, Doug Cress.

"From start to finish a deal can be done and the order delivered in less than a week. If they've already got away with loading drugs and automatic weapons onto an airplane, then to throw in leopard skins and crates stuffed with live baby chimpanzees - it's worth their while."

The man pictured here was investigated by the Last Great Ape Organisation (LAGA) - a wildlife law enforcement group - and jailed for three years for trying to smuggle a baby chimpanzee as well as four sacks of drugs containing 50kg of marijuana and cocaine in the back of his car out of Cameroon, en route to Nigeria.

According to conservationists, a baby gorilla can fetch up to £40,000 on the black-market.

Law enforcement agencies say they have identified certain trade routes through Africa which are being exploited because cross-border patrols are lax and the punishment for wildlife crime is lenient.

"Mobile phones and the internet have made it easy for people to communicate and they can create quite a grab bag of things," said Doug Cress.

"Prosecutions in parts of Africa...are difficult to uphold and some of these known traffickers are untouchable because they can bribe their way out of a situation."

"Prosecutions in parts of Africa...are difficult to uphold and some of these known traffickers are untouchable because they can bribe their way out of a situation."

Doug Cress PASA

PASA says endangered primates are usually pre-ordered from places like the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe where they end up either as exotic pets or put on show in zoos. The animals are increasingly being smuggled through Alexandria or Sharm El Sheik in Egypt - either from Cameroon via Nigeria or from Kenya via Sudan.

All endangered animals being trafficked are supposed to be protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Some crates seized by investigators have also revealed an increase in animal skins, ivory, rhino horns and various body parts for trophies.

Earlier this year, five people were arrested in Gabon, West Africa, following the largest confiscation of great ape body parts in the last ten years. The parts found included the head and hands of a gorilla, along with 12 chimpanzee heads and 30 chimpanzee hands.

Local African police, Interpol, LAGA and the World Customs Organization (WCO) have been working in conjunction with PASA to intercept wildlife smugglers to try to prosecute them.

Ofir Drori, director of LAGA said: "The problem conservation faces is corruption and it can be found in government officials, magistrates and police. That is the number one obstacle and we need to fight it.

"Bribing attempts are documented in 85 per cent of our field arrest operations, and 80 per cent of all court cases within the legal system. The only way to stop criminals, is to put them in jail.

"CITES is a tool that only works when there are collaborative governments. The problem is some governments don't want to follow the rules."

Following the recent political turmoil in Egypt, there's been no response from the authorities there to requests for comments on the smuggling allegations.

Lack of training

A spokesman for the WCO, Grant Bushby, said that many customs administrations in Africa suffered from a lack of awareness, training, equipment and inter-agency cooperation "which impacts negatively on effective enforcement at borders".

"Corruption too has paralysed enforcement efforts," he added.

PASA claims that Africa's ties with some international trading partners mean officials will look the other way at border checks; and say many of the illegal exchanges at African airports are done on the tarmac.

If criminals are successfully intercepted, conservationists say the animals are often confiscated and the offenders are allowed to walk away with just a warning. Those who do end up in jail will often receive a more lenient sentence for wildlife trafficking than for drugs or arms offences, so there's a temptation to re-offend.

PASA believes all chimpanzees and gorillas being smuggled out of Africa have been captured in the wild. It has written to CITES to investigate.

The head of enforcement for CITES, John Sellar said: "We are not sitting back and twiddling our thumbs. CITES has one officer to look at wildlife enforcement globally. Historically we have known that Egypt has traded in live primates and we have since worked very closely with the authorities to address this problem.

"The trade in great apes is very serious because of the detrimental impact to their populations; this is very much on our radar. If we find that a country is not complying we will issue sanctions to cease trading with them. Financially it has little significance, it's more international embarrassment. CITES is not a law enforcement agency, any hard evidence we receive is passed onto the authorities to investigate."

LAGA says it is starting to see some positive results, but preventing primate trafficking continues to be an on-going battle.

Asha Tanna is a British freelance journalist. She writes a conservation blog which focuses on all primate-related news and features.
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Little Rock Zoo wants patrons to support the new Primate Bill

2011-04-01T06:28:00.003-08:00

This is where I placed my 2 chimpanzees, Mikey and Louie.

LITTLE ROCK – Officials at the Little Rock Zoo are urging patrons to support proposed legislation that would ban private ownership of primates.

The zoo says it supports senate bill SB901 because of safety and health concerns. SB901 is scheduled to be considered by the house Public Health Committee on Thursday.

In an email, zoo director Susan Altrui says primates purchased by private citizens as pets often grow up to be adults that are difficult to control. As a result zoos are often asked to take custody of the primates, which they can't always do.

In addition, Altrui says pet primates pose a risk to public health because they can carry diseases such as Ebola and hepatitis B.

On Tuesday a group of monkey owners showed up at the State Capitol to speak out against the legislation.
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Here is the Bill- (click on each page to enlarge- opens as a PDF) bill found here

How does a person know if a sanctuary is a good one or a bad one?

2011-04-01T06:16:00.002-08:00

Hi readers!
I received a question in regards to how does one know if a sanctuary is a good or bad one. This is such an important question that I thought it deserved a separate post. I have so much information on here that sometimes it's easy to overlook the comments.

Usually "good" sanctuaries are not located in a neighborhood around people, they are usually very remote with many acres of land to give the animals plenty of space, sanction and away from people for reasons such as, but not limited to, escapes, intruders.
They are a non-profit 501(c)3 and not an exhibitor. Their sanctuary is held by a board of directors with the non-profit owning the sanctuary. The sanctuary is not privately held. According to the USDA all exhibitors must "exhibit", "exploit" their animals by allowing people to come into the facility. Real sanctuaries do not allow people to be present around the primates. Educating people on Primates does not mean that they have to visit or see them in person. That's what zoos are for.

Before they open a new sanctuary they make sure that the primates are permitted not only on a state level but city and county. They obtain all permits before accepting any primates. They don't believe in private ownership of primates.

They speak to the public about how primates should not be held in a personal way. In no way do they help pet owners of primates with care and feeding because this is NOT something that they believe in. An example of this is if someone were to contact a real sanctuary about the care of their pet primate, the sanctuary would do everything in their power to educate that person and help them find a sanctuary to place them in instead of being some one's pet.

This question is so strong that that is why PETA and other organizations send people in under cover to find out what the sanctuary is really doing and what they are all about. Most of the time when these Animal Welfare people conclude their investigation the results are that it is not a true sanctuary.

Good sanctuaries usually have at least one person that has been trained in the drugs, dosage and weight combination to be able to dart an escaped Primate. This prevents any escapes from leaving the property. It sedates the Primate so that the caretakers can contain the animal back into it's enclosure or habitat.
Volunteers at good sanctauries are usually people with allot of experience or are working on a degree, not teenagers or friends.

With the question of good for the animals...

All Primates need ample space to thrive. They need to live with troupes of monkeys not singly housed or with one other monkey. In the wild which truly is where they belong they live in troupes up to 30 monkeys. When monkeys are not housed in proper space and in troupes some of their natural behaviour does not exist.

In my opinion and with my many years of experieince I would say that there are only a handful of good true sanctauries here in the US.

The Pressure is on the Girl Scouts about using Palm Oil in their cookies

2011-03-31T05:53:00.000-08:00

About two months ago I received a phone call from my 6-year-old niece, asking me if I wanted to buy Girl Scout Cookies. Two words that have become associated with these popular cookies quickly came to mind: palm oil. But how could I resist? Not only would my niece not understand, but I do admit that I have been in love with Samoas since I sold Girl Scout Cookies. I caved and bought a few boxes.

It was after I received my cookies that I read an inspiring story about two young Girl Scouts who were determined to make a difference after they found out that their cookies contained unsustainable palm oil. As many know, palm oil production is the major cause of deforestation of rainforests. The shock came for young Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen was when they found out that the clearing of rainforests threatens the survival of orangutans.

Now there are advocates out there who are major proponents of sustainable palm oil, such as McDonald’s, but there are also major companies such as Burger King and HSBC that have both made big strides in no longer supporting Indonesian producers. So why are the Girl Scouts and their baking company, Little Brownie Bakers, still including the ingredient in their cookies? Madison and Rhiannon set out to find out and make a difference.

In 2008, inspired by both their Girl Scout training and the work of Dr. Jane Goodall, the two 11-year-old girls had a conference call with Barry Horowitz, Vice President and General Manager of Girl Scout Merchandise. They requested a switch from palm oil to a truly sustainable alternative. Horowitz seemed as though the issue concerned him and promised that he’d be in touch with next steps after contacting the cookie manufacturers.

According to the Girl Scouts website, palm oil is used because the “licensed cookie bakers tell us it continues to be necessary to use palm oil in specific cookies to ensure their shelf life, quality, and to serve as a healthful alternative to trans-fats. Many top bakers have tried to stop using palm oil, but without it, their products do not meet quality and production standards.”

As time passed, Madison and Rhiannon decided they wanted to do something more. They organized Girl Scout troops across the country to generate pressure on Girl Scouts of the USA and convinced Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Biological Diversity, Cultural Survival, Orangutan Foundation International, and Rainforest Action Network to send letters of concern on their behalf to the national Girl Scout headquarters in New York City.

Three years later, the young girls still haven’t given up and both take a strong stance on palm oil. Head on over to The Understory to read more about Madison and Rhiannon’s quest for a sustainable alternative.

The good news is the Girl Scouts website states “Effective in 2011, Little Brownie Bakers and its parent company, Kellogg, have committed to covering 100% of their global palm oil use through the purchase of GreenPalm certificates. Funds from GreenPalm certificates help growers invest in the transition to sustainable palm oil.”

Next year, the Girl Scouts will be celebrating 100 years of “building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.” We can only hope that perhaps it will be on this celebratory year that a major change will be made once and for all.

Shown in the photo above: Rhiannon (left) and Madison (right) campaigning to save orangutans in seventh grade. Photo via: The Understory.
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Male aggression in the Bonobo Society is just simply not tolerated says Brian Hare

2011-03-31T05:48:00.001-08:00

Humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, but we share one important similarity with one species of chimp, the common chimpanzee, that we don't share with the other, the bonobo. That similarity is violence. While humans and the common chimpanzee wage war and kill each other, bonobos do not. "There has never been a recorded case in captivity or in the wild of a bonobo killing another bonobo," notes anthropologist Brian Hare.

Hare is an assistant professor in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he and his wife and colleague, Vanessa Woods, studied bonobo behavior at Lola ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an orphanage for young bonobos whose parents were killed for the bush meat trade. The war-torn Congo is the only place in the world where these endangered apes can be found.

"We go to this sanctuary and we play these fun problem-solving games with them to just try and get inside their heads and figure out exactly how they think," says Woods. "They're wonderful animals to be related to. It's a shame so few people have heard of them."

Woods is author of the book "Bonobo Handshake," a memoir about her experiences with these peaceful, playful primates, and some of the differences she noted between bonobos and common chimpanzees.

"Chimpanzees can be very empathetic, loving but they also have this darker side. They have war, they kill each other, they beat their females. Bonobos don't really have any of that," explains Woods. "They're different because they've managed to live in a society virtually without violence. How do they do that? Humans, for all of our intelligence and all our technology, we haven't managed to live without war, and so I think that's something very important that bonobos can teach us."

One way bonobos deal with conflict and tension is to have sex. Yes, they're the ultimate hippies--they make love, not war. "Whenever things get tense in the bonobo world, they'll usually have some kind of sociosexual activity and this seems to really help everybody get along. But another one of the ways that they sort of have this peaceful society is they're naturally more tolerant. They share more, and if one of them gets upset, it's not just sex but they can also hug and comfort one another."

In one study, Woods and Hare were surprised when a hungry bonobo opened a gate to share prized treats with another bonobo. "The idea that you would give something to someone else at a cost to yourself, we thought this was something only humans would do."

Bonobos' generous nature likely evolved because they live in an area of the Congo where food is plentiful. They never had to compete with gorillas or kill for a meal like common chimps do.

The females stick together, creating a matriarchal society, and when necessary will gang up on threatening males. "Females will work together to protect themselves from male aggression. So male aggression is just simply not tolerated," says Hare.

With chimps, the most aggressive males tend to team up to dominate females and weaker males. In bonobo society, Hare says it's the mother and son relationship that commands the most respect.

"Basically, bonobos are the ultimate 'mama's boys.' Essentially, it's more like a debutante society where mothers have to introduce their sons into polite society and it's through your mother, as a bonobo, that you will gain access to other females," explains Hare.

How did two such similar species, the bonobo and the common chimpanzee, evolve so differently? Hare says understanding that may shed light on human behavior, considering that we are a lot like both of them.
"Humans are probably the most generous species on the planet," notes Hare, which is very bonobo-like. But like chimps, Hare says, we have that dark side. "Bonobos don't have a darker side. So, although they can't fly to the moon, they don't kill each other. I think they challenge your normal notion of what intelligence is. I think we have a lot to learn from them."

(Video: Science Nation, Miles O'Brien/Science Nation Correspondent, Ann Kellan/Science Nation Producer)
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NIH strikes again with research on a sick monkey

2011-03-31T05:42:00.001-08:00

These people are so full of shit that they wouldn't know the truth if it smacked them in the face. Perhaps in their next life they can be a monkey at the NIH. Now there's a sweet thought! Why in the world do we need to test for the diseases they are tested them for? We don't live in Africa or any other country!!!! You people suck!!!!

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The federal government has cited UC Davis for using a monkey in research studies despite evidence that it was in poor health.

The monkey had gastrointestinal problems, vomited frequently, was losing hair on its arms and legs and had a wound on its genitals.

After the monkey had been used in three studies, UC Davis veterinarians questioned whether it was well enough to be used for more research, the report states. The lab decided to place the monkey in a fourth study, the report says, "despite the progressive worsening of medical and behavior problems that lead to unnecessary discomfort, distress and pain to that animal."

The report also cites UC Davis for inadequately documenting the monkey's veterinary care. The monkey was euthanized in September 2008.

The report was made public last week after the federal government denied an appeal by UC Davis, which argued that the monkey was in good enough shape to be used in the studies.

"Our institution does not consider this combined research usage excessive for an animal that was (about) six years old," says the letter of appeal written by UC Davis veterinarian Victor Lukas.

The government's report is based on a November 2009 inspection of records at the California National Primate Research Center, a UC Davis lab that houses 6,000 monkeys used in research on malaria, HIV, asthma, allergies, Alzheimer's and autism.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspected records related to the monkey's care upon request by an animal rights organization that reviewed the monkey's death report.

"It was very clear that this animal had gone through what was a horrible life," said Michael Budkie, an Ohio activist who opposes the use of animals in scientific research.

UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell said the university is appealing the government's findings a second time.

"All animals at the primate center receive regular health checks and they receive excellent care," Fell said. "Animal research is well regulated by federal law. We think we do it humanely, and it produces useful insight into human and animal medicine."
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Yeah right!!!!!

Four Captive Orangutans have been released into the Jalin Jantho Nature Reserve

2011-03-30T05:59:00.002-08:00

Banda Aceh. Four formerly-captive orangutans have been given the chance to resume a normal life after they were released into the Jalin Jantho nature reserve in Aceh on Monday.

KisKis, a six-year-old male orangutan, was released into the Jalin Jantho forests of Aceh on Monday. (JG Photo/ Dedek Geumpang)

This brings to six the number of orangutans released into the forest by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program since last week.

Dr. Ian Singleton, director of conservation at the Swiss-based PanEco Foundation, a partner of SOCP, said the four primates had previously been cared for — illegally — by local Acehnese people.

Before they were released into the Jalin Jantho forest, they underwent health checks at SOCP’s quarantine center in Sibolangit, North Sumatra.
Located some 80 kilometers east of Banda Aceh, the Jalin Jantho pine reserves are notorious for being the place where police raided a paramilitary training camp run by suspected terrorists in February last year.

“The Jantho forests are great for orangutans because they are rich and densely packed with trees,” Singleton said.

The four orangutans released on Monday were all aged between six and seven years of age; three were female and one male. The two others, released on March 23, consisted of a six-year-old male and an adult female, which was rescued injured from a palm oil plantation in Rawa Tripa, Nagan Raya district.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Sumatran orangutans as critically endangered. An estimated 6,600 remain in the wild.

“The primary threat to orangutans is destruction of habitat caused by illegal logging concessions,” Singleton said, adding that the capture orangutans for the pet trade was also a major problem.

Wild populations of Sumatran orangutans are only found in the northern parts of Sumatra, with the largest numbers in the Leuser ecosystem of southeast Aceh, Singleton said.

“Leuser is the safest area for orangutans because of its higher altitude,” he said. “At lower levels their population is dwindling because of logging of the forest.”

Singleton said an additional 30 orangutans, which were seized from people keeping them illegally in Aceh, were being quarantined at SOCP’s centre in Sibolangit.

After completing their quarantine period and being granted a clean bill of health, they will also be released in Jalin Jantho, he said.
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The Proboscis Monkey regurgitates and rechews its food.

2011-03-30T05:48:00.000-08:00

The proboscis monkey, nicknamed the “long-nosed monkey” due to its huge, protruding nose, now has another claim to fame: it regularly regurgitates and rechews its food.

Ikki Matsuda

The proboscis monkey demonstrates the first naturally occurring, ongoing instances of this behavior in a primate, conclude the authors of the paper, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters.

Gorillas and humans will also sometimes upchuck, rechew, and swallow, but if done on even a semi-regular basis, the actions are considered to be pathological.

“The digestive tract of the proboscis monkey is drastically different from that of humans and great apes,” lead author Ikki Matsuda told Discovery News. “The proboscis monkey has a distinct sacculated (chambered) forestomach where bacterial digestion occurs prior to the glandular stomach.”

Matsuda, a scientist at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute, and his colleagues recorded the behaviors of proboscis monkeys living along a tributary of Kinabatangan River, Malaysia. The researchers collected their data from a boat on the river during early mornings and late afternoons from January 2000 to March 2001.

At least 23 different monkeys were videotaped regurgitating and rechewing. When this happened, the monkey’s abdomen would contract and the primate would stick its tongue outside its pursed mouth.

The regurgitated material stayed in the mouth, but could be seen at times on camera. The monkey then puffed out its cheeks as it rechewed and swallowed the food for the second time.

Matsuda said he and his colleagues “speculate that the behavior served to allow for an increased food intake under yet-to-be-specified conditions.”

He explained the behavior likely allows the monkey to digest larger particles of food faster. This, he theorized, “means the monkey can eat more sooner, because the bacteria do not need as long to digest the material.”

The proboscis monkey’s diet consists of various proportions of leaves and fruits. Some can be quite fibrous. The researchers, however, were not able to associate any particular type of food to the regurgitation/rechewing behavior.

Ruminants, such as cows, digest in a similar way all the time. They tear off plant materials and swallow them. After some processing, a contraction sends the cud material back up to the mouth where it is chewed for a long time before being swallowed again.

Peter Langer, a professor in the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Justus-Liebig University, is one of the world’s leading experts on ruminants and their feeding processes. He is the author of the book “Mammalian Herbivore Stomach: Comparative Anatomy, Function and Evolution.”

Langer told Discovery news that it’s important to make it “clear that rumination in the Artiodactyla (cows and other hoofed animals) and regurgitation and remastication in other mammalian orders, including primates, are different physiological processes.”

Koalas, for example, are not ruminants, but like the proboscis monkey, they too have been observed regurgitating and rechewing their food. They are only believed to do this under certain circumstances, such as when their teeth wear out due to old age, or when lactating females need to consume more food.

Matsuda said that if he and his team had observed the behavior in the monkeys more regularly, “say 10 minutes after waking in the morning, we might have called it rumination.” He added that this study only focused on one population of the monkeys, so the behavior might even be a learned tradition.

