Critter News

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Europe banned the use of great apes in animal testing Wednesday as part of drastically tightened rules to scale back the number of animals used in scientific research. Under the new legislations, experiments on great apes such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans are to be banned and "strict" restrictions set on the use of primates in general. Tags: chimpanzees europe animal research apes primates Some may disagree, but I think this is a huge victory.

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Apes Animal Research 2010 Research 131

Critter News

NOVEMBER 10, 2008

Their is a proposal to ban testing on apes in the EU. But some animal welfare groups and researchers accused the European Union of masking weak regulation with empty gestures, as no great apes have been used in EU research for six years. Tags: europe apes Is this a solution to a problem that doesn't exist?

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Apes 2008 Gorillas Legislation 100

Critter News

MARCH 7, 2009

End the use of chimpanzees in animal experiments. It's unconscionable.

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Apes Protection 2009 Experience 100

Critter News

JUNE 4, 2009

Here are the results of the EU flirtation with restricting research on primates. It's from a Reuters article from last May.I will try not to smash my computer screen in frustration. Researchers can continue most experiments on mankind's closest relatives -- chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans -- after European Union lawmakers watered down proposals to restrict testing.

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Medical Research Apes Medical Research 100

Critter News

OCTOBER 30, 2009

She's the new Director of Public Affairs and she's already started lobbying for the Great Ape Protection Act, which would phase out invasive medical research on chimpanzees. Tags: chimpanzees activism apes medical research us For you international readers, she's Dennis Kucinich's wife. He's a US Congressman who has run for President twice.).

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2009 Apes Protection Medical Research 100

Critter News

JULY 24, 2009

Bushmeat is horrific, especially the trade in apes. To me, eating apes of any kind is akin to human cannibalism. The Last Great Ape Organization in Cameroon is only one of them, but it's the only law enforcement nongovernmental organization in Africa. At least there are activists in African countries themselves that are working to stop this practice.

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Gorillas Apes 2009 Laws 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2014

Trips apes Birding Borneo When I was a small kid I lived in Southern California, and my parents used to take me to Disneyland, the Happiest Place on Earth(TM). Back in the halcyon days, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth (at least in my mind) and a nickel was still a lot of money, my favourite ride was the river safari one, where you could pretend to be an explorer in a river boat going past animatronic safari animals.

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2014 Rhinoceros Elephants Monkeys 65

Animal Person

APRIL 1, 2010

Today's nonhuman apes don't represent earlier stages in human development. Our common-ape like ancestor lived about 15 million years ago. Citing abilities such as nonhuman great apes' ability to learn human languages suggest that animal rights advocates seek nonhuman participation in human society. I understand the logic of that last one, but I also appreciate the intention of many activists to have great apes be a gateway of sorts.

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Speciesism 2010 Apes Advocacy 101

Critter News

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

Deng Deng National Park extends 580 square kilometres (224 square miles), an area about the size of Chicago, and will help conserve some 600 western lowland gorillas, one of four sub- species of the great ape, said the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which helped in the park’s creation. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it provides effective protection.

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Cameroon Gorillas 2009 Apes 100

Critter News

APRIL 27, 2010

I believe that great apes do have that capacity. A couple of studies imply that chimpanzees may mourn their dead. I believe they do. I've read of the mountain gorillas in Virunga grieving over the loss of a silverback. Heck, even my cats visibly missed old Charlotte who died last August. If you jump to the comments at the bottom, people took issue with the implication at the end of the article that Jane Goodall would somehow question this grieving behavior.

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2010 Charlotte Apes Gorillas 100

4 The Love Of Animals

APRIL 16, 2012

Current trends indicate that African ape populations will decline by an additional 80% in the next 30 to 40 years. This week we will be sharing fun facts and other fun things to help get you excited to see the new Disneynature movie, Chimpanzee! You can help save real chimpanzees by seeing Chimpanzee during its opening weekend starting this Friday, April 20 (EARTH DAY!). Will you pledge to see the movie during opening weekend? Let us know in the comments!

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Apes 2012 illegal Africa 100

4 The Love Of Animals

MARCH 10, 2018

Many believe they are just as smart as dolphins and apes. Many people don’t realize just how amazingly smart crows are. This infographic from Capital Garden Services looks at just how smart and it makes for a really interesting read. wildlife

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2018 Apes Dolphins Wildlife 100

Animal Ethics

APRIL 19, 2016

Elephants, great apes, orcas, dogs, cats, and many other animals can experience depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and compulsive disorders. "There is no longer dispute among serious scientists that humans aren’t the only animals who have the capacity to suffer physically and mentally.

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2016 Apes Psychology Suffering 48

Critter News

JANUARY 27, 2009

There are only an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 90 percent of them in Indonesia, said Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa. The demand for palm oil in the US and Europe, is threatening to wipe out orangutans in Indonesia. The demand for palm oil is rising in the U.S. and Europe because it is touted as a "clean" alternative to fuel. Indonesia is the world's top producer of palm oil, and prices have jumped by almost 70 percent in the last year.

