Latest Primatologists Stories

Space Chimps, a new animated family film opening July 18 from Vanguard Animation and Starz Animation, about a trio of primates sent to deep space on a heroic mission, has a new assignment closer to home: rescue the chimps! Space Chimps is partnering with Animal Planet to raise money to help rescue and rehabilitate chimpanzees. Proceeds from the effort will benefit Chimp Eden, a South African sanctuary for rescued chimps. Chimp Eden, managed by Eugene Cussons, rescue director of the Jane...

By Kanner, Melinda Abstract: The author explores the popular construction of primatology through an examination of the films Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Instinct (1999). The primatologist's gender governs the manner of presentation in the films, irrespective of scientific, historical, or biographical realities. These cinematic constructions are discussed in terms of the larger context of gender, science, and primatology. Key words: film, gender, Gorillas in the Mist, Instinct,...

While hunting among chimpanzees is a group effort, key males, known as "impact hunters" are highly influential within the group. They are more likely to initiate a hunt, and hunts rarely occur in their absence, according to a new study. The findings, which appear in the current issue of Animal Behaviour, shed light on how and why some animals cooperate to hunt for food, and how individual variation among chimpanzees contributes to collective predation. The study was led by Ian Gilby, a...

During an upcoming episode of Britain's "˜Extraordinary Animals" program, viewers will be able to see an ape defeat 2004 World Memory Championship winner Ben Pridmore.Ayumu, a seven-year-old male chimp raised in captivity in Japan, did three times as well as Mr. Pridmore at a computer game which involved remembering the position of numbers on a screen.It's a significant accomplishment, considering Mr. Pridmore, a 30-year-old accountant, is capable of memorizing the order of a shuffled pack...

Chimps eat dirt. This has been known for years. And while chimp cuisine might look more gritty than gourmet to us, it turns out our closest animal relations have a good reason for feasting on soil: It improves their health. By studying samples of soil eaten by chimpanzees in Kibale National Park in Uganda, a research team led by Sabrina Krief of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris found that eating soil with their meals boosts the anti-malarial...

CHICAGO -- Jane Goodall, the world's best-known observer of chimpanzee behavior, watched the chimps at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo on Saturday while a crowd of zoo-goers gathered to watch her."She's very important," one woman told two 6-year-old girls she'd brought to the zoo. "She did a lot of very exciting things."Goodall, 72, is in Chicago for a three-day conference billed as the first scientific meeting on how chimpanzees think - not just how they behave. Goodall, who...

ATLANTA -- Primate expert Jane Goodall and 18 other researchers sent a letter to federal officials urging them to oppose an Atlanta research center's proposal to do AIDS-related research on sooty mangabey monkeys.The letter urges the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to reject a request by the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, according to a copy filed with the government.Scientists at the research center have nurtured a group of the primates, which are natural carriers of a form of the...

By Ed StoddardANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - If you have gorillas the tourists will come -- but it may take some time if your apes live in the remote east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, better known for anarchy and conflict than tourism."It is my dream (to have tourists come) because with tourism we'll have benefits and money coming in," Pierre Kakule Vwirasihikya told Reuters during a conservation conference in the Malagasy capital, where ecotourism is a key theme.Vwirasihikya, a...

KIGALI (Reuters) - Twelve baby gorillas were given names by Western officials on Saturday in a ceremony aimed at attracting more foreign tourists to the tiny central African nation. Dubbed "the land of a thousand hills," Rwanda is home to nearly 400 mountain gorillas, one of the world's most endangered species, which attracted over half of the country's 22,000 tourists in 2005. Tourism officials face an uphill battle to lure visitors to Rwanda, where around 800,000 people were...

KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan officials commemorated the life and the 20th anniversary of the death of famed primate researcher Dian Fossey with dances and speeches in the rural highlands where she studied the mountain gorillas she loved.Government officials and locals held traditional dances, gave speeches and laid wreaths at the site where Fossey, who was killed in mysterious circumstances in 1985, was buried.Fossey's work inspired the 1988 Hollywood film Gorillas in the Mist, starring...