He explained, “Traditions, especially related to feeding, have been reported in primates -- like the macaques that wash food and even season it with salt water. We simply cannot exclude such a tradition.”
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Company forced to suspend oil exploration plans in the Mountain Gorilla Haven

2011-03-29T05:43:00.002-08:00

Firm's environmental impact assessment slated as premature and superficial

March 2011: A British company has been forced to suspend oil exploration plans in the mountain gorilla haven of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the Congolese government condemned the firm's environmental impact assessment as premature and superficial.

Virunga is home to 200 mountain gorillas, as well as a small population of eastern lowland gorillas.
In an open letter to the worldwide conservation community, DPR's environment minister clarified his government's position on the published intentions of SOCO International at the World Heritage Site.

In his letter, the minister states that his department has taken ‘specific steps, which have led to the suspension of the given oil exploration activities.

'We have rejected the recommendations of an environmental impact assessment conducted by the oil company, SOCO, which we consider premature, superficial and which does not conform to the standards which we would expect.'   

The Minister has also confirmed that the senior management for Soco Oil had assured him that they ‘will not attempt any prospection work in the park unless a positive consensus is achieved in their favour'. 

 'This is one of the most precious places on the planet'

Picture: WWF.
WWF has welcomed the minister's announcement. ‘The Environment Ministry did the right thing, and what we hope to see next is a firm declaration guaranteeing there would be no exploration in this iconic and fragile park now or in the future,' said Natalia Reiter, a spokesperson for WWF International.

A map showing the areas with oil concessions –
although Congolese law prevents oil exploration within the park itself .
‘It is outrageous to see the narrow interests of oil companies taking priority over the need to maintain one of the most precious places on this planet. Allowing oil exploration in this iconic park would set an extremely dangerous precedent that even the most precious places on earth are open for oil and gas development.'

Virunga National Park is Africa's oldest national park and home to 200 of the world's mountain gorillas and a small population of eastern lowland gorillas.

Covering 7,800 square kilometers, the park contains more species of mammals, reptiles and birds than any other protected area in Africa, and possibly in the world, and has an exceptional diversity of landscapes stretching from the glaciers of the Ruwenzori Mountains, at more than 17,000 ft, to impenetrable forests, savannas, rivers, Rwindi and Semiliki, and lake ecosystems. 

Bloc V is an oil exploration concession assigned by contract to a consortium of three companies, Soco E&P (implementing partner), Dominion Petroleum and Cohydro. More than half pof the concession falls within Virunga National Park, although Congolese law prohibits oil exploration activities within the national park.
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A virus that causes respiratory disease in humans has been linked to the deaths of wild Mountain Gorillas

2011-03-29T05:35:00.000-08:00

For the first time, a virus that causes respiratory disease in humans has been linked to the deaths of wild mountain gorillas, reports a team of researchers in the United States and Africa.

The finding confirms that serious diseases can pass from people to these endangered animals.

The researchers are from the nonprofit Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project; the Wildlife Health Center at the University of California, Davis; the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University; and the Rwanda Development Board.

Their study, which reports the 2009 deaths of two mountain gorilla that were infected with a human virus, was published online today by the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Because there are fewer than 800 living mountain gorillas, each individual is critically important to the survival of their species,” said Mike Cranfield, executive director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project and a UC Davis wildlife veterinarian. “But mountain gorillas are surrounded by people, and this discovery makes it clear that living in protected national parks is not a barrier to human diseases.”

Humans and gorillas share approximately 98 percent of their DNA. This close genetic relatedness has led to concerns that gorillas may be susceptible to many of the infectious diseases that affect people.

The potential for disease transmission between humans and mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) is of particular concern because over the past 100 years, mountain gorillas have come into increasing contact with humans. In fact, the national parks where the gorillas are protected in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are surrounded by the densest human populations in continental Africa.

Also, gorilla tourism — while helping the gorillas survive by funding the national parks that shelter them — brings thousands of people from local communities and around the world into contact with mountain gorillas annually.
The veterinarians of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, who monitor the health of the gorillas and treat individuals suffering from life-threatening or human-caused trauma and disease, have observed an increase in the frequency and severity of respiratory disease outbreaks in the mountain gorilla population in recent years.

Infectious disease is the second most common cause of death in mountain gorillas (traumatic injury is the first). “The type of infection we see most frequently is respiratory, which can range from mild colds to severe pneumonia,” said co-author Linda Lowenstine, a veterinary pathologist with the UC Davis Mountain Gorilla One Health Program who has studied gorilla diseases for more than 25 years.

The two gorillas described in the new study were members of the Hirwa group living in Rwanda. In 2008 and 2009, this group experienced outbreaks of respiratory disease, with various amounts of coughing, eye and nose discharge, and lethargy. In the 2009 outbreak, the Hirwa group consisted of 12 animals: one adult male, six adult females, three juveniles and two infants. All but one were sick. Two died: an adult female and a newborn infant.

Tissue analyses showed the biochemical signature of an RNA virus called human metapneumovirus (HMPV) infecting both animals that had died. While the adult female gorilla ultimately died as a result of a secondary bacterial pneumonia infection, HMPV infection likely predisposed her to pneumonia. HMPV was also found in the infant gorilla, which was born to a female gorilla that showed symptoms of respiratory disease.

The study’s UC Davis authors are Cranfield, Lowenstine and Kirsten Gilardi, co-director of the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center’s Mountain Gorilla One Health Program. The lead author is Gustavo Palacios, a virologist at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University in New York. Other authors are from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, Columbia University and the Rwanda Development Board.

The research was supported by Google.org; the U.S. National Institutes of Health; the Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program of the U.S. Agency for International Development; and a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

The study appeared today in the online version of the journal’s April print edition.

About mountain gorillas

With only about 786 individuals left in the world, mountain gorillas are a critically endangered species. Mountain gorillas live in central Africa, with about 480 animals living in the 173-square-mile Virunga Volcanoes Massif, which combines Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mgahinga National Park in Uganda. The remaining population lives within the boundaries of the 128-square-mile Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.

About the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project

The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, is dedicated to saving mountain gorilla lives. With so few animals left in the world today, the organization believes it is critical to ensure the health and well being of every individual possible. The organization’s international team of veterinarians, the Gorilla Doctors, is the only group providing wild mountain gorillas with direct, hands-on care. The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project partners with the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center to advance “one-health” strategies for mountain gorilla conservation. http://www.gorilladoctors.org/.

About the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center

The UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, home of the Mountain Gorilla One Health Program, a center of excellence within the School of Veterinary Medicine, is composed of 13 epidemiologists, disease ecologists and ecosystem health clinicians and their staff working at the cutting edge of pathogen emergence and disease tracking in ecosystems. It benefits from the expertise of 50 other participating UC Davis faculty members from many disciplines who are involved in the discovery and synthesis of information about emerging zoonotic diseases (those transmitted between people and animals) and ecosystem health. Its mission is to balance the needs of people, wildlife and the environment through research, education and service. http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/whc.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has more than 32,000 students, more than 2,500 faculty and more than 21,000 staff, an annual research budget that exceeds $678 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.
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2 girl scouts speak out about the palm oil used in their cookies

2011-03-27T06:27:00.000-08:00

When Girl Scouts Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen of Ann Arbor, Michigan were in the sixth grade, they decided that for their Bronze Award Girl Scout community service project, they would raise public awareness about the plight of endangered orangutans.

With a little research, the girls soon discovered that orangutans' fragile rainforest habitat in Indonesia is directly threatened by unsustainable industrial farming of palm oil. Demand for palm oil -- a trans-fat free alternative to unhealthy partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening -- has risen drastically over the past decade.

In response, industrial farm operations seeking to cash in on rising palm oil prices have been all too quick to slash and burn acres of rainforest in Indonesia to make room for unsustainable palm oil plantations, seriously threatening already endangered populations of these highly intelligent great apes.

Unsustainably harvested palm oil, Rhiannon and Madison discovered, is a major ingredient in Girl Scout cookies baked in the United States. In fact, it can be found in every flavor.

The girls decided they could not in good conscience continue to participate in the traditional Girl Scout cookie sale fundraiser while working to save the endangered orangutan. So they boycotted their organization's famous Samoas and Thin Mints, and opted to sell magazines to raise funds for their troop instead.
But Madison and Rhiannon didn't stop with a personal cookie sale boycott. These intrepid young women, both just eleven at the time, launched a public campaign to convince the Girl Scouts of the USA to take unsustainably farmed palm oil out of their cookies.

That was four years ago. So far, Rhiannon and Madison, now high schoolers, have traveled to speak with Girl Scout executives, scored famed primatologist and animal rights activist Jane Goodall's signature on one of their petitions, had their activism featured in The Frisky, The Seattle Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Grist, and have been interviewed by Public Radio International.

Most recently, the girls have forged a partnership with Rainforest Action Network and successfully convinced corporate food giant Kelloggs, which owns one of the bakers of Girl Scout cookies, to announce that it will both move toward using sustainably-produced palm oil and donate to rainforest preservation efforts to mitigate the environmental damage caused by palm oil currently used in the Girl Scout cookies made in its factories.

But what Madison and Rhiannon haven't yet managed to do is convince the Girl Scouts of the USA to ban unsustainably-farmed palm oil from its cookies. So they haven't given up the fight to protect endangered wildlife by changing the Girl Scout organization from within.
Watch the girls make their case in this Rainforest Action Network video here

Oklahoma City Zoo has problems keeping their Male Chimp in his enclosure!

2011-03-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

This chimp has escaped his enclosure a few times already to end up in a dry moat. I always thought that moats were "suppose" to be filled with water! Chimpanzees really hate the water which would probably stop this dominant male from going in there. When chimps, either male or female are being attacked by another member of the troupe they get so frightened that a fence is NOT going to stop them. When will this zoo do something about this before he or another member actually gets out in the public? Where are their safety precautions?
Story;
Dispute sends Oklahoma City Zoo chimp into moat again

Mwami, the alpha male chimp at the Oklahoma City Zoo, spent about half an hour in the moat surrounding his habitat after a fight among the chimp troop.
A male chimpanzee at the Oklahoma City Zoo jumped over an electric fence and into the dry moat surrounding his habitat Friday afternoon.

Dispute sends Oklahoma City Zoo chimp into moat again Zoo officials issued a code red about 11:20 a.m. Friday, zoo spokeswoman Tara Henson said. A code red is issued when a dangerous animal is out or has the potential to be out of its exhibit.

Some zoo visitors were escorted indoors until officials determined Mwami could not escape the moat and therefore was not a threat, Henson said.

Mwami was allowed to use a cargo net to climb back into the chimp habitat.

The entire incident lasted about half an hour, she said.

Mwami went into the moat four other times between Aug. 30 and Oct. 8. He has never had the ability to escape, Henson said.

Each incident was preceded by fighting in the chimp troop.

Zookeepers have been monitoring the chimp troop even more closely since Mwami began going into the moat, said Jennifer Davis, supervisor of the zoo's Great EscApe. Officials have been rearranging the chimps into smaller groups to observe their interactions.

Mwami is the dominant male in the group, but breeding issues have sparked disagreements within the strict social hierarchy, Davis said.

Mwami is recommended to breed with two females in the troop: sisters Abby and Kito.

He prefers Kito, the younger of the sisters, Davis said. This angers dominant female Abby, who then lashes out at Mwami and sometimes enlists the help of other chimps.

Davis said she thinks Abby might be put on birth control to tame her anger and dull her desire to breed with Mwami.

The good news, Davis said, is that chimps are quick to forgive. The animals will reconcile and even hug after fights.

“They're quick to make up,” she said. “It's incredible to see.”
Story credit Here

3 acres of land is NOT enough to be safe for monkeys at Frisky's wildlife & Primate Sanctuary

2011-03-26T07:32:00.000-08:00

I have underlined the parts I agree with! Once again, I knew this woman personally and know that she had baby pet monkeys to start off with. You can read the rest of the articles and my knowledge by going under the category of Monkey owners. Colleen Layton should take some of the money that she has collected with donations and sell her home and move someplace where the monkeys are allowed. OR.... find a place for them all in a real sanctaury. I am even willing to help find placement for all of them.

Colleen Layton use to allow the children to pet the monkeys. That really has to make me wonder what else she is doing that is dangerous. That is soooo dangerous and not a sanctury at all! These are suppose to be sanctioned monkeys, which means no one is to bother them in any way except for the care of them.

Story;
Three acres of land in a residential area is the wrong place for monkeys, opponents of Frisky’s Wildlife and Primate Sanctuary in Woodstock said Thursday at the latest Board of Appeals hearing.

I think it’s the wrong place for the wrong activity,” said Bob Lucido, whose home at 1884 Woodstock Road borders Frisky’s property. “It’s problematic just being there in a residential neighborhood.”

The hearing was the sixth held since August in what has been a long-running battle over whether Frisky’s should be able to keep its monkeys. The next Board of Appeals hearing is scheduled for May 26.

Elkridge resident Dale Schumacher, who has followed the case for years, said he sees Frisky’s as “burdensome” to its neighbors, especially as new homes are built in the area.

“At the same time, I recognize that the wildlife and primate sanctuary serves a local good and some accommodation should be provided,” he said.

Schumacher suggested that the numerous Frisky’s supporters get together and help find the sanctuary a larger, more suitable site.

Lucido agreed that Frisky’s, which moved to Woodstock after he bought his property, belongs in a different location.

“I just wish that somebody would stand up and say, ‘We’re going to do the right thing,’ ” he said. “And I think the right thing is to relocate this sanctuary where it belongs, which is on 20 or 30 acres.”

A real estate agent, Lucido even offered to help Frisky’s find a new site, commission-free.

Like other opponents, Lucido is concerned that the monkeys at Frisky’s are dangerous. Unlike the other opponents, he said he feels that Frisky’s owner Colleen Layton “does an extraordinary job” and that he is only “mildly concerned” about his safety with her running the facility.

“There’s always the chance of an animal getting out,” he said. “I’m deathly concerned about when Colleen’s not there.”

Board of Appeals member Henry Eigles said he, too, was concerned about Frisky’s future if Layton were no longer there.

Eigles asked if he would be satisfied if the board approved Frisky’s operation only as long as Layton was in charge.

Lucido said he would be comfortable with that but questioned whether the board could do that, but Eigles said the board has authority to add limitations when it grants zoning exceptions.

Schumacher also talked about the chance of a monkey escaping, calling it a “black swan” event, which is “high impact, very rare (and) hard to predict.”

Board member James Howard said people can be subject to other rare and dangerous events, such as being struck by lightning, to Schumacher responded that unlike in the Frisky’s situation, those risks are uncontrollable.
“Why would an individual move there if they were going to subject themselves to that risk?” board member Maurice Simpkins then asked.

“I’m not sure why they would,” Schumacher said.

The only other opponent to testify at the nearly four-hour hearing was Julianne Tuttle, whose testimony will continue at the next hearing. Tuttle and her husband Richard Wyckoff, who live next door to Frisky’s and share a driveway with the sanctuary, are the primary opponents in the case.

“I’m bothered because the oversight is weak and also because of all the unknowns with exotic animals,” Tuttle said during her testimony.

It was easy for Frisky’s to get its U. S. Department of Agriculture license, she said, as the department’s regulations on exotic animals are “pretty narrow.”

“There’s nothing on public safety” in the regulations, Tuttle noted. “The USDA license is a rather low bar.”

She said she thinks Frisky’s needs to be accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, an organization that has specific standards for how animal sanctuaries should operate.

“Accredited sanctuaries usually have group housing,” Tuttle gave as an example. “ Frisky’s has mostly single cages.”

Tuttle also talked about Frisky’s rule that visitors must stay at least two feet away from the monkeys at all times. She said the rule was not initiated until she and her husband disclosed evidence during proceedings on the case nine years ago that Frisky’s allowed kids to pet the monkeys.

“The two-foot rule is an excellent idea,” Tuttle said. “But it makes me wonder if there are other unsafe practices that we haven’t discovered and brought out into the public.”
Story Credit Here

Loggers tie up and beat 2yo Orangutan and ate her mother

2011-03-25T07:20:00.002-08:00

God what is wrong with people. The people that did this should have the same thing done to them. My god how can anyone do this to a wonderful being? Just goes to show that they are the animals! I only wish a horrible life for those people that did this.

Although tragic Helen does pull through physically and is a healthy fat little Orangutan now.

Story;
HELEN the orphan orangutan escaped a horrific death after forestry police found her strung up from a pole in Indonesia.

The pitiful two-year-old ape had been beaten and starved after her mum was eaten by logging workers.
Story credit and photos of what Helen looked like when they rescued her and how she looks today.

Sally Anne Ryan paints Chimps to raise money to help Cheetah from a former bio-medical research lab

2011-03-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

What a talented artist and a good heart.

PRIMATE PIC: Sally-Anne Ryan
Again, Save the Chimps is my favorite!

A MONMOUTHSHIRE animal artist is fundraising to transport chimps to safer environments.

Sally-Anne Ryan, 37, of St Maughans, is raising funds for Save The Chimps to transport a chimp named Cheetah from a former bio-medical research laboratory in New Mexico to the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida.

This is after Cheetah was rescued by the charity from the Coulston Foundation laboratory where he had undergone 400 liver biopsies leading to him having three full blood transfusions.

It is legal to carry out testing on chimps in the US.

When he was rescued, Cheetah was found trapped underground in a cell nicknamed the “dungeon” with hundreds of other chimps.
It costs around $2,500 to transport each chimp which Ms Ryan has raised through painting pictures of the chimps at the sanctuary and giving the charity free copyright to sell the paintings. She also competed in the Reading half marathon at the weekend.

Although she has now raised $2,500 to transport Cheetah, who was the first chimp Ms Ryan painted a portrait of, she is still continuing the fundraising.

This includes helping with a Wales ape and monkey sanctuary appeal to have a chimp named Bili transported from a zoo in Bulgaria back to the UK.

This will cost £5,000 and Ms Ryan is offering to paint five pet portraits to the value of £200 each to help with the fund.

Anyone interested can visit www.gretalovesmabel.com or e-mail info@gretalovesmabel.com
Story Credit here

Pet monkey owners monkey escapes for 3 days

2011-03-25T07:01:00.000-08:00

What's wrong with this photo?

A private person owning monkeys
Monkeys outside with no lease or anything on can easily take off just as one did going to the vets office
Does this woman have a permit? Experience? Education on Primates?

Ok, this woman feels as though it's ok to have monkeys on her shoulder having no control over them OUTSIDE, but yet the cage is "opened" and the monkey escapes at the vets office. First off, monkeys should not be pets. Second, why would you put a monkey in a cage that you have not checked and double checked the lock on that cage. This monkey took off for 3 days once he/she escaped the cage then what makes this woman think that having them outside on her shoulder they won't do the same?
Story;
AMELIA, OH (FOX19) - A Clermont County woman is very relieved now that she knows her capuchin monkey named Figaro is safe after his three day adventure alone.

Alison Rost was unloading her 7-year-old monkey at the Clermont Animal Hospital Monday to be neutered when he became frightened and his cage opened and he took off for the trees.

She had had reports Wednesday that he was near Amelia High School, and made plans to look for him Thursday morning, which she did. Within hours, she found him and was able to take him back home.

Rost says the monkey never leaves her farm except to go to the vet, and says he is scared of people besides her, never having met many people.

The last sighting, before Figaro was found, was about a mile or mile and a half south of where he escaped.

She says Figaro is primarily a fruit-eating animal, but will dig under tree bark for insects or even catch animals as large as mice. She says capuchins are South American monkeys. She says the monkeys tend to stay 8-12 feet above the ground in trees, but they are happy to climb higher for food, or come down to the ground if they have someplace to go.
Story and Photo credit here

People, once again are taking the land from the monkeys

2011-03-25T06:50:00.001-08:00

IN the name of progress, the greenery near rural areas is fast disappearing.

