Genius Chimp

Ape's Have Eyes Like Man's

Apes have eyes like man, that can distinguish color.

Evolution and Pop Bottles

Evolution, say anthropologists, changed feet that once grasped branches into organs that now grasp nothing but an occasional pop bottle for exercise.

Monkey Facepalms

Discover Magazine explains that this group of Mandrills has developed a face palm gesture that has spread through their entire group. They use it not to express disbelief at something on the internet, but to indicate that they wish to be left alone.

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The Astro-Chimps

Fresh from the jungle five chimps wait for vitamins before their astronaut training.

Life Magazine, 1961

Space Chimp Lives

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Baboons Discover New Type of Tangerine

South African farmer Alwyn van der Merwe said workers noticed several years ago that one of his tangerine trees was already stripped of fruit when the other trees were ready for picking. The same thing happened the next year and the next. A farmworker finally solved the mystery when he saw baboons picking the tree clean. This one tree was making ripe tangerines three to four weeks ahead of the others.

Van der Merwe said tests showed the fruit is sweeter and ripens faster. He produced more of the trees using grafts. His ALG Estates, a family citrus business north of Cape Town, will soon be exporting the tangerines, van der Merwe said.

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Owl Monkey Brain Scan

This image highlights the fibers in an owl monkey’s hippocampus, a brain structure that lies at the heart of our ability to learn and remember. The red and white fibers are entering the hippocampus. “There is clearly extraordinary three-dimensional structure to the connections of the hippocampus, which is presumably important in coding information,” says Wedeen. “Only in a few instances do we know what the organization of these fiber bundles is.”

Via Technology Review

Soviet Women Volunteer to Carry Half Ape Baby

New Scientist has an article on a forgotten Russian experiment to produce an ape/man mix.

In November, Ivanov returned to Guinea, captured his chimps and with considerable difficulty eventually inseminated three of them. By now, he had a second experiment in mind: to inseminate women with chimp sperm. Knowing that no local woman would agree, he planned to do this under the pretext of a medical examination, but the French governor forbade it.

None of the three chimps conceived. Disappointed, Ivanov headed home with 20 chimps to stock a new ape nursery in the subtropical Soviet republic of Abkhazia. He knew now that his best chance of creating his hybrid was to find Soviet women willing to carry half-ape babies in the interests of science. In the event, only four chimps made it to Abkhazia and so while the nursery set about acquiring more apes, Ivanov looked for volunteers.

At least five women volunteered. But although the nursery did get hold of an assortment of apes, they never flourished, and by the time Ivanov was ready to proceed the only adult male left was Tarzan, a 26-year-old orang-utan. Ivanov pressed on until fate dealt his project a fatal blow. Tarzan had a brain haemorrhage. "The orang has died, we are looking for a replacement," Ivanov cabled the woman he had lined up to receive Tarzan's sperm. More chimps arrived in 1930 - but Ivanov fell victim to the widespread purge of scientists and was exiled to Kazakhstan. He was released the next year but died soon after.

Read the entire article here.

Evolving Darwin Playset!

This intelligently designed play set will let you show your support for evolution.

Available here

Secret Gorilla Paradise Found

Now that we've found them, I can only hope we will leave them alone.

A first ever ape census in northern Congo found 73,000 of the gorillas in that country's Ntokou-Pikounda region and 52,000 more in the Ndoki-Likouala area.

The Ndoki population includes an obscure group of nearly 6,000 gorillas living in close quarters in isolated swamps near Lac Télé.

"We knew there were apes there, we just had no idea how many," said WCS's Emma Stokes, one of the lead researchers in the two-year project.

The gorillas have thrived thanks to their remoteness from human settlements, food-rich habitats, and two decades of conservation efforts in one of the world's poorest countries, Stokes said.