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Post by Gorilla king on Aug 4, 2021 9:14:16 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Aug 19, 2021 9:36:22 GMT -5
Gorilla Flicks Through Zoo Visitor's Camera Roll in Amazing Viral Video
About 98% percent of our DNA is shared with gorillas, and one great ape has proven that they really aren't too different from the average phone-swiping Joe.
Jelani the gorilla was shown in a video taken at Louisville Zoo prompting a visitor to swipe through her camera roll for his viewing. TikTok user @gertiemusic posted the video on June 20 and has gained over 1.7 million likes, with 16 million views on the post.
The clip captured the visitor sitting on the other side of the glass from the gorilla, showing her phone to Jelani. He took the initiative to prompt her to slide to the next photo on the camera roll, using a hand movement toward the phone to let her know when he's ready to move onto the next one.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/tiktok-video-jelani-silverback-gorilla-swipes-phone-photos-viral-1620064%3famp=1
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Post by Gorilla king on Aug 22, 2021 9:01:00 GMT -5
Clever orangutans invent nutcrackers from scratch
Chimpanzees are not the only great apes to develop tools without tutoring.
Sumatran orangutan named Padana raps nuts with a log ‘hammer’ atop a tree stump ‘anvil’, a technique she invented herself. Credit: Claudio Tennie
Chimpanzees have long been thought to be the only non-human great apes to regularly smash nuts with stones or wooden hammers — one of the most complex forms of tool use observed in nature. Now, researchers have found that orangutans, too, can use hammers to crack open nuts, and they learn to do so without copying others.
Elisa Bandini at the University of Tübingen in Germany and her colleagues observed 12 zoo-dwelling orangutans (Pongo abelii and Pongo pygmaeus) that were given hard nuts and small wooden logs as potential hammers. None of the animals had previously broken nuts open with tools.
Some of the apes never tried the potential tools. But most wielded the logs as hammers to crack open the nuts, and three used a tree stump or another object as an anvil to stabilize the nuts.
Four animals started to use the tools without observing more experienced individuals, which suggests that orangutans can spontaneously learn to use objects as efficient nutcrackers, the researchers say.
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02239-6
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Post by tyrannosaurs on Aug 22, 2021 18:12:19 GMT -5
Gorilla Who Escaped Twice From Cage Prompts Modification Of Enclosure: LOS ANGELES (AP) _ A wily female gorilla struck with wanderlust has been making monkeys of her keepers at the Los Angeles Zoo, escaping twice with the help of a young male gorilla. But zookeepers have modified her cage to put a stop to her wayfaring ways. Evelyn, a 200-pound lowland gorilla born in captivity, spent 45 minutes on an afternoon stroll around the grounds Nov. 19 after climbing on the shoulders of her accomplice, Leonel, and scaling a 12-foot wall designed to prevent such escapes. Startled patrons watched Evelyn’s foray, which ended when keepers shot her with a tranquilizer dart and took her back to the enclosure. Workers raised the wall by several inches at one side of the exhibit, said Ed Alonso, the zoo’s chief animal curator. But that wasn’t an effective deterrent. Evelyn escaped again the next day with Leonel’s help, this time climbing the wall at a spot where it hadn’t been raised. ″We didn’t think she could get out there,″ Alonso said. Zookeepers’ efforts to shoo her back into the enclosure failed, so she again was shot with a tranquilizer dart. ″The problem we have with these animals is that they have fairly high intelligence and are always curious and ... if they can a find way to get out of their exhibit, they certainly will,″ Alonso said. Although Evelyn didn’t do much more than wander around looking at people, zoo officials said there was some danger. ″She has a very powerful bite,″ said Robert Barnes, principal animal keeper at the zoo. Keeper Jennifer Chatfield said Evelyn and Leonel ″definitely communicate. ... I don’t know about planning a break, but they definitely vocalize.″ The 10-year-old female ″has learned to either coerce or convince the young male to stand against the wall,″ Alonzo said. After the second escape, Evelyn was banished to the gorillas’ night quarters until workers could raise the entire wall several more inches. She returned to the outdoor exhibit Thanksgiving Day, and there haven’t been any more escapes, Alonso said. The most recent wanderings were not Evelyn’s first. Alonso said she had escaped several times by using handholds left along the wall by workers who remodeled the exhibit about eight years ago. The handholds were later removed. Another gorilla, Cleo, escaped briefly last year before being captured, and two Capuchin monkeys were able to squeeze through the bars of their cage before it was fixed, Alonso said. ″Most of the animals in the zoo can get out if they really try.″ The San Diego Zoo has had similar problems with restive apes. Ken Allen, a 16-year-old orangutan, escaped twice from his enclosure in the summer of 1985. Both times he was lured back by keepers without incident. Source: apnews.com/article/a0e7ec9e9b07d697edfb0fcfac9f4143
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Post by tyrannosaurs on Aug 22, 2021 18:19:47 GMT -5