Wild trees and bushes are being cut down. One such area is Taman Tanjong, Port Dickson.

So much forest has been cleared that two different species of monkeys are forced to congregate on the trees close to the newly developed housing areas.

In the same meagre gelam trees one can see the common greay brown kera or macaques and a colony of leaf eating long-tailed grey monkeys, looking very much like Indian langurs.

Can Perhilitan catch them and send them to a forest reserve?
Story Credit here

Instead of catching the monkeys, catch the people and move them!

Charla Nash is holding hope for a new face

2011-03-23T05:26:00.000-08:00

It could be tomorrow or it could be next year. But Charla Nash is holding out hope for a new face.

The 57-year-old Connecticut woman, who became the focus of the nation’s horror when she was viciously mauled by her friend’s pet chimpanzee in February 2009, is waiting for a generous family willing to sign away a loved one’s nose, lips, brow and chin — all the familiar things most of us take for granted in the mirror each morning.

For that to happen, the body of a 50-something female organ donor with Nash’s blood type and skin tone must become available, usually as a result of a terrible accident or some other untimely death. But because facial transplant surgery is so new, few people are even aware that faces can be donated.

“Yesterday’s news is good because more people now realize that becoming a face donor requires additional steps beyond checking off a box on your driver’s license,” said John Orr, a spokesman for Nash.

New England Organ Bank spokesman Sean Fitzpatrick said face donations are entirely different from liver, heart or lung donations. “The other organs are internal, and not outwardly representative of the donation itself,” he said. “The (donor) family will need to decide if this is something they want to participate in.”

And unlike other organs, Fitzpatrick said, “There’s not a national list of faces.”

A compatible donation could make Nash, who tops the list at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the nation’s first woman to receive a full face transplant.

“She’s very excited, and she’s really happy about how well things went for Dallas Wiens,” Orr said. Wiens, 25, of Texas, received the nation’s first full face transplant at Brigham and Women’s last week, after losing most of his facial features in a 2008 high-voltage accident.

Once a donor for Nash is found, she plans to share the experience, Orr said. She and her family have agreed to let NBC film her operation and recovery.
Story Credit Here

New bill aimed at restricting primates as pets- Yeah

2011-03-23T05:20:00.000-08:00

A bill aimed at restricting the ownership of primates as pets in Arkansas is headed for a final reading in the state Senate today.

Sen. Percy Malone, D-Arkadelphia, said he agreed to sponsor the bill after being approached by a representative of the Little Rock Zoo. Malone said he was startled when his research revealed some of the diseases that can be transmitted from primates to humans, including influenza, herpes B and internal parasites.

“They can transmit hepatitis [A] and the Ebola virus,” he said. “That really got my attention. These are diseases that have no cure.

“Beyond the public health issue, which was the overriding issue for me, I have not seen or read of any reason that primates ...
You must go here to read the entire article

Baby Sloth and Patas monkey born at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo

2011-03-22T05:57:00.001-08:00

Syracuse, NY – The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is pleased to announce the birth of its 44th Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth. Ocabo (Oh-cob-oh) was born on February 9; he is the son of Bite Lip and Beauregard. The name, Ocabo, comes from a Latin American word meaning “head,” and was chosen because of the young sloth’s exceptionally large skull. After some initial supplementation from zoo staff, Ocabo is thriving and can be seen on exhibit with the other sloths.

Because the zoo maintains a hands off approach with primates, it was several weeks before officials were able to determine the gender of the baby patas monkey born on January 7. The long-awaited answer? It’s a girl! She has been named DJ in memory of a long time zoo employee who recently passed away.

The Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park is among the top 10 percent of zoos in the country as an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and is focused on conserving, exhibiting and interpreting a living animal collection in order to promote public recreation, understanding of the relationships between animals and people, and action to sustain the environment we share.

To view Rosamond Gifford Zoo's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-473-Rosamond_Gifford_Zoo

Committed to conservation, the zoo actively collaborates with Friends of the Zoo to save endangered Asian elephants, Amur tigers, golden lion tamarins and amphibians, which are facing a global crisis due to the Chytrid fungus. Other projects include studies on Chittenango ovate amber snails, Turkmenian markhors and Humboldt penguins.
Story Credit here

WSLS's made a huge mistake!!!!!!!

2011-03-21T06:10:00.000-08:00

Gosh WSLS your suppose to know about information you are reporting on. Haven't you learned anything when it comes to helping exploit Primates? You people will do anything to draw attention to yourselves, regardless of the outcome of the victim (monkey) in this case. Just take a look at this blog and get some education! There's nothing at all cute about ripping a screaming baby off of it's mother and then being forced to wear clothes and diapers and being smoothered inside a womans bra. Thats just disgusting, to say the least.
Thank you viewer for taking the time to care about the primates. Kudos to you!

Story'
One viewer has a suggestion to improve our 7pm newscast, calling to say, “It is very annoying and it is really hard to understand what the newscasters are saying when they have that music going constantly in the background. You need to leave it because the newscast is fine without it.”

A baby Marmoset had a lot of us in the newsroom and you and home saying, “Ahhhhh.” But, Rob Wilson had a different take.
Wilson wrote, “I am writing to register my dismay with the ‘cute, little monkey’ story you aired. The little monkey is indeed cute -- but it should never be in that woman's bra in the first place. Baby monkeys belong with their marmoset mothers, preferably in the jungle. It is delusional thinking for a human to call herself a "monkey mother" because the baby never saw the inside of her uterus. Please, please exercise some journalistic integrity when you report this sort of story.”

WSLS responds: Thanks for the email. We aired this story because the woman was initially removed from a local courthouse for bringing the monkey into the building with her. That first story generated a lot of viewer interest and we followed up the next day with a human interest story on the monkey and its owner. That wasn't all we covered that day.
Story Credit Here

Longleat Safari park gives Monkeys a car to tear up

2011-03-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

Monkeys at Longleat Safari Park have been given their own car to play with.

The Monkey Jungle drive-through at the Wiltshire attraction was closed to the public in 2008 after a macaque tested positive for a rare virus.

But last month the monkey enclosure was reopened, and for the first time in two years, cars were allowed back in.
They plainly haven't forgotten their fondness for cars”

Longleat's deputy head warden

"To get them back in training for the new season we decided to give them their very own car," said deputy head warden Ian Turner.

And it's clear to see from our test run, that monkey mischief is still very much front of mind and they plainly haven't forgotten their fondness for cars!"

The old Mercedes equipped with roof rack and suitcases filled with clothes and toys was left by staff in the monkey enclosure last week.

The troop of 100 Rhesus macaques "soon set about tearing it apart with gusto" and even "rifled through luggage" strapped to the top of the car and "tried on human clothes for size".

Mr Turner said the monkey were "one of the key attractions" at the safari park.
Story Credit and a must see video here

Iran plans to put a monkey in a capsule and send it into orbit

2011-03-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

MY GOD what has happened to humans? Where is the compassion? With all of the technology we have today (just think about how far we have come in 20 years), they can't design a robot instead of using live animals? This makes me SICK!!!!!

Story;
Iran announced today (March 17) that it has launched a new rocket and space capsule designed to carry a monkey into orbit, according to the country's state-run news agency.

According to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, the country launched the capsule on a Kavoshgar-4 ("Explorer" in Farsi) rocket Tuesday (March 15). The IRNA report stated that "data and images" from the capsule were expected to be sent from orbit 120 kilometers (75 miles) above the Earth, Reuters reported.

The launch marks a major step forward for Iran's fledgling space program, and a worrying sign for foreign nations fearing that Iran's space goals are aimed at developing space weapons. [Top 10 Space Weapons]
Leading the world with an energy conversion efficiency of 35.8% sharp-solar.comDanica Patrick Honda FilmWatch now to discover the upside of failure through Danica Patrick.

Although the new space capsule is designed to carry living creatures, there were no animals onboard this test launch, IRNA and other news agencies reported.

Iran has launched a rat, two turtles and a worm on its Kavoshgar-3 rocket in February 2010, the nation said. In 2009, the Iranian space agency launched a telecommunications satellite onboard its Safir-2 rocket.

The new space capsule and the Kavoshgar-4 rocket were both unveiled by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in early February, the Agence-France Presse reported.

Ultimately, Iran has said it aims to launch a human into space by 2020, and to put an astronaut on the moon by 2025. The Islamic republic denies military motives for its space program, but Western nations fear that Iran is moving toward developing a ballistic missile capable of deploying a nuclear warhead.

Last year's launch of the Kavoshgar-3 rocket prompted the United States to call it a "provocative act."

Analysts say Iran's space goals are probably both scientific and militaristic, and the program allows the nation to build prestige among friends and enemies alike.

"They will clearly use dual-use technology for a military buildup, and as long as they at least dabble in human spaceflight, they get advantageous press coverage on that as well," Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of National Security Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., told SPACE.com in November.

Before its recent series of successful launches, Iran reportedly had several rockets fail, including the first launch attempt of the Safir ("Ambassador") booster in August 2008.
Story Credit Here

Research Labs are NOT where Chimpanzees belong- NIH

2011-03-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

Dr. Hope Ferdowsian is director of the Research Policy Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:

Rosie was chemically immobilized 99 times by laboratory workers. The 29-year-old chimpanzee was finally granted a reprieve from testing in 2001, but the government recently moved her and 13 others back into laboratory cages. As a physician, I am concerned about the millions of dollars spent on decades of experiments using chimpanzees, which inflict untold pain and suffering upon these highly intelligent animals and have generally turned out to be a poor method of studying human diseases.

A few months after the 14 were transferred from Alamogordo, NIH granted 186 chimpanzees remaining at the New Mexico nonresearch facility a reprieve from further experimentation while the Institute of Medicine conducts an in-depth analysis of chimpanzee experimentation. But Rosie and her 13 companions remain at Texas Biomed, a controversial laboratory with a poor animal care record, where they have already been subjected to multiple liver biopsies and other procedures that require chemical immobilization.

The United States is the only industrialized nation still using chimpanzees for invasive experiments. I hope NIH will focus on modern methods that offer the most hope for human health —a nd allow these chimpanzees to live out their remaining years in the peace of a sanctuary.
Story Credit Here

Chimpanzee Study Sheds Light on Natural History of HIV

2011-03-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 16, 2011) -- A University at Albany scientist's research in African chimpanzee populations may provide new insights into the natural history of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVcpz), and the origins of HIV-AIDS.

In the cover article of the March 22nd issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, research by UAlbany biologist Mary Katherine Gonder and colleagues examines genetic data from one of the largest samples of chimpanzees to date. The sample originated from the west African nation of Cameroon, home to two chimpanzee subspecies: the central African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (P. t. ellioti) which occupies the Gulf of Guinea biodiversity hotspot in Nigeria and Cameroon.

The study showed that the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee constitutes a population exhibiting reproductive and genetic distinctiveness that clearly separates it from other chimpanzee subspecies.

Cameroon, said Gonder, is important in understanding the natural history of HIV-AIDS. Simian immunodeficiency virus found in central African chimpanzees from southern Cameroon is the likely progenitor of HIV-1 groups M and N. However, SIVcpz does not appear to occur naturally in the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, although the current sample of chimpanzees from this region tested to date remains small. The reasons the Nigeria-Cameron chimpanzee is not naturally infected with SIVcpz remain unclear, but could be explained by a lack of breeding between Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees and central African chimpanzees, extinctions of local chimpanzee communities from a simian AIDS-like syndrome associated with SIVcpz infection, natural resistance to SIVcpz infection, or combinations of these factors.

The research has broad implications for many branches of science and conservation practice. The research found that central and east Africa chimpanzees share most of their genetic history, despite having been thought by scientists, for nearly 100 years, to be very different from each other. According to the research, central and east African chimpanzees have stopped exchanging genes only relatively recently.

"What is revealing," said Gonder, "is how different the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee is from all other chimpanzees. This forced us to reexamine and to reinterpret how chimpanzee populations are structured in other regions of Africa. Overall, our study provides a new model for interpreting chimpanzee population structure, which may have implications for understanding why SIVcpz occurs at a high prevalence in chimpanzees across equatorial Africa but is absent in Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees."
Gonder's research is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Story Credit Here

Haloko the 44 year old Gorilla Dies at the National Zoo- So sad!

2011-03-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

The National Zoo's western lowland gorilla, Haloko, died today. She was 44.
Haloko, the western lowland gorilla.
Haloko was the zoo's oldest gorilla, and the only one born in the wild, the zoo said in a news release. She was euthanized because of declining health that compromised her quality of life.

She had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure after a routine physical exam on Dec. 1. That condition means the heart can no longer pump enough blood through the body, and is common in western lowland gorillas, the zoo said.

"Over the past two days, the keepers noted that Haloko's condition deteriorated significantly, and Zoo veterinarians along with curatorial staff made the difficult decision to euthanize her," the news release said.
The zoo provided the following background:
Haloko came to the Zoo in December 1989 on loan from the Philadelphia Zoo after having lived at the Bronx Zoo. In 1992, she gave birth to the Zoo's only silverback, Baraka, although a different female, Mandara, in the family group raised him. Haloko's cargivers considered her to be a very complex character who was self-sufficient, patient and very tolerant of the antics of the juveniles in the group.

(Photo: National Zoo)
The Zoo's western lowland gorillas live in one group at the Great Ape House. The Zoo currently has three males and three females on exhibit, including a female baby born Jan. 10, 2009. Western lowland gorillas, which are native to tropical forests of West and Central Africa, are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, primarily due to habitat loss and fragmentation and poaching. In captivity, gorillas can live up to 56 years of age; median life expectancy is closer to 30 years of age.
Story and Photo Credit Here

Jack Hanna the Director at the Columbus Zoo has baby gorilla die

2011-03-18T06:14:00.001-08:00

CAN YOU SAY EXPLOITATION? When entertainers as what I use to do do something like Jack Hanna does PETA and other animal welfare groups are all over us, though a director at a zoo can do it. CAN YOU SAY HYPOCRITE? I CAN BIG TIME!!!!!!!

Information;
John Bushnell "Jack" Hanna (born January 2, 1947) is an American zookeeper who is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. He was Director of the zoo from 1978 to 1993, and is viewed as largely responsible for elevating its quality and reputation. His media appearances have made him one of the most notable animal experts in the United States. Hanna, nicknamed “Jungle Jack,” is known for his khaki safari outfit, deep tan, and Southern accent.

Life and career Hanna was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He grew up on his father's farm outside Knoxville, and volunteered for a veterinarian when he was 11. He attended The Kiski School, an all-boys boarding school in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, for high school, graduating in 1965. He majored in business and political science at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he got in trouble for keeping ducks in his dorm room and a donkey in a shed behind his fraternity house (The M.A.C.E. Club).

His senior year, Hanna married Suzi, a cheerleader at Muskingum, and graduated in 1969. Though unable to secure zoning as a zoo for his father's farm, the two opened a pet shop and petting zoo. In 1973, a three-year-old boy was mauled by a lion at Hanna's farm and lost his arm. Hanna settled the subsequent lawsuit out of court, shut down the petting zoo, and moved his family to Florida[citation needed]. He then worked for a wildlife adventure company and directed the small Sanford Zoo and Central Florida Zoo from 1973 to 1975. When he was offered the position at the Columbus Zoo in 1978, one of the reasons he accepted was because he believed the Children's Hospital in Columbus had the best treatment available for his daughter Julie's leukemia. She recovered by the age of six, though she needed to have a brain tumor removed later in life.

At the time he became the zoo's director, the grounds of the zoo were unkempt and the facilities run down. Hanna initially struck many as a "zealous" zoo director, often traveling around the zoo grounds after closing to personally pick up trash. He also realized the importance of increasing the profile of the Columbus Zoo in central Ohio to get more public support and funding, and the "everyman"-seeming Hanna proved to be very well-suited to public relations for the zoo. From 1981 until 1983, Hanna hosted a television show called "Hanna's Ark" that aired on the local CBS affiliate in Columbus, WBNS. Hanna's live animal demonstrations on Good Morning America and both of David Letterman's talk show incarnations brought national attention to the Columbus Zoo as well as to Hanna himself. Over the course of Hanna's tenure as director, the zoo made the transition from cage-like enclosures to habitat environments, and the grounds were significantly expanded. The annual attendance of the Columbus Zoo increased by over 400% during this time.

Jack Hanna poses for a photo with Skulls Unlimited International's Michelle Hayer.Hanna has published an autobiography, Monkeys on the Interstate in 1989, as well as many other books for children. He has been the host of the syndicated television show "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures" since 1993. Hanna also occasionally contributes commentary as an animal expert on various local and national news programs, and has done guest spots on other shows such as Larry King Live, Nancy Grace, Maury, and Hollywood Squares. He was also named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People magazine in 1996 http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20122069,00.html. Hanna also appeared in Neal McCoy's 2005 music video for "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On" with a Hyacinth Macaw, a sloth and an albino burmese python. Hanna, along with Emmy-award winning musician Mark Frye, released an album through Virgin Records in 1996 entitled Jack Hanna's World.

Hanna and his wife, Suzi, have three daughters: Kathaleen, Suzanne, and Julie. He spends much of his time at his home in Montana, where he expects to retire soon. Hanna has been granted honorary Ph.D.s from Muskingum College, Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.
Facts found here
Article about the baby Gorilla that died at his zoo

Baby Gorilla dies at the Columbus Zoo-Jack Hanna

2011-03-18T06:06:00.001-08:00

This is the zoo that the great and mighty Jack Hanna works. As you can tell I don't care for him too much. First off if any one's ever watched him on David Letterman and he is asked questions, some of the time he either doesn't know the answer or it's incorrect. He pays people like I use to be to meet him places with their animals so he can show off and make money for their appearances. Notice how he always has baby animals. Why aren't those animals with their mothers? I know because entertainers live off of the money these people will pay to see them for ratings for their shows. Alan Green wrote a book that tells in detail all about Jack Hanna

Now, about this baby gorilla. First off I don't understand why the Louisville Zoo couldn't make accommodations for this little gorilla and her mother! Instead they take her away from her mother, send her to the Columbus Zoo with no mommy and not knowing anyone. That in itself is so sad. Then she gets sick with "flu like symptoms " on March 3rd, now 14 days later she dies!????? I don't understand why some of these zoos wait sooooooo long when they see an Ape sick to get the vet in there. The vet should be called immediately and should be out there the next day. For god sake this is 2 for them this year so far and it's only March. Maybe someone should be checking up on this Zoo and their vet and care staff!
Just look at her sweet face. What a shame a real shame!

Here's just one bad thing about Jack Hanna and you can certainly find more on the net. What does this tell us about the quality of the zoo employees, caretakers and upper management. If you really want to know the truth about animals in the entertainment and zoos, you really should read the book Animal Underworld. I found some of the information in there that I had actually seen in person, and have met some of the people mentioned in his book.
Jack Hanna here

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Misha, the baby gorilla who was brought to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium for special care after she lost a leg, died this morning.

Zoo veterinarians and "people" doctors operated on the year-old gorilla yesterday. She became ill with flu-like symptoms March 3, and condition worsened, said zoo spokeswoman Patty Peters.

Surgeons found and repaired a perforated bowel but Misha died several hours later.

Peters said a necropsy -- animal autopsy -- will be performed, but doctors said an intestinal infection likely caused the bowel perforations.

Misha was born Feb. 6, 2010 at the Louisville Zoo and lost part of her left leg during an interaction with other zoo gorillas there. She moved to Columbus in May, and in August she was placed with Pongi, a female gorilla who became her surrogate mother.

Misha's hip was injured a week later when she became stuck in a climbing structure. When that healed in October, she returned to live with Pongi and a group of gorillas.

Misha is the second Columbus Zoo gorilla to die this year. In January, Lulu died at the age of 46 after she began having seizures.
The zoo now has 15 gorillas.
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Two baby Gorillas Born

2011-03-17T05:52:00.001-08:00

Rugendo baby born to Lubutu and Bukima bring the family members to six.