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Indonesia 2009 Apes Iowa 100

Animal Ethics

AUGUST 17, 2007

To the Editor: Re “An Ape Types in Iowa” (column, Aug. 9): Gail Collins writes: “Human-ape conversation was a very hot topic back in the late 1960s, when researchers first taught a chimpanzee named Washoe to use sign language. It lost steam once it became clear that while the apes could put together simple statements and requests, they were not prepared to have discussions about their deepest feelings, hopes and dreams.

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New York Times 2007 Apes New York 40

Critter News

MARCH 29, 2009

Hicks, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), describes the plight of the apes and other forest creatures in a new e-book to be released this week. Two of my favorite issues are chimpanzees threatened in labs and mountain gorillas threatened in the Congo. Let's combine the two and look at chimpanzees threatened in the Congo. Because they are in serious trouble there too. Warning: Heartbreaking pictures in this link.)

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Congo 2009 Apes Gorillas 100

Critter News

FEBRUARY 21, 2009

The bizarre incident in April 2001 began when the trio of apes broke out of Mike and Connie Casey's compound, the Missouri Primate Foundation. There has been so much said about Travis the chimp this week. It's 1) a gory story with 2) the bizarre tie-in to the New York Post's inexplicable use of Travis' image in a cartoon about the stimulus package. What were they thinking?) That image was wrong on so many levels. But let's stick to the animal rights issue.

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2009 Apes Missouri Connecticut 100

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 1, 2010

However, further research on animals such as whales and dolphins, although seemingly not in respect to monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, may yet reveal that man is not the only animal capable of being a bearer of rights. As regards animals, the position is clear. If an animal has the relevant moral capacities, actually or potentially, then it can be a possessor of rights.

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Animal Rights 2010 Morals Rights 62

4 The Love Of Animals

JULY 18, 2011

Another way you can help right now (if you are American) is by writing your congressman in support of the Great Ape Protection Act, which not only will save chimpanzees from life in laboratories, but will also save millions of tax payer dollars! Sometimes a book just grabs and pulls you in, and The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery is one of those books! From the moment I started reading to the very end, I could hardly put the book down.

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Sanctuary 2011 Apes Farming 109

Animal Ethics

JULY 22, 2008

The Unalienable Rights of Chimps ,” by Adam Cohen (Editorial Observer, July 14): The Spanish Parliament’s decision to grant rights to apes is indeed groundbreaking, and will foster philosophical discussion about animal protection for some time. A bill now in Congress—the Great Ape Protection Act —provides many of the protections for chimps the Spanish resolution does, but without engaging (or attempting to resolve) the controversial and polarizing issue of granting legal rights to animals.

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New York Times New York 2008 Apes 40

Animal Person

JANUARY 6, 2010

The way I see it, there are three camps on this one: People who think that dolphins or Great Apes or chimps could function as a gateway to other animals getting rights. My life-as-a-tweeter is less and less significant these days. It's just not all that interesting to me. Something about jockeying for position in 140 characters or less, rather than interacting and sharing, I guess.

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2010 Dolphins Animal Rights Rights 100

Animal Person

MARCH 23, 2009

Also at Parade , which reader morganna alerted me to, is " Should Apes Be Allowed as Pets? So many things to say today. First, check out " The Vegan Solution: An Ideal Whose Time Has Come " over at Care2. And what do you think about the word "ideal"? But more important, commenter Daniel Manahan could use some gentle education.

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2009 Elephants Bullhook Vegan 100

Critter News

JUNE 16, 2010

I do not claim to have the answer, but I think it is certainly worthwhile to raise the question: Why, exactly, all over the civilized world, in virtually every major city, are apes in prison? I particularly question the use of chimpanzees in medical research. From what I recall, chimpanzees share at least 95 percent of human DNA, although the number that floats around the most is 98.6 percent. The following is from The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan.

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2010 Animal Apes Medical Research 109

4 The Love Of Animals

AUGUST 10, 2012

Production designer Rick Heinrichs enjoys a long-standing professional relationship with director/producer Tim Burton, having worked in various capacities on many of Burton’s films, including “Sleepy Hollow,” for which he won an Academy Award®; short films “Vincent” and the live-action “Frankenweenie”; feature films “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” “Beetlejuice,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman Returns,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Planet of the Apes.”

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2012 Apes Animal California 148

4 The Love Of Animals

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

Hare suspects that the evolutionary pressures that turned suspicious wolves into outgoing dogs were similar to the ones that turned combative apes into cooperative humans. That’s a skill that seems to be limited to great apes and humans. Our ape cousins are simply too distracted by their aggression and competitiveness to fathom gestures easily. The Secrets Inside Your Dog’s Mind. By Carl Zimmer { source }.

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2009 Dogs Wolves Fox 148

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

So, for example, humans are apes. If we assume (probably incorrectly) that of apes and monkeys, they all descended from a monkey like ancestor, than apes are monkeys. and contains apes is referenced to indicate the complete clade. There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke.

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2014 Camels Whales Whaling 77

Animal Ethics

MARCH 27, 2009

Then Dr. Kellogg would offer a banana, which the ape munched with evident enjoyment. For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. ARGUMENTS FOR MORAL VEGETARIANISM A variety of arguments have been given for vegetarianism. Sometimes they take such a sketchy form that it is not completely clear they are moral arguments.

