The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

["Beze Z. Bromo" <monju AT aloha.net>]

Planet Earth's Apes Endangered! ::: Being Hunted to Extinction

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"The dawn of the new millennium does not bode well for our closest relatives
in the animal kingdom - the great apes of Africa, Borneo and Sumatra.
Without urgent effective action, their evolutionary odyssey will soon end -
at the hand of their human cousins."  - Ape Alliance


London, 2001-  Sir David Attenborough hosted "The Great Ape Event": the
launch of " 2001 - Ape Odyssey", in association with the Ape Alliance
<http://www.4apes.com>, Radio Times and BBC Wildlife Magazine.


During the evening the world's greatest primate experts spoke about the
plight of the Great Apes;

Dr Biruté Galdikas <http://www.orangutan.org> talked about and showed slides
of orangutans,
Dr Jane Goodall <http://www.janegoodall.org> talked about her work with
chimpanzees,
Dr Jo Thompson spoke about bonobos, Ian Redmond on gorillas and Dr Charlotte
Uhlenbroek played extracts from her BBC television series on primates,
"Cousins".


The evening was a huge success and hopefully inspired many people into doing
something positive to prevent the very real scenario of the Great Ape's
extinction within our lifetime. The profits from the evening, which was
extremely well attended, will go to four primate projects...

The Orangutan Foundation Care Centre and Quarantine Facility (Borneo)
Mount Tshiaberimu Gorilla Project (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Bonobo Sanctuary (Kinshasa)
Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Orphanage (Pointe-Noire, Congo)

You can find out more about Ape Alliance at their website
<http://www.4apes.com>


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Orangutan Sanctuary Project - Panaewa Rainforest, Hawaii

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After nine years of perseverance, OFI has finally received the necessary
permit to build the Orangutan Sanctuary in Panaewa Rainforest, Hawaii!


OFI's Orangutan Sanctuary will be the new home for over a dozen orangutans
and will accommodate the necessary facilities and activities essential to
their safety, health, and survival. Located on the Big Island of Hawaii, the
Orangutan Sanctuary will be situated adjacent to the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo
in Hilo. The developed site will afford a true natural setting, largely
resembling the weather and geographic environment of their native habitat in
Borneo and Sumatra.


With the assistance and support of the OFI, a highly qualified Sanctuary
staff, and many dedicated sponsors and donors, Dr. Galdikas intends to
implement programs catered to the long-term care and study of orangutans.
OFI intends to make the sanctuary a state-of-the art research site,
particularly in such areas as language and communications development,
intelligence and behavioral, environmental and nutritional enrichment.


In order to facilitate the costs of Sanctuary production, the OFI has deemed
goals for fundraising as one of URGENCY.


$750,000 must be raised within the next three months.


Contributions will help to ensure that the highly endangered orangutan
population will always have a refuge.


Together we can make a difference!


For more information about Rusti visit
http://www.honoluluzoo.org/orangutan

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"The Last Place on Earth"

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OFI and the Indonesian Rainforest Crisis featured on CBS's 60 Minutes II


The CBS News magazine 60 Minutes II, broadcast a report featuring the
orangutan's plight, Camp Leakey and Dr Galdikas on January 2nd.


The closest living relatives to humankind are the great apes, gorillas,
chimpanzees, and orangutans. Their DNA is about 95 percent the same as man.
Does that mean apes have anything to tell us about being human? In the case
of the orangutan you'll be surprised.


"What we know about the orangutan is largely due to one woman. Dr. Biruté
Galdikas left UCLA for Borneo 30 years ago and never looked back. The apes
she studies once ranged from China through the South Pacific. But today
they're cornered on just two islands, Borneo and Sumatra - both part of
Indonesia.


"Now the woman who discovered how orangutans live is watching them descend
toward extinction. As Scott Pelley reports, the apes who seem so human are
losing, what is for them, the last place on earth."


Orangutan Foundation International
http://www.orangutan.org/


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TIME AND FOREST RUNNING OUT FOR THE ORANGUTAN

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NEW YORK, New York  (ENS) - The world's largest
natural orangutan population will be extinct in about a decade unless
poaching and habitat destruction is stopped. That is the finding of
research funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), based at the
Bronx Zoo.


For full text and graphics, visit:
<http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-26-12.html>


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The Gorilla Foundation
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To bring interspecies communication to the public, in order to save gorillas
from extinction, and inspire our children to create a better future for all
the great apes.


Established in 1976, The Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org promotes the
protection, preservation and propagation of gorillas. Project Koko, a
primary focus of TGF/Koko.org, involves teaching a modified form of American
Sign Language to two lowland gorillas, Koko and Michael. In addition,
TGF/Koko.org is developing a unique preserve for gorillas on the island of
Maui, Hawaii.

http://www.koko.org/


Tune in to Koko TV too!  :::
http://www.gorilla.org/


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On the Set of "Planet of the Apes"

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Don't expect a beached Statue of Liberty or a loincloth-wearing hero in this
"reimagining" of the sci-fi classic. "This is a fresh story, dealing with
the same basic idea-an upside-down world where apes are in charge and humans
are subservient," says producer Richard D. Zanuck, who was head of productio
n at Fox when the original five-part series was launched.