Virunga National Park rangers discovered two baby gorillas born into the Rugendo and Humba gorilla families. This is the first baby to survive for mother Lubutu and father Bukima in the Rugendo family, bringing the small group to six members. The new Humba baby makes 15 for the family.

Lubutu is the only female in the Rugendo family. Her last baby died after only two days. We have worked hard to protect all of our gorillas, and are especially happy to see a new baby in this family. We feel like celebrating.

Mother Lubutu was originally part of the Humba family, but chose to switch to the Rugendo family in 2008. Her first baby died in 2009 after only two days. Although we are not certain of the cause, we believe it was killed due to fighting among the adult males in the group.

The Rugendo family is best known for the massacre in 2007 when Senkwekwe and five other members of the family were killed. Silverback Rugendo and an infant also died at the hands of humans in earlier incidents. Rangers and the wardens are encouraged by the survival and growth of this family.

Mother Gashangi from the Humba family holds tightly to her newborn baby.
The Humba mother, Gashangi, is very protective of her baby and nervous around humans. She grudgingly follows her family when they exit the forest, as they often do.
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African Sanctuaries take in an average of 56 baby Chimpanzees a year!!!!

2011-03-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

Every year throughout Africa, primate rescue centers are flooded with chimpanzee orphans, primarily victims of the bushmeat trade. When adults are killed for meat the surviving infants are often offered for sale as pets, and those that get confiscated by law enforcement are taken to sanctuaries for care.

A new study, published in the International Journal of Primatology, examines 11 Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) member facilities, predicting their carrying capacity for chimpanzees and provides a roadmap for long term resource, infrastructure and financial planning.

Lead author Lisa Faust, PhD a research biologist with Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo said, "The most sobering part of this study is realizing that most of these institutions already report being at capacity or close to capacity, and yet on average the group of sanctuaries are collectively faced with accepting 56 new chimpanzee arrivals every year, most of them under the age of two to three years old. Because chimpanzees are long-lived, this means that most of the sanctuaries will need to sustain or increase their current size, because they will continue to accept new arrivals as part of their commitment to chimpanzee welfare and law enforcement."

Chimpanzees are an endangered species, and while poaching is illegal it remains a major problem threatening their continued survival.

"PASA sanctuaries play a vital role in helping rescue and rehabilitate chimpanzees and other endangered primates, and that is our main objective," said Doug Cress, executive director of PASA. "But it's easy to get caught up in the day to day fight for survival and lose perspective. This study is so important because it allows us to step back and see where we'll be in the coming years and decades and to plan accordingly. Population modeling on this level is a wonderful tool."

A chimpanzee that survives the physical and emotional trauma of capture can take years to recover. But PASA member sanctuaries accept that long-term commitment, even if the only possible alternative to lifetime care -- reintroduction, the physical return of the chimpanzees back to the forest -- is a difficult and relatively new endeavor.

Chimpanzee reintroduction projects currently underway at PASA sanctuaries in Congo and Guinea have put more than 50 chimpanzees back into the wild, and three Cameroon sanctuaries are preparing to double that number through reintroduction programs in the next few years. But the cost, which can easily double a sanctuary's budget, is just one of the many obstacles to more widespread reintroduction.

"Reintroducing primates is not simple," Cress explained. "Deforestation and poaching make many areas unsuitable for reintroduction, and human encroachment has resulted in communities living in many of the national parks and protected areas. Also, it can be difficult to build a social group of chimpanzees that is physically and emotionally strong enough to survive a reintroduction. That's why the number of released animals remains relatively small compared to the number of orphans in need of care. Lifetime care in sanctuaries is the most frequent option for orphaned primates."

Chimpanzees can live up to 50 -- 60 years, so the commitment for lifetime care is substantial.

The study analyzed historic demographic patterns and projected future population dynamics of these select sanctuaries which housed (at that time) 760 chimpanzees. The median age was 9 years old, with 76 percent of the population being less than 15 years.

Lincoln Park Zoo chimpanzee behavioral researcher Steve Ross, PhD, co-author on the research, explained that as chimpanzees age and reach sexual maturity, group dynamics shift, making social structure an important component for future management plans for PASA sanctuaries.

"Older chimpanzees can be subject to aggression and social disharmony, especially in large groups," he explained. "This could be further exacerbated by the influx of adolescents, so managing group sizes and dynamics will be crucial for these sanctuaries."

"We found there to be an exponential relationship between population size and resource need because groups sizes cannot grow indefinitely," explained Faust. "Our goal with this research is to provide PASA with a road map for the potential future management challenges they may face. It should help long-term planning and increase their ability to be stewards for the apes they take in and advocates for those they work to protect in the wild."

The Great Ape Trust in Iowa also contributed to this study.
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HSUS Wants NIRC to halt potential government contract fraud

2011-03-16T06:43:00.000-08:00

By: Humane Society of the United States

WASHINGTON (March 15, 2011) – The Humane Society of the United States has filed legal petitions with the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services Tuesday requesting investigations and legal actions to halt potential government contract fraud at the New Iberia Research Center, a primate laboratory located in New Iberia, La. and part of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

As outlined in the petitions, The HSUS has amassed public records suggesting that NIRC may be breeding federally-owned chimpanzees for use in invasive research in violation of the terms of a multi-million dollar grant agreement between NIRC and a division of the National Institutes of Health called the National Center for Research Resources. NIRC has received the grant annually since 2000, to the tune of more than $10 million.

"This appears to be an open and shut case of government fraud under the federal False Claims Act," said Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president and chief counsel for animal protection litigation at The HSUS. "The Attorney General should investigate this matter, terminate illegal breeding at NIRC, and take legal action to recover any taxpayer monies squandered by this facility."

Documents obtained by The HSUS demonstrate that during the past 10 years, NIRC has produced at least 123 infant chimpanzees, some of whom were prematurely and cruelly torn away from their mothers. The documents also show that an additional 14 infants died as a result of trauma by adult chimpanzees possibly due to negligent management practices and overcrowding at the NIRC facility. The surviving 123 chimpanzees may languish for the next 50 years or more in laboratories that are totally insufficient to meet their basic needs, while NIRC stands to profit from its breeding program by leasing the young chimpanzees for invasive research.

Evidence presented in the petition shows that by alleging extensive chimpanzee birth control practices and withholding information about young chimpanzees born at its facility, among other things, NIRC may have misrepresented its breeding program to the NCRR in grant progress reports and application materials. These misrepresentations could be violations of the federal False Claims Act, which could entitle the NCRR to recoup up to $30 million in damages due to the law's trebling, or tripling provision.

The HSUS is asking the Department of Justice to take enforcement action against the laboratory for fraudulent use of federal money, and is requesting that the Department of Health and Human Services cease funding the laboratory. The HSUS is also requesting that the Department of Health and Human Services immediately send all federally-owned chimpanzees residing at NIRC to permanent sanctuary with appropriate funding.

The full text of The HSUS's legal petition to the Department of Justice can be downloaded here. The full text of The HSUS's legal petition to the Department of Health and Human Services can be downloaded here. The necropsy reports of the 14 infants who died of traumatic injuries can be found here. B-roll is available to the media upon request.

Facts:
* There are approximately 1,000 chimpanzees in six laboratories in the United States; approximately 500 of these chimpanzees are owned by the federal government.

* Under the False Claims Act, the government can collect treble damages for fraud by government contractors, which means that NIRC could be required to pay $30 million for repeatedly violating its grant agreement with NCRR while certifying compliance with the breeding moratorium.

* The contract between NIRC and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, titled "Leasing of Chimpanzees for the Conduct of Research," is for a total of $7.8 million and is scheduled to end in September of next year, but is up for renewal this coming September.

* Each chimpanzee born into a laboratory can live 60 years and cost the federal government as much as $1 million during his or her lifetime. Seven of the 123 chimpanzees born at NIRC are now owned by, and are the responsibility of, the federal government.

* The HSUS revealed the results of an undercover investigation conducted at NIRC in 2009, including distress caused by lack of enrichment and socialization, severe psychological distress, and inadequate veterinary care.

* The National Institutes of Health has announced that the National Academy of Sciences will be conducting a review to the use of chimpanzees for research purposes, further strengthening the argument to immediately stop the flow of new chimpanzees into the laboratory system.

To learn more about chimps in research, visit Here.humanesociety.org/chimps
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Say YES to putting Palm Oil on Labels

2011-03-16T06:29:00.001-08:00

I believe that every industry that puts Palm Oil in their products should be legally responsible for putting that ingredient on their labels! This way for those of us that are aware that Palm Oil hurts the Wild Orangutans' habitats can decline in buying that product. For the products I know that have Palm Oil in it I have long stopped using them.

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Do you have the right to know whether the chocolate bar you're munching on includes palm oil, which is blamed for vast deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia? How about that frozen pizza? According to a coalition of environmental and conservation groups it's time for food manufacturers to add palm oil to the label in Europe, instead of currently being listed as simply, and erroneously (palm kernels are fruits), 'vegetable oil'.

"Clearer labels will ensure that the consumer can be confident that they aren’t buying a product that is responsible for clearing globally important forest areas and the biodiversity contained therein," said Ashley Leiman, Director of the Orangutan Foundation, in a press released. While orangutans have become the de-facto symbol of palm oil critics, deforestation in the region also threatens Javan and Sumatran rhinos, Asian elephants, sun bears, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, and thousands of little-known species.

SEE PHOTO HERE
Oil palm plantation in the foreground with rainforest-covered hills in the back on the island of Sumatra.

The Orangutan Foundation is being joined by the Sumatran Orangutan Society, Elephant Family, Save the Rhino, The Jane Goodall Institute—UK, and Ape Alliance in a campaign to amend a recent food bill, known as the Sommer Report, in the European Parliament to require that palm oil is listed on labels.

While palm oil is the world's most productive oil seed (far outstripping soy, which has been linked to deforestation in the Amazon), it is responsible for a significant percentage of deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia. For example, a study in Conservation Letters found that 55-59 percent of palm oil plantations in Malaysia built between 1990 and 2009 occurred on forested land. Such aggressive deforestation has contributed to an environmental crisis in the region: biodiversity loss in some of the world richest habitats, conflict with indigenous groups who depend on the forests for their livelihood, and substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Given such statistics, the coalition is urging the public to write to MEPs on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Parliamentary Committee and ask for clear palm oil labeling.

However, industry players want the European public to know that not all palm oil is created equal in environmental destruction.

"Any initiative to empower customers to make better buying decisions would be welcomed by any responsible company, " Puvan Jegaraj Selvanathan, palm oil giant Sime Darby's Chief Sustainability Officer, told mongabay.com. "Certainly if a label has to be applied at all for palm oil then it should clearly differentiate for [Certified Sustainable Palm Oil]. However, palm oil is only one of many ingredients found in many products on supermarket shelves. Any labeling seeking to promote ethical buying in a meaningful way should assure consumers that all the ingredients in the product […] are responsibly produced, not just the palm oil."

The campaign agrees that supporting sustainable palm oil is a part of the solution.

"We do not advocate a boycott of products containing palm oil. We are supporting this campaign because we believe this new legislation could be a crucial tool in helping us to drive the demand from Europe for certified sustainable palm oil," says Helen Buckland, UK Director of the Sumatran Orangutan Society.

The pressure campaign on the palm oil industry has recently pushed one of the most heavily criticized companies to promise change. Golden Agri-Resources Limited, which owns PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART), has promised to ban development on carbon-rich peatlands and in high conservation value (HCV) forests. Their newly announced policy also targets social problems linked to palm oil expansion, such as establishing free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for indigenous and local communities and complying with Indonesian laws and RSPO Principles and Criteria.

While environmentalists wait for government to act, some retailers, including Cole Supermarkets in Australia, have already started to voluntarily label palm oil as an ingredient on their private products. Other companies, including McDonalds, Walmart, Nestle, and Unilever have pledged to use only palm oil from certified sustainable sources by 2015.
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Another Pet Monkey Escapes

2011-03-16T06:16:00.000-08:00

Does this mean that the monkey was loose in the house? I hope not!

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One woman found a surprise hanging in her backyard tonight - a small monkey sitting about 30 feet up in a tree.

Police found the owner of the monkey and she was able to coax him down from the tree and into her cage. She says the monkey is 46-years-old and weighs 4 pounds. Her name is "Delliah".
The owner says when her house was broken into, the monkey had escaped. She does have a license for the monkey and had posted bulletins in the neighborhood. The owner describes Delliah as no danger to anyone that would have come into contact with her.
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Baby Langur born at Sydney's Taronga Zoo

2011-03-16T06:11:00.001-08:00

He's about six weeks old, bright orange and very inquisitive.

Sydney's Taronga Zoo's latest family member makes his first public appearance. He's a baby leaf eating monkey called Keo-Co

Taronga Zoo in Sydney on Wednesday presented the latest addition to its Francois Langur monkey family, a baby male called Keo-co (pronounced Key-co).

Born to mother Saigon and father Hanoi, Keo-co made his public debut by exploring his outdoor enclosure and was brave enough to move about a metre away from his mum.
"When the keepers are around and he's in his den he'll stick his head out and have a look."

Keo-co's bright orange fur is quite a sight but he won't retain that vibrant colour forever.

"His colour will gradually start changing, starting with his extremities, his tail, his toes, the tip of his head until eventually - at about six months - he will be completely black with just a tiny bit of white on his face," Ms Pellatt said.

Little Keo-co is lucky that his mother has taken to him.

Just two years ago Saigon gave birth to a female Langur and things didn't turn out quite so well.

"Unfortunately Saigon didn't know what it was and she was scared of the baby. The keepers had to step in and raise it," Ms Pellatt said.
"We called her Elka and she lives in another enclosure now with a male we imported from Beijing, Bobo.

However, Saigon had some help this time from another female Langur called Meili.
"The two mothers take care of him - Saigon is the primary care giver but when she needs a break Meili takes over, they take it in turns," Mr Pellat said.

"Consequently, we have named the infant `Keo-co' which is a traditional game of tug-of-war played in the villages of Vietnam," she said.

The monkeys are native to Vietnam and China and Sydney's Taronga Zoo, is the only zoo in Australia that has the species.

"He's amazing to look at and it's not often you would get to see a mother Langur with her baby in captivity," Ms Pellatt said.

An endangered species,there are potentially less than 1,000 Francois Langur monkeys left in the wild.

"They are still hunted for bush meat and they're also used in traditional medicine," Ms Pellatt said.
Story and Photo Credit Here
This is a full grown Langur:

Love and Trust Hormone found in a monkey species

2011-03-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

The so-called "love and trust" hormone called oxytocin, originally discovered in the monogamous prairie vole, has been found in an odd form in a monkey species.

"This is the first time oxytocin has been reported to be different in any mammal ever studied," said researcher Karen Parker at Stanford University."The orthodoxy in the field was that all mammals have one form of oxytocin."

Oxytocin is a brain hormone that regulates parts of mammalian reproduction, including lactation and labor, but also is involved in social behaviors such as bonding between partners and mother-and-child, hence its unofficial "love” hormone moniker.

It is released by a part of the brain called the pituitary gland and travels throughout your system. It was widely thought to be exactly the same in all mammals, since it plays such an important part in reproduction and social bonding.

Social species

When studying her lab monkeys, Parker was having trouble measuring their oxytocin levels. "We had been trying for years to measure oxytocin levels in our monkeys," she told LiveScience. "On a lark, we sequenced the gene."

Surprisingly, the gene for oxytocin was different than any other mammal. They compared this new sequence with several other related species of New World monkey, including lab models like rhesus and capuchins. Many of these New World monkeys have this slightly different copy of the gene, which results in the gene producing a slightly different active protein.

One of the amino acids, the molecules that make up proteins, is different. This amino acid is bigger, which might change the protein's structure or action, though the monkeys display normal social behaviors and have similar reactions to the traditional type of oxytocin as other mammals.

Experimental expectations

Researchers know that the monkeys react to the traditional form of oxytocin because they've studied its effects on these monkeys in the lab. It's possible that both the novel form and the traditional form act the same way in the monkeys, but researchers aren't sure.

"It plays such a critical role in social functioning," Parker said. "It's such a small peptide; any sort of mutation might undermine those critical functions. There is a strongly selected pressure to keep this molecule."

Parker and her team will continue investigating the activity of this new form of oxytocin to determine what kinds of effects it has compared with the original form.

It's important to elucidate these differences in these animals, especially since they include common laboratory species, said Karen Bales, a researcher at UC Davis who wasn't involved in the study. "Dr. Parker's findings are very exciting," she told LiveScience in an e-mail. "They should provide the impetus for future research, including the biological and chemical properties of the structurally different oxytocin."
The study was published today (March 15) in the journal Biology Letters.
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Pet Macaque monkey bites 10 year old

2011-03-15T05:57:00.000-08:00

FORT MADISON, IA -- Lee County Sheriff Jim Scholl says a 10-year-old child was taken to Fort Madison Hospital for a cat bite, but hospital personnel eventually learned the child was bitten by a pet macaque monkey.

Scholl says his investigation into the matter is closed, but he is trying to determine if ownership of the animal is legal.

Both the Iowa Department of Public Health and Iowa Department of Agriculture are aware of the incident, but could not comment on specific cases.

Dustin Vandehoef of the Iowa Department of Agriculture says as of 2007, state law requires all "wild or exotic" animals owned as pets be registered and micro-chipped.

KHQA has requested a list of wild or exotic animals registered in the state.

Scholl says a younger child provoked the monkey, and the bite occured when the 10-year-old tried to intervene.

The incident happened during the week of March 2, 2011.
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Mike the Chimpanzee passes away at the Hamilton Zoo- SO SAD

2011-03-15T05:50:00.000-08:00

A chimpanzee at Hamilton Zoo passed away after undergoing major surgery yesterday in an attempt to save his life.

The chimpanzee named Mike had his right arm amputated during a five-hour surgery, after the limb was discovered to be infected.

Hamilton Zoo director Stephen Standley said the infection occurred after the tip of the middle finger on Mike’s right hand was bitten off during an altercation with another male chimp last week. This altercation is part of typical chimp behaviour as the males of the troop compete to prove who is more dominant.
“Staff first suspected Mike had sustained an injury last Wednesday [9 March] after noticing that he was not using his right hand when he returned to the chimp house to go to bed that night. While the keeper was unable to view the extent of Mike’s injury at that time, the next morning the chimp was examined by the zoo veterinarian who confirmed that he had lost the top of his right middle finger, including the nail bed,” he said.

The vet prescribed a course of antibiotics and pain relief, however the wound became infected and this infection soon spread, meaning amputation of the right arm was required. While gas gangrene was confirmed, the causal agent is unlikely to be determined since Mike was on antibiotics.

Mr Standley said while it initially appeared hopeful that Mike would come through yesterday’s surgery, he wasn’t able to fully recover from the anaesthesia and passed away about 8.15pm.

“Mike is a much loved member of the Hamilton Zoo family and it has obviously been a distressing time for us to firstly see him go through this major surgery and then secondly be unable to recover from the surgery as we would have hoped,” he said. Hamilton mayor Julie Hardaker said Mike’s loss will be felt strongly by many at this time.
“Mike is going to be sorely missed by staff and visitors, and certainly by the other members of the chimpanzee troop,” she said.

This morning the chimpanzee troop will be given access to Mike’s body so they can spend time with him, recognise that he has passed away and go through the natural grieving process.

The vet will then do a full post mortem on Mike before his body is cremated. Mike was born on 10 October 1973 at Taronga Zoo in Sydney and transferred to Auckland Zoo in June 1982, before moving to Hamilton in October 2004. Together with long-term partner Lucy, Mike parented the zoo’s other two male chimps, Lucifer and Luka.

