Scoop on Primates

As we had indicated earlier in this blog, 2009 is the Year of the Gorilla. On January 15, humans dressed in gorilla costumes performed a dance on ice at the Natural History Museum of London.  This was part of the UNEP launch of the Year of the Gorilla. This year will be marked by a number of initiatives to educate and raise awareness on the plight of one of our closest relatives.  More research will also be done in Cameroon and Nigeria to improve community-based conservation efforts aimed at protecting the Cross River Gorilla. Check out this UNEP link to read more about the Projects to Save Africa's Rarest Ape and see pictures of the skating gorillas .

Is medical testing on primates ethical? This is a hard question but to me the answer is unequivocal and resounding.  NO. There are currently alternatives that are viable, faster, more accurate and do not cause suffering of living beings - stem cell testing. I have been reading a lot about the plight of many primates and chimps in particular have had to suffer incommensurably for the sake of medical testing.  Sometimes for good, sometimes in vain. Chimps share 99% of their DNA with human primates, this is why they are perfect test subjects, yet we, humans, are able to turn a blind eye and conveniently deny this fact when it comes to the rights these creatures should be granted naturally. I heartily support the Great Apes Project and I sincerely believe primates should be given basic rights.   I strongly encourage you to check out the " Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History " documentary on PBS.

Paying for physical reward with a member of the opposite gender is a practice documented since times immemorial.  Many poems and mosaics well illustrate the fact in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. We are now finding out that this practice is not specific to human primates only.   Longtailed macaques do exactly that , as reported by Michael Gumert, a Psychology researcher at Hiram College, OH, in the results of his 20 months study of macaques in Indonesia.