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Morals Vegetarian Monkeys 2009 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 20, 2007

But this means that the apes appeal to animal-rights activists for precisely the wrong reason—namely, that they look like people and behave like people, while making no moral demands. The apes are re-made as versions of ourselves, purged of the guilt that comes from the attempt to lead the life to which we, as moral beings, are condemned: the life of judgment.

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2007 Morals Apes Animal 40

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 15, 2013

In human evolution, teeth did a two step from typical ape-sized teeth to mega-teeth to teeth small for an ape. Birds may have evolved from an ancestor with four wings. This is an idea that has been around for more than a century, to which recent research has given considerable support. A recent analysis of 11 fossil birds suggests that feathers found on their legs had features similar to primary wing feathers that would be used in flight.

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2013 Apes Humane Mammals 78

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2013

It’s not like it’s hard to flip through books of old bird illustrations and find things we can’t quite account for , but these just don’t generate the press that a hairy ape-monster would. I’m currently reading Roger Real Drouin’s No Other Way for a future review on this site.

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2013 Apes Primates Whales 59

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2014

At some point perhaps I’ll write up for you how the evolution of humans, specifically the ape-human split, and Galapagos bird evolution are the same thing in this regard. I’ve been down with an odd illness for a few weeks, and then I flew to Mexico and back (boy, are my arms tired!) so I’m a bit behind in my intense pursuit of scientific findings related to birds. But I do have a few items. First, the bird butts.

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2014 Philippines Apes Bald Eagle 73

Animal Ethics

APRIL 23, 2008

Nonhuman animals (even apes) are in category 3. All so-called duties to oneself, in so far as they deserve the name of duties, are indirect, and as such presuppose duties to other persons. With this finding we are safeguarded against the error of fallaciously extending the scope of our duties. But an opposite error is possible, that of fallaciously restricting the scope of our duties.

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2008 Morals Rights Apes 40

10,000 Birds

JUNE 27, 2018

Better to call me an ape’s uncle. Let us begin by establishing the following facts as true: – I am not a monkey’s uncle, yet, in a certain way, I am. – Birds are indeed dinosaurs, yet, are indubitably not. Knowledge is knowing that a bird is a dinosaur. Wisdom is not charging people extra to see your reconstituted Jurassic Park style dinosaur zoo when all you’ve got is a barn full of chickens. Humans have always classified organisms in a variety of ways, depending on need.

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2018 Monkeys Gorillas Lemurs 63

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2014

He introduces ideas and slowly builds on them, staring with the outbreak of Hendra in people and horses in Queensland before moving the story to his own experiences of great ape die-off when he was covering Michael Fay’s Megatransect in the Congo Basin. It’s six weeks to the day till I go to Africa, and of late conversations about the subject have taken a reliable and predictable detour. “Aren’t I worried about Ebola?”

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2014 Ukraine Humane Apes 61

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2015

That means crows join humans, apes and monkeys in exhibiting advanced relational thinking, according to the research. I was going to have something for you this month about the dinosaur-bird thing, but I never got to it. The gallery at Analiese Miller’s site with her Sax Zim shots. Then, I was hoping to write a post about Sax-Zim — do you know what that is?

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Science 2015 Iraq Charlotte 55

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous. Today is International Vulture Awareness Day ! Rather than go into great detail about a variety of vultures as we have in the past, I tracked down five great quotes about Turkey Vultures , or, at least, five quotes that are either about Turkey Vultures or generically about vultures.

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Turkey 2011 Apes Wolves 74

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 16, 2017

Then we stared some more at the bird that seemed in no rush to go anywhere and at least mildly curious in the gibbering apes beneath it. Way back in January Mike and I made a quick trip to Puerto Rico with the hope of cleaning up on all of the endemic species on the island.

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Parrots 2017 Apes Puerto Rico 42

10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2013

Their scientific name is Theropithecus gelada, the former word meaning “beast-ape” in Greek. Geladas are the sole survivors of a once abundant branch of primates that historically foraged across the grasslands of Africa, the Mediterranean and India. These relics of times gone by now cling to a precarious existence on the sheer cliffs of Ethiopia’s mountains, from which each morning they materialize, to forage on nearby moorlands, before disappearing down the precipices in the evening.

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Ethiopia 2013 Primates Fur 59

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2012

This pointy-headed idea came from three places, and all three were in part reactions to the prevailing “Man the Hunter” (or “Killer Ape”) popularizations of human evolution (we also discussed those fallacies for the show). Yes, these things are all connected. Last weekend, Desiree Schell and I taped a segment of “Everything You Know Is (Sort of) Wrong” ( apologies ) for Skeptically Speaking , a radio talk show and podcast that Desiree hosts.

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Humane 2012 Lions Buffalo 57

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2011

Among apes, many are probably larger than their ancestors (gorillas are blown-up versions of a chimp-like ancestor) but some are not (gibbons are probably smaller than their common ancestor with chimps). Imagine you study history. You and your colleagues are experts on the history of France, Poland, Spain, all those European countries.

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2011 Poland Mammals Apes 84