Mike’s death comes just months after the passing of another Hamilton Zoo chimpanzee, Suzie, who died in November, aged 46.
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Capital One has pulled the Chimp ad- thank you

2011-03-15T05:16:00.000-08:00

McLean-based Capital One Financial Corp. has pulled a television commercial that featured a chimpanzee and says it will not use primates in any future ads.

The company says the decision was made after reviewing information from PETA about the treatment of apes used in advertising.

“We believe you have made profound and compelling arguments about the treatment of primates,” Capital One (NYSE: COF) said in a statement. “The ad in question is going off the air and we will not use primates in future advertising.”

The commercial did not air in the Washington market.

PETA claims chimps and other great apes used in advertising are typically babies forcibly taken from their mothers shortly after birth and are physically and psychologically abused as part of their training.

It says 10 of the 15 largest advertising agencies now prohibit the use of great apes in their advertising campaigns.
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Chimpanzee meat is for sale in restaurants and market stalls in Britain

2011-03-13T07:22:00.002-08:00

... it has emerged.

Trading standards officials uncovered the illegal bushmeat from the endangered species whilst testing samples believed to be seized from vendors in the Midlands.

The meat, which can cost more than £20 a kilogram, is part of a lucrative black market trade that experts describe as ‘rife’ in Europe.

Last year, the first research on the import of bushmeat into Europe found over 270 tonnes passing through the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris alone.

Illegal bushmeat: The chimpanzee meat, which can cost more than £20 a kilogram, is part of a lucrative black market trade

The chimpanzee meat is understood to have been discovered following raids by trading standards in the Midlands.

A Government whistleblower revealed: ‘It is well known this practice is underway in the region but I was shocked to discover the meat that was tested was once a chimpanzee.

‘Dubious meat is often tested, and has turned out to be things like rats and vermin in the past – but chimpanzee is unbelievable.’

It is not known how the bushmeat arrived in the Midlands, but experts believe it was probably flown into the country from Africa, possibly concealed in personal luggage.

Dr Marcus Rowcliffe, research fellow at the Zoological Society of London and an expert on the trade, said at least five tonnes of bushmeat arrives in Europe every week to be distributed across the continent.

He said: ‘I’m not at all surprised that bushmeat is on sale in the Midlands because we know the trade is going on in the UK and that there is a regular flow of smuggled meat into the country.
Story Credit hereChimpanzee Meat

"Are there functional, highly conserved genetic elements in the chimpanzee genome that are completely missing in humans?'"

2011-03-13T07:19:00.000-08:00

Humans are clearly different from chimpanzees. The question is, why? According to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, it may boil down in part to what we don't have, rather than what we do. The loss of snippets of regulatory DNA, the scientists found, could be the reason why, for example, humans lack the penile spines found in many other mammals, and also why specific regions of our brains are larger than those of our closest relatives.

Understanding these and other differences may help us learn what it means to be human. But it took the recent advent of whole-genome sequencing of several species and an open-minded, combined computational and experimental approach to reveal the particular two-steps-forward, one-step-back evolutionary dance that set us apart from other primates millions of years ago.

"Rather than looking for species-specific differences in specific genes or genomic regions that exist in humans, we asked, 'Are there functional, highly conserved genetic elements in the chimpanzee genome that are completely missing in humans?'" said Gill Bejerano, PhD, assistant professor of developmental biology and of computer science. "We found several hundred locations that, as far as we could see, are absent in our species alone." Until now, many evolutionary geneticists focused on differences among genes, rather than the regulatory regions outside the genes.

Losing small pieces of regulatory DNA, rather than the genes they control, means that the related changes are likely to be subtle: Although the location or the timing of the expression of the gene within the body may change, the gene product itself remains functional. The distinction leads to viable differences among individuals that can eventually lead to the development of new traits and species.
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Seven-year-old Claude the Chimp on his way to a new life in Nelspruit

2011-03-13T07:14:00.001-08:00

Seven-year-old Claude the chimp
Picture: JACQUES MARAIS

"HOW would you like to fly to the Central African Republic in a Hercules aircraft, rescue chimpanzees, distribute mozzie nets with Kingsley Holgate and rub shoulders with Jonty Rhodes?"

That was the question put to me by Lesley Sutton, Land Rover's media manager, two weeks earlier, and was why I was spending this particular dawn shaking and rattling down the runway at Waterkloof Air Force Base, en route to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, via Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

It was a nervous group of adventurers that clung to their nylon webbing seats that morning, apprehensive of everything, from the destination to the flight, to the lack of toilets on the flight and the lack of information we'd been given.

But the rattles soon changed from alarming to comforting and in no time at all people were strolling around, sharing snacks and getting to know one another. Jonty, spotting a gap, climbed into the driver's seat of the Land Rover Discovery4 that we were flying up for Kingsley, and promptly fell asleep in surreal comfort, surrounded by mosquito nets.

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft was on a routine mission to ferry supplies from South Africa to troops based in the DRC and the Central African Republic (CAR). That explained the military supplies and the mail. The civilians and their kit, though, were part of a different plot.

Our humanitarian mission was piggybacking on theirs. For years Chris Thorpe has been working with Africa's modern explorer, the man with the beard and the passion for Africa, Kingsley Holgate. Under the banner of United Against Malaria, Chris has taken it upon himself to join Kingsley in combating malaria, using his networks and his business savvy to generate funds for mosquito nets, which Kingsley distributes on his adventures. We would be meeting up with Kingsley and his crew in Bangui, the capital of the CAR, on their latest expedition.

That explains the Discovery packed with mozzie nets. But the cage?

The centre of Africa is also the centre of the bushmeat trade, where wild animals, including apes, are hunted or trapped and then sold in markets. Another threat to Africa's apes is the entertainment industry - hotel and bar owners use chimpanzees as drawcards for their establishments, teaching them tricks to entertain the patrons. Well, we were going to break out a few of those chimps.

After six hours of trying to sleep, trying to read, trying to look out of the windows and trying to make small talk above the clamour of the engines, our plane stoops onto the Kinshasa runway in the DRC. The cargo ramp begins to lower before we're even stopped, and in pours the syrupy air of the equator.

We step onto the tarmac, only to be told by soldiers with AK-47 not to venture too far from the plane. We loiter under the wing, a line of do-gooders in a stripe of shade. Then the news arrives that the President is about to land. More guns arrive, and we are ushered inside the shabby airport. No one is allowed anywhere near the runway while the First Presidential Jet lands, and, to make sure of it, a bakkie load of troops is dropped off to line the tarmac. Thirty minutes later the jet swoops past, and we can escape back to our plane.

Bangui, the capital city of the CAR, lazes next to the Ubangi River which stretches out to the Congo and makes the biggest of our own rivers look like a storm-water drain. And the Bangui is just a tributary of the Congo River.

The airport is less impressive and, after taxiing to a stop, we are stuck there for a while. Luckily we are able to retire to the VIP lounge, where we are greeted by Kingsley and his wife Gill, drink a cold beer and watch the air-con being worked on.

The hold-up is our accommodation - it transpires that the CAR is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its independence two days later, and President François Bozizé has handed our hotel rooms over to his mates who will be dropping in for the occasion. Such is life.

So instead of a leisurely cruise around the dusk attractions of Bangui, a city where the French influence doesn't seem to have got much past baguettes and the language, we bus over to the South African National Defence Force base to regroup and plan our next move.

Our pilot, Major Gareth Gourlie, is in charge and makes an executive decision, which is that we should neither separate, nor drive around too much after dark. We submit - after all, this is a country that's had more coups than a dovecote. All it means is a night or two on mattresses on the floor of the base - things could definitely be worse.

Just after 4am we're up. Photojournalist Jacques Marais and I have organised a tour guide - Captain Allen Souter, 22 years in the defence force and second in charge of the SA troops based in the CAR. A useful chap to have around in a tight spot, then.

Our first stop is the banks of the Bangui River, as the sun's alchemy turns the brown waters gold. Life revolves around the river and the pirogues, and even now the waters are busy with fisherman and ferries, while the shores are beginning to stir with food vendors and nets being pulled in. We drift along, trying to blend into the background, but tourists are a rarity in the CAR and everyone wants their picture taken.

Having done that, Alan takes us up to a viewpoint overlooking the city, at the foot of a Hollywood-style sign - "Bangui la Coquette". A muzzy cityscape unfolds beneath us, more trees and dirt than tar and concrete. Thousands of giant bats are returning to their roost at the old Catholic church as the sun strengthens. Calling this place a "flirt" is a little optimistic, while the road up here is probably a grade 2 4x4 track.

We ask Alan if he can take us to a market - that's where the colour of any African city can be found. We're greeted with the normal chaos and smiles - only the language and the long loaves really set it apart from any market in Mozambique. We wander around, chatting to the friendly, tourist-starved people. But we want to see bushmeat. Is it really a way of life?

Five minutes later we've walked past piles of smoked fish, a huge barbel slowly suffocating on a table and are staring at the grimacing faces of monkeys and forest antelope. A lone baby pangolin is perched on top of a mound of dead animals, its armoured scales and praying claws somehow far worse than the rest. We ask about chimps - we need to go to a different market to buy one of them, but we don't really have the stomach for it.

Instead we trade the cacophony of the market for the even greater cacophony of the river, where an immense boat race is taking place. The pirogue race is an annual event, made even bigger by the 50th anniversary celebrations. We are told that teams from Chad, Cameroon and Angola have made the trip.

Jacques and I join the rest of our team here. Bozizé makes an appearance, warmly greeting a few of us, but not to apologise for taking our rooms, it seems. His entourage is menacing - soldiers from Chad manning machine guns mounted on bakkies, Raybans poking out of green turbans and a sense of violence in the air.

The president takes a 9mm pistol from a bodyguard, raises it and sends a bullet whistling into the Congo. The race is on! We don't know who's who, or who's winning, but the fervour is catching. I jump into a pirogue and follow the action for a while. About 60 paddlers are driving each boat forward, doing a huge circular lap. A local team wins and the chaos intensifies. Smiles dominate the proceedings, while the athletes trade good-natured insults.

We can't stick around to see the medals handed out, though. We've got a date with the First Lady, a school and 300 mozzie nets. There, Kingsley is continuing his good work, repeating the message - as he has thousands of times before. The fact that the President's wife is accompanied by four government ministers shows the high level of support Kingsley and this whole mission has.

At the same time a few of our group had gone to fetch Claude, the young chimpanzee that had been rescued from being an attraction at a bar. We had originally planned to rescue up to four chimps, but one had died before we arrived and the other two were being kept by the owner, who was not content to release her money-spinners. Still, rescuing even one animal is a start, and the seven-year-old Claude would be transferred to the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden outside Nelspruit.

Our two objectives are now complete, and we make our way back to the military base before dark. Jacques and I requisition our own transport again, this time to get a closer look at the old church we had spotted from the hillside. Styled on the Notre Dame in Paris, it's beautiful in the afternoon light, and a service is being held under a tree to the side of the building.

Hymns float over to us as we take pictures in the fading light, an incongruous end to such a frenetic day, and ultimately of our mission in Bangui. © Stephen Smith

For more information on our expedition, and the goals of the Afrika Expeditionary Force, see www.afrikaforce.org.za. For a better understanding of Claude's new home and future, go to http://www.chimpeden.com/.
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Peaceful bonobos may have something to teach humans

2011-03-12T06:18:00.000-09:00

Humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, but we share one important similarity with one species of chimp, the common chimpanzee, that we don't share with the other, the bonobo. That similarity is violence. While humans and the common chimpanzee wage war and kill each other, bonobos do not. "There has never been a recorded case in captivity or in the wild of a bonobo killing another bonobo," notes anthropologist Brian Hare.

Hare is an assistant professor in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he and his wife and colleague, Vanessa Woods, studied bonobo behavior at Lola ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an orphanage for young bonobos whose parents were killed for the bush meat trade. The war-torn Congo is the only place in the world where these endangered apes can be found.

"We go to this sanctuary and we play these fun problem-solving games with them to just try and get inside their heads and figure out exactly how they think," says Woods. "They're wonderful animals to be related to. It's a shame so few people have heard of them."

Woods is author of the book "Bonobo Handshake," a memoir about her experiences with these peaceful, playful primates, and some of the differences she noted between bonobos and common chimpanzees.

"Chimpanzees can be very empathetic, loving but they also have this darker side. They have war, they kill each other, they beat their females. Bonobos don't really have any of that," explains Woods. "They're different because they've managed to live in a society virtually without violence. How do they do that? Humans, for all of our intelligence and all our technology, we haven't managed to live without war, and so I think that's something very important that bonobos can teach us."

One way bonobos deal with conflict and tension is to have sex. Yes, they're the ultimate hippies--they make love, not war. "Whenever things get tense in the bonobo world, they'll usually have some kind of sociosexual activity and this seems to really help everybody get along. But another one of the ways that they sort of have this peaceful society is they're naturally more tolerant. They share more, and if one of them gets upset, it's not just sex but they can also hug and comfort one another."

In one study, Woods and Hare were surprised when a hungry bonobo opened a gate to share prized treats with another bonobo. "The idea that you would give something to someone else at a cost to yourself, we thought this was something only humans would do."

Bonobos' generous nature likely evolved because they live in an area of the Congo where food is plentiful. They never had to compete with gorillas or kill for a meal like common chimps do.

The females stick together, creating a matriarchal society, and when necessary will gang up on threatening males. "Females will work together to protect themselves from male aggression. So male aggression is just simply not tolerated," says Hare.

With chimps, the most aggressive males tend to team up to dominate females and weaker males. In bonobo society, Hare says it's the mother and son relationship that commands the most respect.

"Basically, bonobos are the ultimate 'mama's boys.' Essentially, it's more like a debutante society where mothers have to introduce their sons into polite society and it's through your mother, as a bonobo, that you will gain access to other females," explains Hare.

How did two such similar species, the bonobo and the common chimpanzee, evolve so differently? Hare says understanding that may shed light on human behavior, considering that we are a lot like both of them.

"Humans are probably the most generous species on the planet," notes Hare, which is very bonobo-like. But like chimps, Hare says, we have that dark side. "Bonobos don't have a darker side. So, although they can't fly to the moon, they don't kill each other. I think they challenge your normal notion of what intelligence is. I think we have a lot to learn from them."
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New study claims man lost the penile spines of other primates during evolution

2011-03-12T06:13:00.000-09:00

Scientists believe men once had small spines on their genitalia such as those found in chimpanzees, cats and mice.

Analysis of the genomes of humans, chimpanzees and macaques indicates that a DNA sequence thought to play a role in the production of these spines have been deleted in humans, but has been preserved in other primates.
It suggests another genetic deletion may have led to the expansion of specific regions of the human brain.
The study is in the journal Nature.

We're trying to find the molecular basis of being human”
David Kingsley
Stanford University

The researchers at Stanford, Georgia and Pennsylvania State universities in the US wanted to trace evolutionary changes in human DNA.
They compared the human genome with those of the chimpanzee and macaque, and came up with 510 stretches of DNA that have been conserved in our primate relatives but deleted in humans.

Nearly all these DNA regions appear to play a regulatory role in the function of nearby genes.

The researchers then focused on two deletions, linking one to penile spines and another to the growth of specific areas of the brain.

They then tested the effects of the deleted sequences in human skin and neural tissue, and found further evidence to support their claims.

"We're trying to find the molecular basis of being human," said Professor David Kingsley of Stanford University, one of the authors of the study.

"That's a really ambitious goal; but we live at this unique time where we have the complete genome sequence of ourselves and our closest relatives, so you can systematically go through and find all the ways that we differ from other organisms."

Arms race

Penile spines are barb-like structures found in many mammals. Their role remains under debate, and they may play different roles in different species.

They may increase stimulation for the male during mating. They might also play a part in inducing female ovulation in a small number of species, but there is evidence that they can cause damage to the female too.

Then there is the suggestion that they might have evolved to remove "mating plugs" - material that some male species deposit in the female genital tract to block other males' attempts to fertilise the same female.

"It's been proposed these structures can help remove the copulatory plugs left by other males; so in some mammals with multi-male mating systems, there's quite a little arms race going on for fertilisation," said Professor Kingsley.

The researchers believe the loss of these spines in humans may be related to changes in human courtship.

The loss of spines, they say, would result in less sensitivity and longer copulation, and may be associated with stronger pair-bonding in humans and greater paternal care for human offspring.

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Lio, Male Chimp gets 2 new females at the Chapultepec zoo

2011-03-11T05:52:00.001-09:00

A female chimp gazes adoringly at her mate.

Kenya and Aby at Chapultepec Zoo
She is one of two shy female chimpanzees who were presented to an outgoing male chimp at Mexico City's Chapultepec Zoo this week in the hope they will breed.

Fourteen-year-old Kenya and 15-year-old Aby were brought from Wameru Zoo in the Mexican city of Queretaro. They will stay with a 26-year-old male chimp, called Lio, at the zoo for a period of five years.

Lucky Lio has been living at Chapultepec Zoo since 1996.

Environment Minister Marta Delgado told reporters the female chimps are in excellent health and have shown great enthusiasm and interest in Lio. She is optimistic the threesome will successfully breed.

"The coupling has been successful. It's not easy. A chimpanzee who has lived alone for many years, or with other companions, now receives two new mates," she said. "It's a complex process which has been monitored carefully by zoo personnel and fortunately they have now become a new family."

The coupling has been closely monitored by veterinarians. Both female chimps have now become romantically attached to the male.
Any births resulting from the mating will be shared between both zoos.

"The first-born will belong to Chapultepec Zoo and the second one will belong to Wameru Zoo and so on. This agreement is valid for five years, but it could last longer. If it's successful and we see there is reproduction of these animals, we'll probably extend it," said the director of the capital-area zoos and wildlife, Jose Bernal Stoopen.

Chimpanzees are genetically the closest living relatives to human beings. They share more than 98 percent of our DNA.
Scientists believe the precursors to chimps and humans split off from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago.
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Nothing has come out of testing Chimpanzees for diseases-It needs to stop!!!!

2011-03-10T14:17:00.000-09:00

The activists say the researchers are using the animals to study the effects of bioterrorism agents on chimpanzees.

One of the chimpanzees is 29-years-old, has lived as a test subject, and in a captive environment with thousands of other chimpanzees, and has been chemically immobilised 99 times by researchers since being brought out of a 14-year retirement, activists said.
Subjecting chimpanzees to deadly chemicals and diseases is illegal in the European Union, and the US is the only industrialised country that still allows researchers to do so.

The US National Institutes of Health recently stopped dealing with the Texas-based research laboratory that procured the 14 elderly chimpanzees.

The animals are being used to study the effects of deadly substances like anthrax, and deadly viruses, such as HIV and Ebola, according to campaigners.

John Pippin, a Dallas-based doctor and member of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), said that testing on chimpanzees was not scientifically useful to humans.

He said that, as yet, no Hepatitis C vaccine, AIDS vaccine, or malaria vaccine had come about from chimpanzee testing, despite the fact that these three diseases required the use of chimpanzees for testing.

He said that researchers had been given free licence to study disease in chimpanzees for decades, without such research yielding anything of use to the general public.

Pippin said that he believed that the transfer of the chimpanzees to the laboratory constituted an abuse of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

About 1,000 chimpanzees remain in captivity in US laboratories.

Breeding or importing chimpanzees into the US is against the law.

In a related study, British and African researchers found that 59 chimpanzees studied in a Zambian sanctuary displayed the use of humour and laughter during social bonding.

The researchers said their findings suggested that chimpanzees used forms of communication and self-expression that were more complicated than people might think.
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Human and Non-Human primate aging follows similar patterns.

2011-03-10T14:10:00.000-09:00

Source: Iowa State University

Newswise — AMES, Iowa - A recent study debunks the long-held belief in the scientific community that humans have an aging advantage over other primates.