Wahlberg stars as an astronaut whose spaceship crash-lands (not on Earth
this time); Roth plays a chimpanzee general who favors exterminating the
human pest; Duncan is a gorilla in the ape army; and Carter plays a
human-rights-activist chimp.

The idea of remaking a classic gave director Burton (Batman, Sleepy Hollow)
pause at first. "If you're going to remake something, make it something
that's bad, so you can make it better," he says. "In a way you can't really
beat [the 1968 version]." One nod to cinema history is a cameo by original
astronaut Charlton Heston, who plays an ape this time around. "Most young
people won't get it, but anybody who knows Heston's voice will," Zanuck
says.

http://www.premiere.com/Premiere/Special/Summer2001/apes.html


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Planet of the Apes as American Myth

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Race, Politics, and Popular Culture


Eric Greene
Foreword by Richard Slotkin


Compelling case study considers Planet of the Apes films as racial allegory.


In 1968, Planet of the Apes became a megahit movie both in the US and
abroad, inspiring four film sequels, two TV series, several comic series,
and hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide merchandising.


 The Apes films confronted some of the most controversial issues of the
time, including Vietnam and the Black Power movement, all the while
remaining crowd pleasing box office hits. Eric Greene uses rare photographs,
transcripts, and extensive interviews with the writers, directors, actors,
and producers to read the Apes saga as a profoundly American myth. Greene
also looks at the attempts of filmmakers like Oliver Stone and James Cameron
to remake the myth for the 90s. This enjoyable and meticulous book gives the
reader an insider's look at the complex relationships between race, politics
and popular culture in America.


"Greene makes an utterly plausible case . . . you'll be scratching your head
in humbled agreement."-Entertainment Weekly


"Much more than a casebook, Planet of the Apes as American Myth looks at the
film and television series as an allegory of race relations in America at a
significant historical moment. Written in an accessible style, the volume
brings together invaluable source materials and contemporary theoretical
work on race in a way that not only illuminates the series but also raises
timely critical issues surrounding popular representation. This is an
admirable work-and a fascinating read."-Vivian Sobchak, author of Screening
Space: The American Science Fiction Film


Wesleyan University Press


Toll-Free Order Hotline:
1-800-421-1561


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APES INSTRUMENTAL TO PETER GABRIEL'S NEW BAND

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July 18, 2001 -- Rock 'n' roll innovator Peter Gabriel is going ape over his
new band. The founder of Genesis hasn't put out a new album in five years,
but he has been jamming at Georgia State University in Atlanta.


The rock legend plays keyboards, and so does his new backing band: a dozen
bonobo apes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Gabriel told London's Financial Times that while his new group doesn't
exactly jam together, they are feeling each other out musically.


And he insists his new mates have a keen sense of rhythm and melody.


"It is a little like working with a child," Gabriel said, adding that the
apes understand about 4,000 English words and recognize 400 pictograms.


But, Gabriel's gifted apes may soon be split up and dispatched to different
zoos and facilities for research purposes.


While the band may not play on, their eccentric leader believes they should
stay in touch. And Gabriel is hoping to use computer networks - or "Apenet,"
as he's dubbed it - to help his primate bandmates keep in contact.


The idea of Apenet is to create an Internet-based network for the bonobo
apes to "talk" with each other. Gabriel believes they could touch on the
screen, activate Webcams and virtually communicate.


<http://nypost.com/entertainment/32811.htm>


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Trek ends for 'space chimps'

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By Maya Bell
Miami Bureau


July 19, 2001

FORT PIERCE --

They did their adopted country proud, going where no man had gone before. It
was only after two of the conscripts, both of whom are now dead, were shot
into space that Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn followed.


The astronauts got ticker-tape parades. The astrochimps got new "hazardous
mission" assignments -- such as testing seat belts. They were strapped onto
deceleration sleds like crash-test dummies and hurtled down railroad tracks.
Their offspring, including the other 14 newcomers at the center, were
consigned to the same life.


No longer in need of their services, the Air Force began leasing its chimp
colony to medical labs in the 1970s. Then, in 1997, Air Force officials
decided to rid themselves of the colony altogether. Declaring the chimps
"surplus" inventory, they offered them up for bid.


Air Force officials didn't care whether their charges went into retirement
or research, but wanted them in a facility. Noon didn't have one, so more
than a hundred of the chimps were awarded to the Couston Foundation, a
toxicology lab in New Mexico that uses chimps in AIDS and hepatitis
experiments.


A no-nonsense woman with intense blue eyes and bug-bitten arms, Noon was
appalled. She thinks captive chimps deserve better. Recruiting Goodall and
other noted primatologists to serve on her board, Noon sued the Air Force
for custody, all the while raising almost $2 million to buy 150 treeless
acres west of Fort Pierce and build an island dotted with hills, jungle gyms
and two chimp houses.