What You Need to Know About London’s Escaped Gorilla: www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/gorilla-kumbuka-escaped-from-london-zoo?loggedin=trueAlso, let's not forget Harambe: "Public outrage has spilled across the internet after a large male gorilla was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo over the weekend, when a toddler fell into the animal's enclosure. Cincinnati police are investigating the family of the child, and a petition on Change.org called for "Justice for Harambe," the deceased ape. In its defense, the zoo has said that the situation was so dangerous for the child that it had no choice but to kill the gorilla. Many people are throwing out opinions about how dangerous the situation was for the toddler. Even Frans de Waal, perhaps one of the world's best-known primatologists, wrote in an op-ed shortly after the incident that it was "hard to decide" whether the gorilla needed to be shot. But in an email to CNBC, de Waal said that the zoo did what it had to do with the information available, considering the imminent risk to the child's life. 'The more I think about it, and the more evidence surfaces, the fewer viable options I see that they had," de Waal said. "The internet is very busy trying to pin blame on someone, but in the end saving the life of the child did seem to tolerate no other course of action than the one the zoo has taken. The alternatives had too many uncertainties. It is sad, but it is one of those cases where a quick decision needed to be made and there was not the luxury of wait-and-see. A gorilla is so immensely strong that even with the best of intentions (and we are not sure that Harambe had those) the child's death was a probable outcome.' So how strong are male gorillas? Thane Maynard, the director of the Cincinnati Zoo, said the primates have enough strength to crush a coconut with one hand. Harambe weighed about 450 pounds, which is slightly larger than typical estimates for male western lowland gorillas. Measuring animal strength, especially in human terms, is not easy, but estimates have said that Harambe's strength was anywhere between six and 15 times that of a human. De Waal puts it this way: 'We generally say that a chimp male has 5 x human male arm strength,' he wrote to CNBC. 'This has proven to be hard to test, and is based on a 1920s study. But I can assure you, from what I have seen, that an adult chimpanzee can break or bend things that human strength has no effect on. Stainless steel is bent out of shape, well-attached bars are rattled loose, and so on. A gorilla male, given its much larger build, larger hands, and larger muscles, is just incomparable to us. 'I doubt that 20 adult human males, or an entire football team, would be able to hold down a male gorilla against his will,' he continued. 'They will be pulverized.' This isn't to say gorillas are predatory or aggressive toward humans — they are not. De Waal noted in his earlier op-ed that they are typically "peaceful vegetarians." Others have supported the idea that the situation could have been resolved without a shooting, or have played down the danger faced by the toddler. Julia Gallucci, a primatologist with the animal-activism group PETA, told NBC News that the gorilla's behavior suggested the animal might be trying to nurture the child or protect it. 'Gorillas have shown that they can be protective of smaller living beings and react the same way any human would to a child in danger,' Gallucci said."
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Post by tyrannosaurs on Aug 24, 2021 13:49:41 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Aug 24, 2021 14:17:48 GMT -5
That is a really good find there buddy. This is from that link:
"Homo longi is heavily built, very robust. It is hard to estimate the height, but the massive head should match a height higher than the average of modern humans,” said Ni.
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Post by oldindigosilverback on Aug 26, 2021 19:02:00 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Sept 3, 2021 8:39:56 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Sept 12, 2021 4:59:13 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Sept 16, 2021 7:31:33 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Sept 21, 2021 8:55:45 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Sept 24, 2021 11:32:08 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Sept 26, 2021 11:23:04 GMT -5
Western lowland gorilla holds her newborn baby
Western lowland gorilla Imbi was seen holding her baby at the zoo in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on September 24. The baby gorilla, born on September 3, is the fifth gorilla born at the zoo.
Western lowland gorillas inhabit both swamp and lowland forests with solid earth throughout Western Equatorial Africa, occupying various forest types. They occur at high density in vast swamps in the northern part of the Republic of the Congo.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, the western lowland gorilla is critically endangered. Poaching, infectious diseases, habitat degradation and destruction and climate change are major threats to the species. The gorilla's numbers have declined by more than 60 percent over the last 20 to 25 years
news.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-26/Western-lowland-gorilla-holds-her-newborn-baby-13RSyLJSKPK/index.html
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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 3, 2021 7:56:45 GMT -5
One of Toronto Zoo's longest residents celebrates her 54th birthday
Puppe, a Sumatran orangutan, has been living at the Toronto Zoo since September 1974 and this year she turns 54, with a special birthday cake and presents.
According to the Toronto Zoo, Puppe is the oldest Sumatran orangutan in North America.
In lieu of birthday presents, the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Conservancy is asking for financial donations as it is raising $5,000 to provide a push-button water-spray feature for the new outdoor orangutan habitat that is currently under construction. This enrichment feature will allow the orangutans to interact and spray guests with water with the push of a button. The new outdoor orangutan habitat is scheduled to open in spring 2022
www.toronto.com/news-story/10487814-one-of-toronto-zoo-s-longest-residents-celebrates-her-54th-birthday/
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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 7, 2021 23:32:12 GMT -5
Wild Chimpanzee Attacks Another Child
Another child has been injured after a chimpanzee went on the rampage in Cocopa Camp #6, injuring a four-year-old boy on his heel and face.