By studying mortality models of human aging along with examining seven wild primate species, researchers have shown that human and non-human primate aging follows similar patterns.

Anne Bronikowski, associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology at Iowa State University, was the demographer for the research team and thinks there are several important findings in the paper, which is published in the current issue of the journal Science.
Life span patterns are most affected by both early adult mortality rates of a species and also how quickly that species increases mortality with advancing adult age.
Humans had been believed to be different from other primates in the measure of how mortality increases with advancing adult age, but this research shows that is not the case.

"First, we found that the thing that makes humans exceptional - that gives them their long life - is that they have both low early adult mortality rate and a low rate of aging," said Bronikowski.

However, some primates in the study aged as slowly as humans, while others had low mortality rates similar to human mortality. So humans were not unique in either measure.

No primates, except for humans, had both. That is what makes us long-lived, she said.

Senescence patterns, or adult aging, can be affected by the environment. The right conditions can make for longer life and these leave their mark on mortality rates.

"Some of these aspects of aging can be molded by local hazards and medical intervention" she added. "Yet, what determines maximum life span for humans remains unknown."

That current maximum life span for humans is 125 years. Life expectancy for Westernized humans is 80-plus years for those who reach puberty, she said. That is an increase from around a 40 to 50-year life expectancy when humans lived as hunters and gatherers.

Since environment and medicine can impact lifespan and aging, the hope is that humans may be able to live healthy lives that are free from the physical deterioration associated with advancing age until close to age of death, Bronikowski said. Comparative studies of different primate species can help us understand where researchers might see evolutionary constraints in aging and where to apply resources for effective treatments.

Bronikowski also noted that females in all species but one lived longer than males. The species that did not have this sex difference in aging and life span, muriqui, is revealing to researchers because it is the only species in the study that does not have a male-male competition for female mates.

The researchers looked at sifaka, northern muriqui, capuchin, yellow baboons, blue monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas in the study.

As demographer on the project, Bronikowski worked with long-term census data from each primatologist's field study to develop mortality tables and fit models of increasing mortality.

The research results were part of a three-year collaboration through the National Science Foundation's National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.

Along with Bronikowski, other researchers included Susan Alberts, Anne Pusey and William Morris, all from Duke University, Durham, N.C.; Marina Cords, Columbia University, New York; Jeanne Altmann, Princeton University, N.J.; Dianne Brockman, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Linda Fedigan, University of Calgary, Canada; Tara Stoinski, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International; and Karen Strier, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Woman brings baby monkey into courthouse in her bra and they let her go?

2011-03-10T10:48:00.000-09:00

How stupid is this woman? Bringing a primate into court? That monkey is NOT your daughter she is the daughter of the monkey that was not permitted to raise her own Daughter because you wanted to show off having a monkey. SHAME ON YOU. I hope the authorties find you and take that baby away and put her with her own kind.
With a courthouse there are many police officers all of the time, why did they allow her to leave before they found out if she had the proper licenses and permits and the monkey was allowed in the state and the county. I have to wonder where people minds are.

Story;
Authorities said a woman entered the Amherst County courthouse this morning with a tiny monkey tucked into her bra, dressed in diapers and a white dress with pink flowers.

The woman was not identified, but officials confirmed the incident — from Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Maddox to deputies who were working in the courthouse.

“You couldn’t make up something like this,” Maddox said.

The woman had arrived for a hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations court, officials said.

They had no idea that she had the monkey — a female named “Kara” — until she went into an office to fill out routine, court-related paperwork.

When the woman referred to a daughter, a puzzled official asked where the daughter was. That’s when she pulled the monkey, only inches tall, out of her bra.

She referred to it as “her daughter,” said she had purchased it on eBay and that she had the creature’s clothes specially made in West Virginia.

Court officials were stunned when tiny Kara moved her head, waving a hand and began gnawing on the dress.

One official asked why the woman had the monkey in her bra and quoted her as saying, “Well, would you leave your child at home? She has to be close to me.”

Asked who let the monkey through the metal detector, a deputy quipped: “It wasn’t armed.”
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Dexter a 21 YO Capuchin Monkey dies after escape... so sad

2011-03-10T10:37:00.000-09:00

BELLEVIEW — Whenever the Ferson family went to the movies, they had to bring back a bag of popcorn for Dexter, a 21-year-old Capuchin monkey. Dexter was a popular attraction in the neighborhood where he lived.

He also was an escape artist.

On Tuesday, the monkey somehow escaped his cage and traveled into a fenced yard, where he died following an encounter with a Rottweiler.

The monkey, which weighed between 10 and 15 pounds and stood about 26 inches tall, had escaped twice before. Three times, someone damaged his 6 ½- foot tall by 12-foot wide wooden cage, which had bars around it and fencing.

Shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday, Dale Ferson came home and noticed the monkey's cage was open and Dexter was missing. The padlock used to lock the cage door also was missing.

"We're having a hard time with his loss," Ferson said.

Ferson said Dexter came to their family when he was 17 weeks old, on Christmas Eve in 1989. The 59-year-old man said Dexter, who had been abused, was a gift for his wife.

At the time, the family was living in south Florida. They moved to Belleview in November 1995.

While he was with them, Ferson said, Dexter was part of the family and grew up with his five children and 10 grandchildren.

Ferson said the monkey loved finding a sharp object to put in the lock on his cage in an attempt to open it.
"It was a fun thing for him to do," Ferson said.

The same deputy who responded to Tuesday's incident noted in his report that two years ago he worked a similar call involving Dexter's escape, and it was determined then that the animal had gone through a hole at the back of the cage.

While investigating Tuesday, Dexter was seen not far away. Rushing to the area, Ferson, the deputy and several neighbors saw the monkey on top of a roof. Several attempts to lure him to the ground failed, and he ran off.

"He's hard to catch because he's so fast," Ferson said.

Ferson told the deputy that Dexter normally would return home at nightfall.

Roughly a half hour after everyone had left the scene, Ferson called the deputy to tell him that Dexter had been captured by a Rottweiler and was killed.

The dog was inside a 6-foot privacy fence.

Ferson said Dexter was cremated and his remains will be placed on top of the fireplace, next to his favorite stuffed animal, a monkey.
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Missouri is trying to pass a law to stop the breeding of Primates..... YEAH!!!!! Good bye Connie Casey Braun

2011-03-10T10:12:00.001-09:00

Readers!!! This has made my year!!!! Everyday I do research on articles about Primates, and for the most part it is all bad or very sad news, but not today!!! This is something to hope for and will change the world of primates as we know it.

Connie Casey Braun of the Missouri Primate foundation (there's that word again that makes me laugh... foundation haha) is the largest breeder in the US and then there is another chimpanzee breeder in Missouri that recently bought out the breeder chimps from the Glasses in Texas. if these 2 breeding facilities have to have all of the chimps fixed that will be the end of pet chimps, pets in the entertainment business, chimp attacks, babies being ripped off their moms screaming. this my dear readers would be a miracle, I will keep my fingers crossed for this law to go through. KUDOS to the St Louis Zoo!!!!!

Story-
JEFFERSON CITY — A chimpanzee named Travis mauled a woman and left her face unrecognizable when he escaped his home in Stamford, Conn., and attacked Charla Nash, a close friend of his owner on Feb. 16, 2009. A year later, another chimpanzee, Sueko, also escaped from his home in Kansas City, and attacked a police car. Both Travis and Sueko came from Jefferson County, Mo.

The Senate Agriculture Committee debated a bill that would require owners to obtain permits for and neuter their primates incited passionate testimonies from several Missouri primate breeders.

Sen. Joseph Keaveny, D-St. Louis City, sponsored the bill after Eric Miller, veterinarian and senior vice president at the Saint Louis Zoo, requested these large and exotic animals be regulated.
"Missouri is one of the few states with no (statewide) regulation of large and exotic animals," Miller said. "It's a national standard Missouri is working on catching up to."

Currently, Missouri regulates these primates on a county-by-county basis. Some counties in Missouri don't have primate requirements; others require primate owners to register their pets with the county sheriff. Owners must give the sheriff's office their address, a description of their primate and a description of the primate's living conditions.

If the bill passes, the Missouri Department of Agriculture would issue the statewide permits to primate owners, however, they have not yet taken a position for or against the bill.

More than 25 people attended a March 3 committee hearing to speak against the bill. Miller, the only proponent who spoke in favor of the bill, testified on behalf of the Saint Louis Zoo.

Suzanne Windsor, a U.S. Department of Agriculture-licensed exhibitor of primates, opposed the bill.

"It's an all out ban," Windsor said. "They are trying to go above and beyond what the state is supposed to be doing by going above and beyond federal regulations."

Her main concern was the bill's requirement to spay and neuter — both of which are high-risk surgeries for a primate, whose reproductive system resembles a human's. She said it would result in the gradual phase-out of Missouri primate breeding.
"For people that are USDA-licensed to breed and sell, it causes unnecessary surgeries on primates that could cause their deaths," Windsor said. "If you have a 22-year-old primate that's never been spayed, there's a good chance she could never come off that table [alive]."

Keaveny said he is looking into changes to the bill to appease the opposition. He said he has received several suggestions from a veterinarian to help the bill pass next year.

"We are open to making those [necessary] adjustments," he said.

The bill would exempt zoos, nonprofit organizations, animal control and law enforcement, circuses, educational institutions and exhibits, animal sanctuaries and veterinarians.

Currently, 15 states have a permit system for owning primates and 20 states have outlawed some, if not all, primate ownership. States that don't have regulations include Missouri border states Kansas and Nebraska.

A violation of the act would result in a class A misdemeanor charge unless the person intentionally releases a non-human primate, which would result in a class D felony.
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Monkey pet owner, Colleen Layton Robbins wants to keep her 23 monkeys at her house

2011-03-10T09:53:00.002-09:00

Well, this is a place that I know very well, have visited there and made many donations UNTIL.... I found out that Colleen Layton is not who she says she is. She started out as strictly a Wildlife sanctuary and then she took it upon herself to start with a pet monkey, a few weeks old who performed for her and from there the monkeys have multiplied. She was told years ago to get rid of the monkeys they were not allowed there, but she refused to do so. Why is Colleen Layton excused from falling the law?

When the neighbors moved in they didn't have any monkeys so it's not as though they "KNEW" there were dangerous animals living right next door.

Colleen Layton says she has cameras everywhere. Does she have them in the neighborhood for when one of the monkeys escapes? I doubt it. It's not will one of them escape it's when they will escape. Lets just say that in the evening teenagers think it would be cool to go in and see the monkeys. They approach one of the cages (because some don't have a perimeter fence around them, and even if they did they could certainly climb it), and one gets attacked through the cage? How good are the cameras then? People do invade on others properties as in a recent case where the father lifted his little boy over a fence to see the monkeys and he was seriously hurt. The law is actually thinking about pressing charges against the father.

Collen Layton says that all of the weight for the monkeys combined is 263 lbs. That just goes to show how little Colleen knows. It is NOT the weight of a monkey that is dangerous, it is their ability to attack. They are fast, they jump far, they are small, they have long canine teeth and it is their normal behaviour to attack when they feel threatened. A Threat to a monkey can be as simple as someone walking by and the monkey gets afraid. I use to volunteer for a small zoo and because of some of the set ups on the cages, I had to go in with them to feed and clean. I never had any problems until one day. One day when a capuchin monkey decided I was a threat. The monkey jumped about 15 feet onto my shoulder and grabbed a hold of my ear and wouldn't let go. I grabbed the monkey by the head and ripped him off of me and threw him on the floor. I ran out as fast as I could. This monkey had ripped the top part of my ear in half!!!!!! In a matter of minutes and I do know monkey behaviour. What if one of Colleens monkeys get out and approachs someone that knows nothing at all about monkeys? They don't just bite one time and leave, they are rapid biters, they will bit over and over again. I had 15 years with monkeys and this is their normal behaviour.

Colleen Layton also says that they will be put down if they have to leave. THAT IS SUCH A LIE!!!!!! There are sanctuaries that have room and would be more than glad to take them in. I would be willing to take on the job of finding homes for them, that's how sure I am. Colleen is playing on the heartstrings of animal lovers. She is not what she says she is and she has no business having primates where primates are not allowed to be, PERIOD. Why shouldn't she have to abide by the same laws as everyone else?????

Before you read the article on Colleen Layton I found an article that came out today about what I was saying about escapes. This monkey was 21 years old and had been living with these people for the 21 years. I bet the owners never expected this monkey to get out. No humans were hurt, but the monkey died. Shame on people for having them in the first place!

I had a monkey that I use to give magazines to because she loved to look at the photos. This one time I missed a staple in the magazine. I noticed later on that she was playing with her padlock. I went over to see what she was doing and she had pulled the staple out of the magazine and had it in the lock trying to pick the lock. Monkeys are very smart and when they are locked up in jail all they think about is getting out. Every time I went in and out of my chimps cage Mikey would pull on all three locks on the door to check and see if I had forgotten one. We are humans, we make mistakes, though when we make a mistake with a primates cage trouble only follows...

BELLEVIEW — Whenever the Ferson family went to the movies, they had to bring back a bag of popcorn for Dexter, a 21-year-old Capuchin monkey.

Dexter is shown with family friend Ashley Karzmarsky in this family snapshot. (Submitted photo) Dexter was a popular attraction in the neighborhood where he lived.

He also was an escape artist.

On Tuesday, the monkey somehow escaped his cage and traveled into a fenced yard, where he died following an encounter with a Rottweiler.

The monkey, which weighed between 10 and 15 pounds and stood about 26 inches tall, had escaped twice before. Three times, someone damaged his 6 ½- foot tall by 12-foot wide wooden cage, which had bars around it and fencing.

Shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday, Dale Ferson came home and noticed the monkey's cage was open and Dexter was missing. The padlock used to lock the cage door also was missing.

"We're having a hard time with his loss," Ferson said.

Ferson said Dexter came to their family when he was 17 weeks old, on Christmas Eve in 1989. The 59-year-old man said Dexter, who had been abused, was a gift for his wife.

At the time, the family was living in south Florida. They moved to Belleview in November 1995.

While he was with them, Ferson said, Dexter was part of the family and grew up with his five children and 10 grandchildren.

Ferson said the monkey loved finding a sharp object to put in the lock on his cage in an attempt to open it.

"It was a fun thing for him to do," Ferson said.

The same deputy who responded to Tuesday's incident noted in his report that two years ago he worked a similar call involving Dexter's escape, and it was determined then that the animal had gone through a hole at the back of the cage.

While investigating Tuesday, Dexter was seen not far away. Rushing to the area, Ferson, the deputy and several neighbors saw the monkey on top of a roof. Several attempts to lure him to the ground failed, and he ran off.

"He's hard to catch because he's so fast," Ferson said.

Ferson told the deputy that Dexter normally would return home at nightfall.

Roughly a half hour after everyone had left the scene, Ferson called the deputy to tell him that Dexter had been captured by a Rottweiler and was killed.

The dog was inside a 6-foot privacy fence.

Ferson said Dexter was cremated and his remains will be placed on top of the fireplace, next to his favorite stuffed animal, a monkey.

Colleens Story;
Jamie, the so-called barroom-brawling monkey of Glen Burnie, seems pretty mellow now. As he munches popcorn in his enclosure at Frisky's Wildlife & Primate Sanctuary in Howard County there's no sign of the agitated bonnet macaque who made headlines in 1999.

Back then, Jamie used to be taken all sorts of places by his owner, a used car dealer who would often encourage people to touch his monkey. When Jamie scratched a waitress at the Speak Easy Inn in Glen Burnie, all hell broke loose, with customers throwing punches left and right. Animal control confiscated Jamie and placed him at Frisky's, a refuge in Woodstock run by Colleen Layton-Robbins. He's been there ever since.

"Jamie doesn't like when people laugh at him," reads the little bio of the monkey on the Frisky's Web site.
No one does, Jamie. No one does.

Every animal at Frisky's has a story. "Izzy was the product of a lesbian divorce," Colleen says of a white-faced capuchin monkey named Isadora. Oogie, another capuchin, used to belong to a dentist. That was until the dentist's wife said, "That monkey's not going to ruin another Christmas." Kiko, a rhesus macaque, was given up by his human family in Iowa after he started biting people. His former owner visits Frisky's annually, sleeping on a cot across from Kiko's cage.

Colleen has taken in primates from across the country. She has 23 in her house and in enclosures across her three-acre property.

It's not just monkeys. There's a bald eagle that's recuperating after someone shot it. ("He was a pile of wet feathers when he came in," Colleen says.) In the rabbit room are a clutch of baby bunnies, rescued from a hoarding situation. There are pygmy goats, minks, chinchilla, parrots, squirrels, all tended by Colleen and an army of volunteers.

Frisky's doesn't happen to have any alligators, but the toothy reptiles come through the door periodically, usually confiscated during drug busts. "They're small alligators, but they're alligators," says Colleen, 56. "Talk about some spunky attitude."

When Colleen moved here 20 years ago, she was pretty much surrounded by farmland. "They said they weren't going to develop," she says. Today, parts of the new Preserve at Waverly Glen subdivision back up to Frisky's. Peer over the fence near the coatimundis (a sort of South American raccoon) and you can look into the back yards of $1 million homes.

And on the other side of Frisky's live Julianne and Richard Wyckoff. They've been waging a battle against Colleen since they moved in12 years ago. Julianne says that when she and her husband bought their house, they didn't know how diverse the wildlife in and around their neighbor's home was. "I thought she was a housewife who had some animals, some cats and llamas," Julianne says.

Monkeys, say the Wyckoffs, especially macaques, are prone to herpes B, a disease that can be fatal in humans. "I have a daughter who wants to be out roller skating and bike riding," Julianne said. "I let her do that, but I worry all the time. I say, 'If you see anything, you run to the house.' "
Colleen says the animals are healthy. Her enclosures are double-locked, and 27 closed-circuit TV cameras are trained on the property. Besides, she says, the combined weight of all her monkeys is just 263 pounds, hardly a threat.

The fight over Frisky's has dragged on in zoning hearings and courtrooms and even reached Maryland's highest court - which sent it back to the county. Years ago Colleen was successful in her request for a zoning exception allowing her property to be a sanctuary for squirrels, bunnies, goats, hawks and the like. The sticking point is the exotic animals. There's a hearing Thursday before the county's Board of Appeals and another March 24. At issue is whether she can keep the monkeys.
"Really, they don't belong on this property," Julianne says. "Zoning laws are there for a reason."

Colleen says she thinks she's there for a reason, too: to care for animals that haven't gotten a fair shake. "I'm not the problem," Colleen says. "I'm the solution." The solution to abandoned, unwanted or neglected animals.

Jamie, the barroom-brawling monkey of Glen Burnie, is content to sit this fight out. As with pretty much everything else in his life, the humans will decide what happens next.
Story credit here

Rare Blonde Capuchin Monkeys slap and then insert sticks to get termites

2011-03-10T09:23:00.002-09:00

Blond capuchin monkeys of the Brazilian forests use a special technique — smack, swirl, eat — as they fished termites out of trees, a new study of the critically endangered primates shows.

Blond Capuchins live in the forests of Brazil, but only about 180 are left in the wild. Antonio Souto's group discovered that they use a special technique-and-tool combo to fish termites from their nests in the trees.
CREDIT: Camila Bione.

"In some observations we have seen them do this fantastic behavior, fishing for termites," said Antonio Souto of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil. Similar insect-fishing behavior has been seen before, but the technique used by the blond capuchins is unique, he said.
There are only 180 of the capuchins left in the wild. The research team monitored a group of six of them as it moved through the trees and noticed that three of the four adult males in the group would climb up to a termite nest and start hitting it with their hands.

Each monkey grabbed a branch off the tree and poked it into the nest, using a rotational insertion technique to gain entry. They pulled out their sticks and inspected them, then ate the termites on them. Still holding the sticks, the monkeys tapped the nest again with their left hands and repeated the procedure.