After a yearlong court battle, Noon won custody of 21 of the Couston chimps,
seven of whom were in the Air Force's original colony. Now she delights in
keeping them occupied.


In the wild, chimps spend their days foraging and feeding. That means
captives are unemployed and bored. So Noon and her staff of five spend their
days stuffing raisins into holes drilled into plastic bricks or mashing
bananas over boards covered with artificial turf -- just so the chimps can
spend their time picking every last particle out.


Maya Bell can be reached at mbell AT sunsentinel.com
<mailto:mbell AT sunsentinel.com> or 305-810-5003.


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Please help The Space Chimps! ******************************


The Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care was established under the direction
of world-famous primatologist Jane Goodall, and Roger Fouts, a scientist who
has been communicating with chimpanzees using American Sign Language for
more than 30 years.

The Center was created to respond to growing numbers of chimpanzees in need
of refuge and is building a sanctuary for them on 150 acres near Fort
Pierce, Florida. Here they will live in a complex and enriching environment
geared toward their intelligence and natural curiosity. The Center's
santuary will fill a critical need and provide chimpanzees with a more
natural state of living and the retirement they so richly deserve.

  "Enter the chimponauts - our lovable "partners in space". The public knew
very little about the nature of their mission. We imagined the chimponauts
as glorified canaries in the coal mine of outer space. If they survived,
then human astronauts would be able to follow in their footsteps; if they
perished, then NASA would go back to the drawing board. It was a bit more
complex, however. "


                             Next of Kin     Roger Fouts and Steven Mills

Donate online, See the scrapbook :::  http://www.savethechimps.org/


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Wednesday, July 25, 2001
 Mirror experiment at zoo brings truce between warring chimps

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A feud between two chimpanzees at an Indian zoo has been ended after
zookeepers placed mirrors in their cage.


Lucknow Zoo's Sunny and Cheena stopped fighting last week after two
mirrors were hung in the cage they share.


It took the zoo officials some time to realise that chimpanzees, like
humans, are narcissistic and hate to be lonely.


Now Cheena and Sunny have not only stopped fighting, they have started
eating together, said their caretaker, Balaram, who uses only one name.


"We noticed that their food intake increased considerably and they
remain chirpy throughout the day," Balaram said.


<http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_359690.html>


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Jane Goodall says hunters threaten chimpanzees across central Africa

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 Tuesday, July 3, 2001
 Associated Press


 DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) -


Commercial hunters abetted by wars and logging companies are a grave threat
to chimpanzees across central Africa, renowned chimp conservationist Jane
Goodall said Tuesday.


"The hunters are now able to go deep into the forest because they ride on
the logging trucks on the roads that have been built by the logging
companies," Goodall told a news conference. Chaos and armed conflict in
central Africa has made it difficult to enforce laws protecting the animals,
she said.


Hunters shoot chimpanzees and then smoke and sell the meat, "even shipping
it off to exotic restaurants," said Goodall, who has been studying
chimpanzees in northwestern Tanzania for 40 years.


Hunting and the destruction of forests for firewood and timber have reduced
the chimpanzee population in 21 African nations from 2 million a century ago
to 220,000 today, she said.


Because they are very slow breeders and give birth only at five year
intervals, she said, the species could be on its way to extinction if
nothing is done to protect the animals and their habitat.


Goodall said when she arrived in Gombe National Park in 1960, 150
chimpanzees lived there. With the encroachment of refugees from Congo who
kill chimps for food and sometimes transmit human diseases to them, the
population has dwindled to 110.


People who live in the region traditionally have hunted chimpanzees for
food, but commercial hunting has greatly increased the numbers of animals
killed, she said.


"We are training young people to change their desire to eat chimpanzees and
develop an appetite for other meat like goat," Goodall said.


Trade in chimpanzee and gorilla meat is widespread throughout central
Africa, even though both are protected species in the countries where they
are hunted.


The World Wide Fund for Nature says chimpanzee and gorilla meat is
commercially available for sale in central Africa and is on restaurant menus
in Paris and Brussels. The meat is served dried or smoked and as steak or in
stews


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"Even a monkey, brought up in the right surroundings, can learn the meaning
of decency and honesty."
        Ronald Reagan  "Bedtime for Bonzo"

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O, be prepared, my soul!
  To read the inconcievable, to scan

  The million forms of God those stars unroll
  When, in our turn, we show to them a Man.

               Alice Meynell
        "Christ in the Universe"


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Nature
"Wisdom of the Wild"
What can humans learn from animals? Discover how chimps have aided medical
research, take a closer look at "dolphin therapy"
for children with learning disabilities, and much more.
http://www.pbs.org/nature/wisdom/


It is the destruction of the world
in our own lives that drives us
half insane, and more than half.
To destroy that which we were given
in trust: how shall we bear it?

Wendell Berry


Gaia Core @ Pele's Cauldron
http://www.zyworld.com/earthaction


Grey Aliens in America : Astro-Zoology 101
http://www.geocities.com/mutanex


Earth Crisis Aliens Secret Science
http://earthfiles.com


Save the RainForest!
http://rainforest.care2.com