Scoop on Primates

An article published this week in the Birmingham Examiner and based on research conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology indicates that the latest census show a 90% decrease in the wild chimpanzee population in Ivory Coast. The reasons are deforestation, the growth in human population, poaching and civil war. The surviving population is mainly located in protected areas, such as the Tai National Park, which will lose external financial support in 2010. Read the article in the Birmingham Examiner . For more info, visit the site of the  Planck Institute . Visit this link for information on Ivory Coast and Tai National Park .

Is Religion opposed to evolution? As far as Buddhism is concerned, there is no opposition.  As indicated by the Dalai Lama in his new book "The Universe in a Single Atom", if a buddhist concept goes against scientific proof, then science must be accepted.  For more info, check out this review from the New York Times . In the speech he gave at Harvard University in 1993, Daisaku Ikeda , another Buddhist scholar, said: " Buddhism provides a philosophical basis for the symbiotic coexistence of all things.  Among the many images in the Lotus Sutra, a particularly compelling one is the merciful rain that falls everywhere, equally, moistening the vast expanse of the earth and bringing forth new life from all the trees and grasses, large and small.  This scene, depicted with the vividness, grandeur, and beauty characteristic of the Lotus Sutra, symbolizes the enlightenment of all people touched by the Buddha's Law.  At the same time, it is a magnificent tribute to the rich...

We're familiar with male bonding in human society.  Chums bumping chests at a football game, buddies hanging out around the barbecue, talking about cars, work and girls.  Guys going hunting together, sharing a beer, doing business together. Rarely do we think of male bonding as a non-human primate activity.  Yet, it is a phenomenon that has been documented among chimpanzees and is being talked about. We now know that chimps remain friends for a long time .

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.

Just a few weeks ago, monkey carcasses were found in the luggage of a man who went through Customs at Dulles airport.  Bushmeat is illegal in the US, so the meat was confiscated and the man was let go.  According to The Bushmeat Project website , "People pay a premium to eat more great apes each year than are now kept in all the zoos and laboratories of the world.  If the slaughter continues at its current pace, the remaining wild apes in Africa will be gone within the next fifteen to fifty years.  With them will vanish most of the equatorial rain forest, and the cultures of indigenous people who have lived there for millennia." Some would argue that bushmeat is a necessary evil to feed starving human populations, yet the reality is that bushmeat is a health hazzard to those who consume it. Many diseases can be transmitted cross-species.  Non-human primates (apes and monkeys) are susceptible to many of the same diseases humans are. Hunting, butchering and eating bushmeat pla...