To see how effective this technique was, the researchers gave it a try themselves. They climbed up ladders to the termite nest and copied the monkeys' movements.

"It really worked. The way they do it really enhanced their catch," Souto told LiveScience. "I think they can do better than we did; they have more experience."

While the whacking and the use of the stick seemed to increase their take-home, the rotational movement didn't. Instead, the researchers discovered, that twisting prevented the stick from breaking, allowing the monkeys to reuse it. "In the beginning we saw how difficult it was to perforate the nest wall without rotating the sticks," said Souto. "This has an effect on the life span of the stick."

The researchers are currently sifting through other data they collected while monitoring the monkeys, including on the animals' foraging behaviors. They plan to follow a separate, larger group of capuchins to determine if it fishes for termites the same way.

Souto said, "It's possible that the technique is unique to this small group of animals."
The study is published in today's (March 8) issue of the journal Biology Letters.
Story and photo credit here

New baby Bolobus Monkey born at the Illinois Zoo

2011-03-10T09:15:00.000-09:00

The Niabi zoo is celebrating an addition to its family. The zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois released this photograph Monday of a baby black and white Colobus monkey, born on February 9th. It's the third baby for the mother.

The new baby has been named Hank by the zookeeper staff. They say the other monkeys in the troop have started to serve as baby sitters.

You can see baby Hank for yourself, weather permitting, when the zoo opens for the season on March 14th.

Also, look for an appearance by several zoo animals during an interview Friday on the News at Noon.
Story and Photo credit here

North Texas Zoo has intruder and dead monkey found

2011-03-10T05:58:00.000-09:00

GAINESVILLE — A small monkey was found dead at a North Texas zoo following a break-in by vandals over the weekend.

Gainesville police spokesman Sgt. Belva McClinton said Tuesday that authorities don’t know what caused the death of the cotton-top tamarin at Frank Buck Zoo.

She says police have identified three juvenile suspects in the vandalism, but are still investigating and have made no arrests. The intruders broke in sometime after closing Friday at the zoo about 70 miles north of Dallas.

Zoo director Susan Kleven tells the Gainesville Daily Register that the vandalism included oil poured on all-terrain vehicles, a discharged fire extinguisher and damage to some exhibits. She says a turkey vulture had broken feathers.

Kleven says a necropsy will determine the monkey’s cause of death.
Story credit here

Bonobos don't kill each other like chimpanzees do

2011-03-08T07:04:00.001-09:00

Brian Hare is one of the few people in the Ape Community that I respect and adore. Vanessa Woods has a great book that anyone that is interested in learning about Bonobos should read.
Story;
Humans share 98.7 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, but we share one important similarity with one species of chimp, the common chimpanzee, that we don't share with the other, the bonobo. That similarity is violence. While humans and the common chimpanzee wage war and kill each other, bonobos do not. "There has never been a recorded case in captivity or in the wild of a bonobo killing another bonobo," notes anthropologist Brian Hare.

Hare is an assistant professor in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he and his wife and colleague, Vanessa Woods, studied bonobo behavior at Lola ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an orphanage for young bonobos whose parents were killed for the bush meat trade. The war-torn Congo is the only place in the world where these endangered apes can be found.
"We go to this sanctuary and we play these fun problem-solving games with them to just try and get inside their heads and figure out exactly how they think," says Woods. "They're wonderful animals to be related to. It's a shame so few people have heard of them."

Woods is author of the book "Bonobo Handshake," a memoir about her experiences with these peaceful, playful primates, and some of the differences she noted between bonobos and common chimpanzees.

"Chimpanzees can be very empathetic, loving but they also have this darker side. They have war, they kill each other, they beat their females. Bonobos don't really have any of that," explains Woods. "They're different because they've managed to live in a society virtually without violence. How do they do that? Humans, for all of our intelligence and all our technology, we haven't managed to live without war, and so I think that's something very important that bonobos can teach us."

One way bonobos deal with conflict and tension is to have sex. Yes, they're the ultimate hippies--they make love, not war. "Whenever things get tense in the bonobo world, they'll usually have some kind of sociosexual activity and this seems to really help everybody get along. But another one of the ways that they sort of have this peaceful society is they're naturally more tolerant. They share more, and if one of them gets upset, it's not just sex but they can also hug and comfort one another."

In one study, Woods and Hare were surprised when a hungry bonobo opened a gate to share prized treats with another bonobo. "The idea that you would give something to someone else at a cost to yourself, we thought this was something only humans would do."

Bonobos' generous nature likely evolved because they live in an area of the Congo where food is plentiful. They never had to compete with gorillas or kill for a meal like common chimps do.
The females stick together, creating a matriarchal society, and when necessary will gang up on threatening males. "Females will work together to protect themselves from male aggression. So male aggression is just simply not tolerated," says Hare.

With chimps, the most aggressive males tend to team up to dominate females and weaker males. In bonobo society, Hare says it's the mother and son relationship that commands the most respect.

"Basically, bonobos are the ultimate 'mama's boys.' Essentially, it's more like a debutante society where mothers have to introduce their sons into polite society and it's through your mother, as a bonobo, that you will gain access to other females," explains Hare.

How did two such similar species, the bonobo and the common chimpanzee, evolve so differently? Hare says understanding that may shed light on human behavior, considering that we are a lot like both of them.

"Humans are probably the most generous species on the planet," notes Hare, which is very bonobo-like. But like chimps, Hare says, we have that dark side. "Bonobos don't have a darker side. So, although they can't fly to the moon, they don't kill each other. I think they challenge your normal notion of what intelligence is. I think we have a lot to learn from them."

Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent

Image Caption: Brian Hare, assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, spends several months of the year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he studies bonobos. He focuses on their behavior, specifically on how they solve problems and interact with other bonobos. Bonobos are genetically close to humans, yet most people know very little about them. Credit: Vanessa Woods, Duke University
Story Credit Here

Suco, the 21 year old Chimpanzee escapes and now resides at the Kansas City Zoo

2011-03-07T06:23:00.003-09:00

Readers, this chimpanzee was bred and sold by Connie Casey Braun of the Missouri Primate Foundation. I also have to chuckle when I type foundation because Connie Casey braun is strictly a Chimpanzee breeder and taking the poor babies to birthday parties. in other words folks, Connie lives off of her chimpanzees, they support her even though they are in small indoor cages. ( I have photos of her inside enclosures)

This Chimp was bred from Susie and Coco the chimpanzees. Well if you remember, years ago Susie was the one that Jason Coats in Missouri shot dead! Coco, the breeder was brought over from Africa and breed all of the females until he died a few years ago at the Missouri Primate Foundation. When he died Connie Casey Braun buried him in her yard along with a Zebra that hung itself because they put it in a chimp cage with netting. There are many other chimps buried out at that property. I know that Coco and Susie were her breeders, both of my ex-chimpanzees father was also Coco. So you see folks nothing ever comes out good when it comes to the babies that are stolen by Connie Casey Braun. For some examples, Mikey and Louie, my ex-chimps, Travis, Timmy, Susie, Connor, Kramer and Moe. This is why they should not be bred, babies stolen from their moms, forced to live like humans and ones dieing from either boredom, child birth or sickness.
SHAME ON YOU CONNIE CASEY BRAUN, GET A HEART AND A CONSCIENCE!!!!!! Better yet get a real job, go out and make money off of yourself and give those chimps sanctaury.

For the people that want their chimp back, do some reading on the Travis case and don't think your chimp isn't capable of doing the same thing, because she is!!!!

Story'
When Sueko arrived at the Kansas City Zoo in October she was overweight, accustomed to a human lifestyle.

The adult chimpanzee rode along with a trucker and his girlfriend and apparently enjoyed a diet heavy on people food.

Sueko carried quite a pot belly when she arrived at the zoo in October.

Now she’s eating fruits and vegetables — and has lost weight.

“She looks good now,” said Liz Harmon, general curator at the zoo. “She looks like our other girls. She was pretty chunky.”
But Sueko remains in a tug-of-war between Kansas City and the people who claim her.

The city confiscated the animal after she escaped from Mark Archigo in October and ran rampant in a residential neighborhood near 78th Street and Indiana Avenue. It was not the first time Archigo was in trouble because of Sueko.

The city has charged Archigo and Deborah Kaumans with keeping or harboring a nonhuman primate within the limits of Kansas City. But Archigo and John Michael Oyer, who claims to own Sueko, want to get back the chimpanzee they have raised since she was a baby.

The zoo is a much different life from the one Sueko had been living. She reportedly was toilet-trained and traveled with Archigo, sleeping on a second-tier bunk in the cab of the semi, police have said.

Despite Sueko’s new diet, the 21-year-old still has a long way to go before fitting in with the rest of the chimpanzees at the zoo. Officials won’t try to assimilate her until her legal status is resolved. They’ve been down that road.
“Because of the strong social bond and how difficult it is to get chimps together, it’s equally hard on them to separate them,” said Zoo Director Randy Wisthoff. “We wouldn’t even think about that process until we knew for sure whose property she was.”

Sueko has spent time at the zoo before. She was sent there in 1995 after being accused of biting people. Zookeepers introduced her to a young male and reported that she was making progress.

But Archigo threatened legal action, and the city returned Sueko to him after he promised to keep her outside the city limits.

After that, Oyer said, Archigo gave up his half-ownership in Sueko, leaving him as full owner. Archigo could not be reached for comment.

Oyer believes the city has “illegally confiscated his property” and that her time in the zoo is “undoing years of hard work and training.”

Oyer and Archigo bought the chimp in 1989 to start a tree-trimming service called Monkey Tree Service. Oyer said city codes at the time allowed “temporary animal display acts,” which he believes made it legal to keep Sueko in the city. But five years later, Oyer said, the city changed its codes to outlaw chimps without a special permit, and the city refused to grant him a permit.

“We already had her here,” he said. “We should have been grandfathered in.”

Oyer said the city is “forcing him to file a lawsuit” to get back the chimp, whose name he said is spelled “Suco,” a combination of her parents’ names of Susie and Coco.

Now, as zookeepers wait for a new court date, they report that Sueko — the spelling in city files — is doing well.

“We have seen no health issues with her,” Harmon said. “We’ve not seen any behavioral issues with her.”

It only took about 10 days to get Sueko to start eating vegetables.

She works well with her keepers, presenting her hands and feet for inspection when prompted. She still prefers to sleep on a blanket instead of building a nest of hay as the other chimps do, but that’s not a big deal, Harmon said.
The real test will come if and when zookeepers are confident the chimp is at the zoo to stay. Then they can try to introduce her to the others. Integrating her could take weeks, months or even years.

Assimilation among chimps is not just a matter of introducing new playmates. The powerful apes have strict social hierarchies and are aggressive in enforcing them.

“Chimps can kill each other,” Harmon said.

The Kansas City Zoo has 15 chimpanzees, not counting Sueko, that live in two groupings. Two older females keep each other company and the rest are part of a single troop on exhibit. Sueko would not only have to find her place within that troop but also learn what is — and isn’t — expected of her.

“They’ve got a very complex social structure, and she doesn’t know what all that stuff is,” Wisthoff said. “She’s sort of in a reversal of the boy who lived with wolves.”
Story Credit Here

Need your pet exotic animal to be placed somewhere? March 12th the Zoo Miami will take them

2011-03-06T07:58:00.000-09:00

I certainly hope that this zoo will not put primates back in the hands of private owners regardless if they have a USDA license!!!!

Story;
Riptide recently moved, and as with every move came a long hard look at our possessions: what were we taking with, what was being donated somewhere, and what was to be shown the dumpster. Of course, as we understand is normal, we stressed over what to do with our vast private collection of exotic animals. Do we really need that Capuchin monkey anymore? Was it time to downsize our inventory of Burmese Pythons from six to just two? And what about the Fennec Foxes we keep in the guest room? Luckily for people having similar problems Zoo Miami will take those extra exotic pets off your hands on March 12th.

In conjunction with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Zoo Miami will host an event on March 12th between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in which citizens can surrender unwanted exotic pets.
The aim is to keep the animals from being otherwise released into the wild and messing up Florida's delicate ecosystem.

In turn, most healthy animals surrendered will be available for adoption by qualified owners.
The Sun-Sentinel reports that at the event held last year, about 70 animals were surrendered including 8 Burmese pythons, 16 red-eared sliders, two parrots and a monkey.
Story Credit here

The Southern Research Institute is full of CRAP with their lies about animal welfare!

2011-03-06T07:49:00.003-09:00

What a bunch of crap these people are at this research facility!!!! Please you say you care about the animals welfare. Well isn't it bad enough that you perform experiments on these animals and now you leave them in crates to die? Your so full of shit and so is the USDA. Remember folks the labs and the USDA work for the same organization....... OUR GOVERNMENT!!!!!

Story;
An animal rights group -- Stop Animal Exploitation Now! -- on Friday asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fine Southern Research Institute $50,000 for the deaths of a macaque and two ferrets, and the mistreatment of two other ferrets.

USDA veterinarian Michelle Williams investigated the death of the macaque in January after a December complaint by Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN. His complaint charged negligence and inadequate care for two macaques, two cotton rats and one squirrel monkey whose deaths were self-reported by Southside-based SRI in its 2009 animal use report.

The subsequent USDA inspection report, dated Jan. 20, found that one of the macaques died of suffocation because safety clips were missing from or were unused on its cage, which allowed the monkey to poke its head out of the cage and apparently strangle. The report said corrective measures were taken to prevent that from happening again.

The USDA is still reviewing deaths of the other four animals listed in Budkie's December complaint.

But the USDA January inspection found another incident not included in Budkie's complaint: Four ferrets that were being carried from one building to another were left in their transport enclosure for two hours, far exceeding the normal limit of 45 minutes. Two died from overheating, and the others suffered hyperthermia but recovered.

The USDA inspection report says that SRI's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee had investigated the ferret incident and found it was caused by employee error. That employee was put on probation and animal care employees got extra training. Again, measures were taken to prevent a recurrence, the inspection report said.

Budkie's Friday letter to Elizabeth Goldentyer -- a veterinarian who is regional director of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service -- asked for the maximum fine allowed by the federal Animal Welfare Act for mistreatment of the dead macaque and the four ferrets, $10,000 per animal.

"It is clear from these two incidents of negligence that the staff of SRI has an entirely inappropriate and utterly slipshod attitude about the lives of the animals which are in their care," he wrote. "Attitudes such as this potentially endanger the lives of all of the animals at SRI."

Keeping tabs

In a written response on Friday, SRI Public Relations Manager Rhonda Jung said, in part, that "we follow stringent reporting guidelines and regulatory agencies routinely inspect our facilities and practices. We place a high premium on animal care and safety, and try to anticipate and prevent accidents at all times.

"When there are unfortunate, unforeseen incidents, we are responsible in our reporting of them as required," she continued. "This matter has been investigated, and we consider it closed."

But Budkie said he hopes "the USDA will make an example of SRI to drive home the point that negligence that kills animals will not be tolerated."

Budkie is co-founder of the nonprofit SAEN, based in Milford, Ohio, and he keeps tabs on more than 1,000 U.S. animal research laboratories through use of public records.

Out of that number, Budkie said he files fewer than 20 complaints to the USDA each year.

"Without a complaint, the USDA may not even be aware the situation occurred," he said.

In fiscal 2009, Southern Research reported that it used 2,072 laboratory animals that are regulated under the Animal Welfare Act, including dogs, hamsters, rabbits, non-human primates, ferrets and cotton rats. About 1.1 million regulated animals are used in U.S. research labs or for instruction every year, Budkie said.
Excluded from the Animal Welfare Act are mice and rats -- which may make up 90 percent of all lab animals -- as well as amphibians and birds, Budkie said.

Each institution that uses laboratory animals for research or instruction has to set up a self-regulating Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to oversee and evaluate that institution's animal care and use program.
Story Credit Here

Read the complaint, the USDA inspection report and Southern Research's response. below

An Ohio organization called Stop Animal Exploitation Now! has filed a complaint with the USDA over the deaths of some animals at Birmingham's Southern Research Institute.
USDA report on SRI incident complaint.

Found Here

S.A.E.N. complaint letter to USDA.

Found Here

Doing experiments on Chimpanzees is nothing but wrong!!!!!

2011-03-06T07:22:00.000-09:00

I don't understand why the government can't just change the classification of Chimpanzees here in the US. Presently they are classified as "threatened" though wild Chimpanzees are classified as "endangered". When any animal is classified as "endangered" experiments are not permitted to be done on the animals. For example, Orangutans, Gorillas, and Bonobos are all classified as "endangered" and that's why no one is allowed to do experiments on them. If they would include the Chimpanzees is this classification than they also would not have to endure a lifetime of pain and suffering. It's that easy, just change the classification!!!!! So why hasn't the government done this yet? Because the government is the labs! We the tax payers pay for this abuse and it's time for the whole public to speak up, not just animal welfare and animal rights people, everyone needs to help!

Story;
A BATTLE by animal rights activists to save 14 chimpanzees from science and medical testing may well sound the death knell for all US medical experiments on the primates.

Rights and ethics groups led by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) have seized on the case, which pits them against a powerful federal research agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and revives debate the usefulness, as well as the ethics, of experimenting on humankind's closest living relatives.

Dallas doctor John Pippin, a PCRM senior adviser, said the NIH "acted unlawfully" in June and July 2010 when it transferred four female and 10 male chimps to a controversial laboratory in San Antonio, Texas, for use in invasive experiments.

Pippin and several other experts who are members of the non-profit PCRM filed a legal petition seeking immediate return of the chimps to their home at a non-research government facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where they lived with 186 other chimpanzees.

..Moving the animals "was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of agency discretion, and in violation of the federal Administrative Procedure Act", Pippin told AFP in an interview.
The animals sent to the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) are "old and sick," Pippin said. The research, he added, "is scientifically useless and also horribly inhumane".

The experts cite Rosie, a 29-year-old chimpanzee who was chemically immobilised 99 times by researchers in years of invasive experiments, as one of the 14 brought out of retirement and sent to Texas.
Chimpanzees have been used in research for decades, but many scientists have dismissed their usefulness in AIDS and malaria research, and their effectiveness in studies of hepatitis and other infections is in dispute.
After the European Union's 27 member states banned primate experiments last year, the US is now the only industrialised nation which has not done likewise.
Contacted by AFP, the NIH had yet to make a comment on the case as of late on Friday - but there are signs it is reacting to mounting pressure over the chimpanzees.

Activist groups and the then-governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, managed to convince NIH to suspend transfer of other chimpanzees from Alamogordo, according to Pippin.

NIH has agreed to await the findings of the independent Institute of Medicine, which has now launched what NIH acknowledged is "in-depth analysis to reassess the scientific need for the continued use of chimpanzees to accelerate biomedical discoveries".

It could take up to two years for the findings of the institute's study to emerge.

The PCRM notes the institute that oversees the Texas primate centre endorses primate studies involving "bioterrorism agents and other deadly pathogens" including Ebola virus and anthrax, in addition to work on AIDS and other infections.

Pippin and others insist the chimp research has no scientific value.
"The proof is that we don't have any hepatitis C vaccine, we don't have any AIDS vaccine, malaria vaccine," he said.

"We don't have an effective treatment for any of these diseases that have been studied on chimpanzees for decades."

But some researchers insist the experiments are vital, and vigorously defend lab research on animals such as mice and chimpanzees to advance medicine.

"We've made a lot of progress in research on hepatitis using chimpanzees," SNPRC director John VandeBerg told the Washington Post this week.

VandeBerg acknowledged that other developed nations no longer use chimpanzees for medical experiments, but stressed European societies "made a decision that was driven by animal rights advocates," and that European scientists still come to the US to do research on primates.

"They need chimpanzees just as badly as we do," he said.

