Fuck Yeah Great Apes

Photo of the Day: Shadows

Photographer caption: This female gorilla peered out at me from the protective veil of the impenetrable forest, ready to retreat to safety if need be.

Photo by Harry Skeggs (London, United Kingdom); Uganda

Jane Goodall On How Chimps Treat Their Women

“Female chimps are very definitely the subordinate species. the males dominate and male can actually force a female to follow him on what we call a ‘consort trip,’ and he can be quite brutal if she won’t follow. There’s a lot of chimp behaviors which we seem to have seem to have somehow brought with us in our long evolution pathway from the time we shared an ape-like, human-like common ancestor 6 million years ago.”

Read the rest of our interview with Jane Goodall here

Tomorrow is ‪#‎GreatApesGivingDay‬ Please consider helping the Fauna chimpanzees during this wonderful event! http://arcus.link/fs

British anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall shows Dr. M. Sanjayan how similar our body language is to a chimpanzee.

See more with Dr. Jane Goodall on EARTH A New Wild.

Photo of the Day: Safe in Mother’s Arms

In what may be a first, an appeals court in Argentina has recognized a nonhuman as having basic legal rights. A Buenos Aires judge ruled in favor of advocates who are calling for more freedom for a 28-year-old orangutan who was born in a zoo.

The advocacy group filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the orangutan’s behalf, which would require proof of a justified detention.

Wired reports: “On Friday, an appeals court declared that Sandra, who is owned by the Buenos Aires Zoo, is a ‘non-human person’ who has been wrongfully deprived of her freedom.”

In the ruling that was officially published Monday, the court says that by following a dynamic interpretation, “it is necessary to recognize that the animal is subject to rights, and should be protected,” the AP says.

Sandra was born in a zoo in Germany and sent to Argentina 20 years ago. An animal rights group argued that she had been wrongfully forced into a life of incarceration. The group now wants Sandra to be transferred to a sanctuary.

Orangutan Declared To Have Basic Legal Rights In Argentina

Jane Goodall, the primatologist-turned-activist, made revolutionary discoveries about chimpanzees that forever changed our understanding of our closest genetic relatives. Her work redefined our understanding of chimpanzees and, in doing so, upending long-held beliefs about humans and the rest of the animal kingdom—while catapulting her to international fame. She is arguably the most famous female scientist in history, revered as much for her work as for inspiring generations of girls and women.

Tumblr Tuesday: Monkeys!

Fauna Chimps The Fauna Foundation is Canada’s only chimpanzee sanctuary and it serves vegan sweet potato poutine to its heartbreakingly sensitive guests. We held and petted a Capuchin monkey this weekend. It reached out its tiny hand and wrapped it around one of our fingers. 

An Unnatural History Possibly the world’s only collection of vintage monkey and ape photographs, some of which are of Capuchin monkeys, the kind that we held and petted this weekend. We cried three times afterward, moved by the experience itself and dizzy over the fact that our life had led to this. An Unnatural History is definitely Tumblr’s best source for monkeys hanging out with dogs.

Monkeys in Art History Could this diverse selection of monkey-centric art actually be the work of a single, spectacularly talented primate? We hadn’t considered the possibility until we saw our own reflection in the eyes of a Capuchin monkey this weekend. An ageless wisdom was writ into its expression, and in that moment our two species felt closer than we had ever thought possible. 

Primatography Photos by a primatologist, which is something you’ll wish you majored in after holding and petting a Capuchin monkey. We majored in Classics and assumed we would live a solitary life of the mind. Children were never a part of this picture…but to hold this fragile life in our hands, we were suddenly filled with a love too big for one heart to contain. Primatography includes special bonus shots of sloths and other mammals. 

Respectez ce Singeot A whole lot of beautiful monkeys and a little bit of the elusive Werner Herzog. Even now, thinking about that Capuchin monkey has our eyes once again filling with tears.