According to the mother, Ruth Dolo, on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, a large-sized chimpanzee entered their village, seized her two children, a four-month-old boy, and a four-year-old boy, and ran away with them in the bush. She explained that after the chimpanzee had fled into the bush with the kids, she began yelling and crying for help. Her husband and other villagers came and went after the chimpanzee.
“When they went after the chimpanzee, they saw the baby was covered up with leaves, while the older one had been bitten both on his face and his heel,” she narrated. "When the baboon (chimpanzee) saw the people coming, she dropped the four-year-old boy and ran away, eating my son's heel and his face."
The situation has created fear in the entire Cocopa Plantation, especially around Camp # 6, where the incident actually occurred, as hunters have been put on the alert, warning women to stay out of the hospital. The Statutory Superintendent of the Saclepea Statutory District Mr. Arthur Gonkartee Sahn has ordered all men, mainly hunters, to be on the alert and go after the chimpanzee.
However, the little boy is under intensive medical care at one of the local hospitals in Ganta. Less than a year ago, a chimpanzee grabbed a little girl and brutalized her in the nearby community of Tolkopa, on her way from school, along with friends, going to the farm.
There are many calls from across the county for the government to order the FDA to put wild chimpanzees under control, in spite of the fact that chimpanzees are an endangered species. About 10yrs ago, a chimpanzee went on a rampage in the Gbor Chiefdom, not too far from the Cocopa area. But that chimpanzee was at last killed by a hunter.
www.liberianobserver.com/wild-chimpanzee-attacks-another-child
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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 10, 2021 9:47:39 GMT -5
Cincinnati Zoo gorilla Ndume celebrates 40th birthday
CINCINNATI —
Cincinnati's Ndume the gorilla is celebrating his 40th birthday this weekend.
Born Oct. 10, 1981, Ndume will celebrate his birthday at the zoo on Sunday.
The oldest silverback at the Cincinnati Zoo, keepers say he is in excellent health, spending time with Chewie and Mara — two females who have come to admire him.
Although he was born in Cincinnati, the silverback spent most of his life at the California-based Gorilla Foundation.
Above video: An inside look at the Cincinnati Zoo
“It’s hard to believe that he’s only been here for just over two years,” said Cincinnati Zoo’s gorilla team leader, Ashley Ashcraft. “He arrived right after we completed our indoor habitat, which includes modern, flexible, and specialized gorilla living areas, so he has been set up in a really good situation. Most importantly, he has companions. Gorillas and humans are close relatives and share many things in common, like their social needs. Gorillas desire the company of other gorillas.”
That’s the main reason that the Zoo brought Ndume back to Cincinnati. His companion since 1991, Koko, passed away in 2018, making him the sole gorilla at the California facility where they lived.
It took a federal court order to get him back in Cincinnati following the death of Ndume's longtime companion Koko. Many people followed the dramatic tug-of-war over his return until he finally returned to Cincinnati in June 2019.
“Ndume is enamored with the girls, especially Mara,” said Ashcraft. “All of his social and physical needs are being met, and he is quite agile for his age. We are prepared, however, for when age starts to slow him down. Special, proactive modifications, such as switchbacks to minimize vertical climbing, were built into the new indoor space to accommodate geriatric animals.”
In the wild, lowland gorillas live up to 40. In a zoo, the lifespan is longer.
Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered in the wild, with fewer than 175,000 individuals. Due primarily to habitat destruction caused by logging, mineral mining and agricultural expansion, wild gorilla numbers continue to shrink.
The bushmeat trade – the killing of wild animals to be used as human food – is also a major threat to the western lowland gorilla population throughout the Central African rainforests. More than 1,000 gorillas are illegally poached for the bushmeat trade each year, zoo officials said.
The Cincinnati Zoo has been caring for gorillas since 1931 and has made significant contributions to gorilla populations in Zoos across the country.
The Cincinnati Zoo supports wild gorilla conservation efforts like the Nouabalé-Ndoki Project in the Republic of Congo. This project includes the Mbeli Bai Study, the longest-running research being done with wild western lowland gorillas.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.wlwt.com/amp/article/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-ndume-celebrates-40th-birthday/37883023
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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 13, 2021 14:22:35 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 22, 2021 9:26:07 GMT -5
COVID could wreak havoc on gorillas, but they social distance better than we do
A new study models the potential impacts of a COVID-19 outbreak in mountain gorillas using 50 years of population data collected in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park with epidemiological variables gathered on COVID-19 infection in humans.
In most of the scenarios modeled, gorilla populations were found to decline sharply within 50 years of an outbreak.
Questions remain as to whether the human epidemiological variables used in the analysis are a good fit for gorillas, which spend all of their time outdoors and interact with non-family members far less frequently than humans do.
www.google.com/amp/s/news.mongabay.com/2021/10/covid-could-wreak-havoc-on-gorillas-but-they-social-distance-better-than-we-do/amp/
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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 25, 2021 4:29:47 GMT -5
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