Scoop on Primates

I am very sad to write this post.  The Wildlife Waystation - a unique organization I am grateful to be volunteering at is in urgent need of financial support. For over thirty years, the Wildlife Waystation has rehabilitated wild animals, educated adults and children alike about wildlife, wild and exotic animals and has provided a shelter for exotic animals who would not otherwise be alive.  It is the home of many varied species, lions, tigers, bears, wolves, primates, but also pigs, lamas, exotic birds and many more. I urge anyone reading this post to please, forward this information to your friends and families, visit the Wildlife Waystation website, visit the Wildlife Waystation Official Fan Page on Facebook and if you can, make a donation today . Thank You in advance.  Anything you can do, will be appreciated and tremendous help for this worthy non-profit. onlinecourses.net

In my last post I talked about primates making art.  Today, I want to talk about primates featured in artwork and how different cultures perceived (and maybe still do) perceive primates. There is no shortage of paintings featuring primates and many come to mind. They tell us about our history.  The painting below by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) depicts Prince Edward of Wales with a monkey.  The monkey is not represented realistically.  It has a striped tail, similar to that of ring-tailed lemurs and ears we often see in mythical creatures found in Gothic art, possibly ears of a dragon.  It was customary for foreign dignitaries to offer exotic animals to European royalty, so it is possible that the prince possessed a monkey at one time. In his book "Henry VIII: the king, his six wives and his court", Nick Ford specifies that the monkey the prince is holding is a guenon "which signifies wealth and exotic taste". Kuntsmuseum collection, Basel, Swit...

In times when a word is stubbornly stuck on the tip of my tongue, or when I accidentally call my neighbor Steve when his name if Jack, I seriously wish I were a chimp! Especially since I found out that chimp brains do not age the same way as human brains do. According to a study published by Chet Sherwood of The George Washington University, humans are paying a price for evolution - i.e. brain shrinkage.  Sherwood and his team set about to determine whether chimps' brains also experience noticeable aging. Using MRI to measure various brain areas in groups of humans from age 22 to 88 and chimpanzees from age 10 to 51, the scientists discovered that chimpanzee brains age with much less degeneration than human brains do. Sherwood's conclusion is that "the high energy cost of a large brain in humans leads to more wear and tear that cannot be easily repaired because most neurons are not renewed", thereby making human brains more vulnerable to degenerative diseases such...

Listening to Susan Savage-Rumbaugh is inspiring.  She knows bonobos. She understands them and attempts to make the rest of us see what some refuse to see. The "forgotten ape" as Frans DeWaal like to call the bonobo, is not a pervert or  a beast.  It is a gentle, beautiful, intelligent creature, able to communicate and learn tasks by watching others.    An expert at resolving conflicts in a peaceful manner. Through her studies , Savage-Rumbaugh is demonstrating that the capabilities of a species are not solely determined by biology but mainly by exposure to other cultures. In this very inspiring  video you will see bonobos writing, starting a fire, playing pac-man, grooming their baby. Bonobos are an endangered species living in the Congo.  The estimated population of bonobos in situ is around 5,000.  It was estimated to about 10,000 in 1990.