About 1000 chimpanzees remain in US laboratories, including 500 at NIH facilities. Their number has decreased in recent years as breeding chimpanzees in captivity is now banned and importing them is illegal.
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A livetime of pain, loneliness, solitude, sickness and boredom is what Chimpanzees suffer in Government Labs

2011-03-06T07:10:00.000-09:00

(Media-Newswire.com) - The last time Samantha Elaine Struthers saw her friend Lennie, he was hunched over, alone in a cage at an Alamogordo, N.M., research lab then known as the Coulston Foundation. The once warm, animated chimpanzee, whom Struthers had groomed and been groomed by many times, stared listlessly down through the bars, studying the bare concrete floor.
Because he had been infected with HIV, Struthers had to approach him wearing a white protective suit, gloves, goggles, a surgical cap, and a mask. Not until she spoke did he recognize her and show glimpses of the old Lennie—stomping his feet, banging on the cage, making buzzing noises. But, clearly desperate to escape his isolation, he also made uncharacteristic submissive gestures, grinning repeatedly and whimpering. Plaintively, he reached through the bars.
“It was really heartbreaking,” says Struthers, who on that day 14 years ago was director of behavioral sciences at the Coulston Foundation but now believes the animals’ social and psychological needs cannot be met in labs. “He’d be like my age, like around 50 now.… I never saw him on those lists that they said went to sanctuaries.”
Lennie never found his freedom; unbeknownst to Struthers, he died of a heart attack in 2002.

But in January, nearly 190 chimpanzees still at the Alamogordo facility got a reprieve with the help of former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and others: The National Institutes of Health said the chimps will not be made available for invasive tests while an independent review of chimpanzee research is conducted.

Elsewhere in the U.S., about 800 other chimpanzees continue to languish in laboratories, even though they have proved poor models for research on human diseases and demand for them as test subjects has dwindled.
Struthers is among several hundred scientists and former lab workers who support efforts to end biomedical research on all chimpanzees, ban breeding to provide more chimps for labs, and retire the 500 federally owned animals to sanctuaries—where they would receive more humane care at lower cost to the government.
Seeking to codify these changes, The HSUS is working to get the federal Great Ape Protection Act reintroduced this year. In the previous session of Congress, the bill had broad bipartisan support. Many cosponsors were won over by a 2009 HSUS investigation that documented more than 300 alleged Animal Welfare Act violations at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana.

The HSUS also recently released records showing that the center was violating an NIH ban on breeding federally owned chimps—and that 14 infant chimps have been mauled to death since 2000, says Kathleen Conlee, HSUS director of program management for animal research issues. The HSUS is asking the government to investigate and immediately end taxpayer-supported breeding there.

Conditions at New Iberia remind Rachel Weiss, president of the Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group, of her mid-1990s experiences taking care of chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Ask Weiss why people should support the bill, and she tells the story of a chimp named Arctica, a veteran of vaccine and HIV research who had grown old and mean within Yerkes’ windowless confines, pacing about in her cage.
“She had steel gray hair,” says Weiss. “… She would grab you and try to scratch you through your gloves. She would spit in your face.”

Six years ago Weiss learned that the surviving chimpanzees from Arctica’s group had been released to Chimp Haven sanctuary in Louisiana. Weiss went to visit them, and there was Arctica, transformed: “She got up on the fence and she put her belly up to the fence. And she screamed, and she cried.… She was a whole different person.… She was dark. And she didn’t look mean anymore. She was happy.”

The Great Ape Protection Act would release hundreds more chimpanzees to finally enjoy a decent life. Show your support for the Great Ape Protection Act.
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Have you ever heard of the Bili Ape?

2011-03-04T06:58:00.004-09:00

Bili Ape, also Bondo Mystery Ape, is the name given to a large primate that inhabits Bili Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[1]

A juvenile Bili ape in the Gangu Forest (photo by Cleve Hicks).

"The apes nest on the ground like gorillas but have a diet and features characteristic of chimpanzees," according to a National Geographic report.[2] While preliminary genetic testing with non-nuclear DNA indicate a close relationship with the Eastern Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii subspecies of the Common Chimpanzee,[3][4] a range of behaviors that are more closely related to those of gorillas have greatly intrigued primatologists from around the globe. The mixture of traits has led to questions of taxonomic classification
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March 26 - 29, 2001 -- Listen to Morning Edition, March 26, 2001, for the latest National Geographic Radio Expeditions based on NPR’s Alex Chadwick's visit to Central Congo and the search for the Bili ape.
Researchers have long wondered about a large primate skull found a century ago in the northern Congo. Gorillas have never been reported in this region. But there are stories of very large apes -- and recent evidence suggests that something unknown may be there.

Intrigued by the possible existence of a new species of ape -- news that would rock the world of science -- some of the most renowned ape researchers in the world agreed to undertake an expedition to the Bili forest.

The area falls within the highly unstable Democratic republic of Congo, the former Zaire. Two rebel armies are fighting the central government in Kinshasa, and only a week before the expedition was scheduled to begin in January, Congo leader Laurent Kabila was assassinated. The Bili forest research site is hundreds of miles behind rebel lines; there is little civil authority; roads and communications are poor; there is no medical care. No scientists are known to have explored the area.

Day One - Listen as Radio Expeditions begins the search for the Bili Ape at a dirt airstrip in Arua, Uganda, where a small plane is refueling before flying on to the Congo. On board are two scientists -- Dr. Richard Wrangham of Harvard University and the Leakey Foundation, and Dr. Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Wrangham and Boesch explain both their interest in and skepticism about the puzzling reports from Bili. The two scientists are skilled explorers with many years experience studying and following chimpanzees in the wild. They will need those skills in the days ahead, when they will camp in the forest with the Radio Expeditions team, trying to locate the elusive Bili Ape.

Day Two -- On a rutted road through the Congo forest, Radio Expeditions stops with the researchers to ask local villagers about the Bili apes. They say they know about a large ape, but pictures of gorillas don’t look familiar to them. It's a clue that perhaps the animal we’re looking for is either a large chimpanzee or possibly a new species. Listen as NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to expedition leader Karl Amman about some of the evidence that’s lured the biologists here -- including a plaster cast made near here a few weeks ago of a very large ape footprint. These are the forests of old Africa and there are things in them that are still unknown.

Day Three -- Listen as Alex follows two other scientists into the forest -- Esteban Sarmiento of the American Museum of Natural History and George Schaller of the Wildlife Conservation Society. In a day of exploring, we find a nest that may suggest the presence of gorillas, but other evidence that leans toward chimps. We also find lion tracks, ape feeding sites, and a forest of sights and sounds that are thrilling even without a mysterious ape.

Day Four -- Listen as Alex joins Christophe Boesch on an early morning trek to a distant forest site to try to find chimps. Boesch explains his technique for locating the animals and the very real crisis that confronts apes in the wild everywhere: Their homeland is being turned into farm tracts and they are being hunted for food. Ape numbers are in sharp decline, and scientists are trying to find new populations that can be protected.

Richard Wrangham introduces us to an investigative technique that is -- challenging. We wash ape feces to learn what the animals eat. Wrangham is able to conclude that the Bili ape is not a gorilla, but rather a chimp. Karl Amman plans to keep trackers in the forest to continue looking for the elusive animals that he still believes may be a new chimp. But the other scientists agree with Wrangham that the Bili ape is in all likelihood a chimpanzee. Says Christophe Boesch, that is enough. For us, the chimp is still a mystery.
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Until very recently the possibility of an unknown form of great ape existing in some remote region of darkest Africa, yet still eluding scientific recognition, seemed ludicrous — but not any more. Thanks to some extraordinary discoveries, this remarkable prospect may soon be formally confirmed. Indeed, in stark (but also much-welcomed) contrast to the all-too-familiar cryptozoological scenario whereby reports of a mysterious creature are followed by searches that singularly fail to obtain tangible proof of its existence, the evidence collected in support of the Bali ape's reality is so plentiful and diverse as to be positively embarrassing — bearing in mind that its identity has still not been resolved.

This curious saga began over a century ago, when, in 1898, a Belgian army officer returned home from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo with some gorilla skulls he had obtained near the village of Bili, on the Uele River in northern Congo's Bondo area — even though no other gorillas had been found within hundreds of miles of Bili before (or since). He donated them to Belgium's Congo Museum in Tervueren, where in due course they were examined by its curator, Henri Schouteden. He was sufficiently struck by their anatomical differences from other gorilla skulls as well as by their unique provenance (roughly halfway between the extreme edges of the western and eastern distribution of any gorilla populations) to classify them as a new subspecies of gorilla, which he dubbed Gorilla gorilla uellensis.

The video footage appears to show a female "mystery ape" with a baby.Less convinced of their separate taxonomic status was mammalogist Dr Colin Groves, whose examination of these skulls in 1970 led him to announce that they were indistinguishable from western lowland gorillas. Thereafter, the Bili ape sank back into obscurity — until 1996, when Kenyan-based conservationist and wildlife photographer Karl Ammann, intrigued by its strange history and apparent disappearance, set out on the first of several Congolese quests to rediscover this mysterious primate.

And rediscover it he did, bringing back such compelling evidence for its presence that several other notable investigators launched their own searches, and returned with equally fascinating clues concerning the Bili ape's nature. Such researchers included primatologist Dr Shelly Williams from Maryland's Jane Goodall Institute, Dr Richard Wrangham from the Leakey Foundation, Dr Christophe Boesch frem Leipzig's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Dr Esteban Sarmiento from New York's American Museum of Natural History and Dr George Schaller from New York's Wildlife Conservation Society.

Large and elaborate ground nests located in riverbeds are only found north of the Uele River.What makes their various finds so especially interesting is the ambivalent identity that they collectively yield for the Bili ape — because, uniquely, it deftly yet bemusingly combines characteristics of gorillas with those of chimpanzees, creating a shadowy anthropoid that is at once both yet neither. For instance: if the Bili ape is a chimpanzee, it is a veritable giant, because videos of living specimens and photographs of dead ones suggest a height of 5-6ft (1.5-1.8m) — a mighty stature supported by the discovery of enormous footprints, some measuring almost l4in (36cm) long, and therefore nearly 2in (5cm) longer even than those of the mountain gorilla! Also, very large ground nests constructed by Bili apes have been found that compare with those created by gorillas; normal chimps build smaller, tree-borne nests. Further evidence of the Bili ape's great size comes from local Bondo hunters, who distinguish two distinct apes — 'tree-beaters' (normal chimps) and 'lion-killers' (the Bili apes). The latter earn their name from their combined size and ferocity, a mix potent enough to ensure their terrestrial safety even in a jungle profusely populated by lions and leopards. Indeed, so unafraid of these great cats are the Bili apes that they hoot loudly when the moon rises and sets — an activity unknown among normal, smaller chimps, which avoid doing so in case they attract predators.

Equally noteworthy is the presence of a pronounced sagittal crest running along the top of one of the original skulls collected by the Belgian army officer and also on a Bili ape skull found by Ammann in 1996 — because this crest, normally an indication of powerful jaws as the jaw muscles are attached to it, is characteristic of gorillas, not of chimps. Conversely, the facial anatomy of the Bili skulls is decidedly chimp-like, not gorilla-like. In addition, hair samples taken from Bili ape ground nests have been shown to contain mitochondrial DNA similar to that of chimps, and the fruit-rich contents of examined faecal droppings is again consistent with a chimp identity although, perplexingly, the droppings themselves outwardly resemble those of gorillas.

Karl Ammann found this crested skull during his initial survey in 1996. The sagittal crest is not normally seen in chimpanzees but is characteristic of the male gorilla.So what is the Bili ape — a gorilla-sized chimp (freak population?/new subspecies?/new species?), an aberrant form of gorilla (freak population?/new subspecies?/new species?) that has evolved certain chimp-like anatomical and behavioural characteristics, or even possibly a genuine chimpanzee-gorilla hybrid? No confirmed crossbreed of chimp and gorilla has ever been recorded, but the two species are sufficiently similar genetically to engender viable offspring. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down exclusively from the maternal parent, so if such interspecific matings are indeed occurring, they must involve female chimps and male gorillas, to explain why the mitochondrial DNA from the Bili ape samples is chimp-like.

Happily, however the mystery of the Bili ape's identity may soon be a mystery no longer. Since autumn 2003, full DNA analyses, including nuclear DNA (that will shed light on both the maternal and the paternal lineages of the Bili ape), have been taking place at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, under the auspices of conservation geneticist Dr Ed Louis, and involving DNA comparisons with gorillas, chimps, and also bonobos (pygmy chimps). Ultimately, however a body, or at least some tissue and blood samples, will be needed for absolute verification of the Bili ape's true nature. Until then, the primate world waits, and wonders, and the Bili ape continues to haunt the Congo's Bondo rainforests, cheerfully oblivious to the stunning fact that it may yet be unmasked as the most sensational zoological discovery of the past hundred years. Not so silly in Bili after all.

From: Fortean Times [FT187], September 2004.
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Shelly Williams, 49, the world-renowned primatologist credited with gathering convincing evidence of a new species of great apes, a cryptid primate known to cryptozoologists as the Bili or Bondo ape, was shot in the back around 2:30 pm, on November 7, 2005. She apparently was the innocent victim of an unrelated drug shooting in Smyrna, Georgia.

Williams remained in critical condition in intensive care at Atlanta Medical Center. The bullet, which passed through her spinal cord, grazed the nerve before glancing off her liver and lodging in her diaphragm.

While police have some leads, no arrests had been made.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that "Williams is credited as the first scientist to identify a previously unknown group of large apes in the jungles of Central Africa. The animals, with characteristics of both gorillas and chimpanzees, were sighted by Williams in 2002 in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo."

A report about Williams’ discovery of the mysterious cryptids published in 2004 in the British magazine New Scientist said that if the apes are confirmed to be a new species of primate, it could be "one of the most important wildlife discoveries in decades." Her discovery was reported as one of the top stories in cryptozoology for 2004.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution summarized, in their long article on the shooting, Shelly Williams’s work on the Bili ape:

Williams captured the previously unknown apes on video during a visit to the Congo in 2002. She described her encounter with them in the New Scientist article.

"Four suddenly came rushing out of the bush towards me," she told the magazine. "If this had been a bluff charge, they would have been screaming to intimidate us. These guys were quiet. And they were huge. They were coming in for the kill. I was directly in front of them, and as soon as they saw my face, they stopped and disappeared."

In a January article in Time magazine, Williams defended her discovery against scientific critics who have discounted her methods.

"The unique characteristics they exhibit just don’t fit into the other groups of great apes," she told Time. The primates could be a new species, a new subspecies of chimpanzee or a hybrid of chimpanzee and gorilla, she said. "At the very least, we have a unique, isolated chimp culture that’s unlike any that’s been studied," she said.
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Baby Lion Tamarin Monkey born at the Santa Barbara Zoo

2011-03-04T05:56:00.000-09:00

A bright orange golden lion tamarin has been born at the Santa Barbara Zoo. This is the second viable birth at the Zoo of this small endangered species of monkey from the Brazilian rainforests (called “GLTs” by keepers).

Adult GLTs weigh about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds and are roughly ten inches tall, with tails up to 15 inches long. The infant is currently about the size of a C-battery and spends most of its time clinging to its mother’s back. It appears to be in good health and will be examined by the Zoo veterinarian when it is old enough, to determine its sex, weight and other medical details. The Zoo has exhibited GLTs since 1983.

This is the second birth for a new female GLT, who arrived last year from the Potowatami Zoo (Indiana), and the Zoo’s resident male. A male offspring was born in June 2010. The golden lion tamarin family are on view in their exhibit near the Train Station. They have free access to their inside, off-exhibit area and may not be visible at all times.

“We are thrilled to be able to contribute to growing the captive population of GLTs,” said Sheri Horiszny, Director of Animal Programs. “This also gives last year’s offspring a chance to learn how to care for a newborn, which helps prepare him for future offspring of his own.”

About Golden Lion Tamarins
Golden lion tamarins were first described to the European world by the Jesuit Pigefetta, chronicler of Magellan’s voyage who described them as “beautiful simian-like cats similar to a small lion.” But they aren’t lions – they are small monkeys.

GLTs have silky, golden coats and manes around a dark face, giving the lion-like impression. They live in the forest canopy, above the forest floor, in the lowland forests of southeastern Brazil. They face huge challenges in the wild as more than 99 percent of their forest habitat has been cut down for lumber, agriculture and housing.

Adults are monogamous and share in the care of their young. Upon birth, the young climb atop their mother’s backs, leaving only to nurse. An infant does not have to leave its mothers back to nurse – her teats are almost under her arm pit, so they just slide under her arm. Both parents are involved in raising the young, who are weaned at approximately 12 weeks.
GLTs are among the most endangered mammals on earth. Deforestation and habitat loss have relegated the golden lion tamarin to a small region in eastern Brazil. In fact, almost all golden lion tamarins found in U.S. zoos, including those at the Santa Barbara Zoo, are actually considered to be on loan from the Brazilian government.

Golden lion tamarins are part of a Species Survival Plan (SSP) organized by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums in which accredited member zoos and institutions collaborate to manage the population of endangered species.

In addition, golden lion tamarins were one of the first species that zoos were able to successfully reintroduce to the wild. Captive breeding by zoos was integral to the success of the reintroduction effort. Though the Santa Barbara Zoo’s infant GLT isn’t identified to go to the wild, “this birth brings attention to their story in the wild,” adds Horiszny.
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Fayette Progressive Preschool has adopted an Acre of Rain Forest to help the Orangutans

2011-03-03T11:34:00.001-09:00

What a great idea, this not only gives the children awareness of what is happening to our Great Apes, but gives them the chance to help, get involved and watch the progress. Good for the teachers at the Fayette Progressive Preschool. A special thanks goes out to the teachers, students and parents that participated. What a great idea which other schools can also do.
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The process of educating Fayette Progressive preschool students about the importance of rain forests has been anything but boring.
Preschool teacher Erin Elliott and her teacher's assistant Kristen Whitmer, are using unique and creative methods to teach the students about some of Earth's greatest biological treasures and their true value. The morning and afternoon classes started by decorating the classroom in their best attempt at recreating the look of a rain forest.

"We had the kids do something called the rain forest walk where they walked up and down the hallway...and the parents would pledge a small amount of money for how many laps they would do," said Whitmer. "Per lap, they would pledge about 10 cents or a dollar...something like that."
As is stands currently, the pledges total approximately $550 and those funds are to the Adopt an Acre of Rain Forest program, which goes to small conservation groups in tropical countries that work to stop rain forest destruction. Donations support the purchase and sustainable management of rain forests.
Each class not only adopted one acre of rain forest in El Salvador, but each class adopted an orangutan as well. The students named one of the orangutans "Lear" and the other "Mr. Bernie." Trees for each class were also adopted through the program.
The kids were able to choose the acres of rain forest, trees and orangutans they adopted.
"They'll send us pictures and information to keep track of the growth of the orangutans," said Whitmer. "Some of them are just babies. At first the kids thought we were actually getting an orangutan at the school, but we had to explain that they're still going to be in the rain forest. We're just helping feed them and things like that. But the kids are very excited."

Not only are the kids excited by the project but they have been extremely eager to learn more about rain forests. The preschoolers are particularly interested in the animals that live in the rain forest, such as the snakes and jaguars.
"I'm beyond impressed by the response to this activity," said Elliott. "I was not expecting this type of donation to the walk either. The response was so much more than we expected. It's been great for the students and they're really understanding it very well for preschoolers."

Teresa Borden, the early childhood director, agreed.
"I'm very proud of the kids for their dedication to this activity and their understanding of it," said Borden. "And the staff continues to amaze me with their creativity. They truly believe that these little guys can learn just about anything and that's just awesome."

Fayette Progressive School serves infant/toddler and preschool children who are at risk environmentally and developmentally.
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