Chimps

Thousands of years from now, when chimps have taken over the earth, they will tell legends about the prosthetic leg their ancestors witnessed, maybe they’ll even start a religion. I know we’ve already got another Planet of the Apes film on the way, but hear me out, because this video posted to TikTok looks like something from one of those films. Maybe we’re about to witness a Planet of the Apes remake IRL, but instead of shooting guns and riding horses they’ve become cyborg apes with prosthetic arms and legs — we could…

As It Happens6:18Chimps and bonobos remember friends and families' faces, even after decades apartWhen Laura Simone Lewis visited Kendall the chimpanzee for the first time in six months, she wasn't sure how he would react.She had been working with the chimp at the North Carolina Zoo in 2015 as part of her undergraduate research on primate cognition, and they'd developed a special bond.But, after visiting Kendall two to three times a week for about eight months, she left for a summer to study baboons in South Africa."I was…

A U.S. federal judge has ruled against the nation’s largest biomedical agency in a long-running battle over the fate of dozens of former research chimpanzees. On Tuesday, a Maryland court declared that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) violated federal law by not moving the animals out of biomedical facilities to a government sanctuary. The ruling could force the agency to transfer the great apes, though the details remain to be worked out. “We’re…

Whether it’s a college student playing a roommate their favorite song or a child showing their parent a dirty rock they found on the ground (“Not again!”), humans love sharing things we find fascinating just for the sake of it. The desire to sit your loved ones down and force them to watch your favorite movie has long been thought to be distinctly human— an inclination not shared by our primate relatives. Still, that might not keep an animal behavior researcher from wondering from time to time whether an activity…

Decades of patiently watching chimpanzees and gorillas in the wilds of Central Africa has revealed for the first time long-lasting, cooperative, social relationships can develop between the two species.Within the Goualougo Triangle – a conservation stronghold in the Republic of Congo – the two endangered animals often cross paths.While these interactions can occasionally turn aggressive, especially on the fringes of Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, more often than not, western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and…