Move over, fashion week — the hottest accessory of the season is a blade of grass shoved in your ear. Or, for the truly daring: your butt. Chimpanzees at a Zambian wildlife sanctuary are going viral — not for escaping or throwing poo, but for their bizarre behavior that’s as puzzling as it is cheeky. … Read more
These chimps were a barrel of laughs. Wild chimpanzees in West Africa were caught on video for the very first time sharing fermented African breadfruit that contained ethanol. Researchers from the University of Exeter in England set up cameras at Cantanhez National Park in Guinea-Bissau. The primates may have been using the alcohol like humans … Read more
The most exciting place to visit in Africa right now is an off-the-beaten-path nation better known for making tragic headlines than attracting tourists: Welcome to a splashy new Sierra Leone. Now, Ebola-free and more than two decades after the end of a devastating civil war, Sweet Salone (the local nickname) is once again ready to … Read more
Researchers are going bananas. A new scientific paper reports that chimpanzees “are capable of” producing sounds that mimic words they hear from people. It follows recent research revealing that chimpanzees can gesture to one another in conversation like humans. The new research looked at two archived videos of chimps “uttering” words on camera — one … Read more
Chimpanzees and humans already share 98.8% of the same DNA — they might as well learn to share conversation, too. New research has found that chimps send “rapid fire” gestures back and forth to one another, in the same cadence as people do, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology. New research … Read more
The “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” might not be far off. A chimpanzee at a China zoo proved that we’re indeed quite alike after tossing a lost shoe back to its human owner from the ape’s enclosure, as seen in a bananas video. A guest had dropped the sandal in the primate’s paddock … Read more
So much for yoga being the ultimate path to enlightenment. An increasing number of people are finding the antidote to miserable modern living is going back several rungs on the evolutionary ladder — to live like a chimpanzee. Dubbed the “Tarzan Movement,” a new fitness trend sees proponents walking on all fours, climbing trees, mimicking … Read more
How sweet is the open sky? A touching video caught the first time that Vanilla the chimpanzee — a 29-year-old survivor of New York’s infamous Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) — saw the open sky after arriving at the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida. Vanilla had never been … Read more
His birthday bash was a real thriller! Bubbles, Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee, turned 40 and celebrated with a party befitting the King of Pop’s pet. “He did get a cake — but it’s a special ape-healthy cake,” said Patti Ragan, founding director at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla., the “retirement home” where Bubbles … Read more
While trekking through a forest in search of chimpanzees, it would be easy to be afraid of being attacked by a territorial chimp – after all, our guide Alex has a gun in case of any extreme emergencies. But it soon becomes apparent that flying testicles are a much more prevalent danger. The testicles are … Read more
In the animal kingdom, wild tales of inebriation and altered states of consciousness are rampant. Dolphins get a buzz from the toxins in blowfish, reindeer “fly” on magic mushrooms, and monkeys, raccoons and possums love a stiff drink. Researchers now believe that apes — gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans — like to spin around on … Read more
A tourist threw a plastic water bottle into a chimpanzee’s enclosure at a zoo — provoking the animal to strike back. Security footage shows a man throwing a plastic bottle toward a chimp at Changsha Ecological Zoo in southern China on Sunday, Newsflare reported. Once the chimpanzee — known as Diu Na Xing — noticed … Read more
Furuvik Zoo in Sweden is facing backlash for fatally shooting four of seven chimpanzees that escaped their enclosure Wednesday. Marksmen and several police officers were called to help contain the situation, with the zoo defending why it didn’t use sedatives. “Sleeping is not an option when a chimpanzee goes outside his enclosure, risking human safety. To … Read more
Nothing like a mother’s love. The Sedgwick Country Zoo welcomed the newest member of its family on Tuesday after one of its chimpanzees gave birth to a baby boy via a C-Section. In the heart-melting video, the mother, whose name is Mahale, excitedly embraced her son after almost two days of separation because of labor … Read more