The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Madison Newspapers, Inc.  
Capital Times (Madison, WI)
April 17, 2002 Wednesday, ALL Editions

SECTION: FRONT; Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 554 words

HEADLINE: ZOO CHIMPS ARE KEEN FOR GEOGRAPHIC

BYLINE: Lee Sensenbrenner The Capital Times

BODY:
The chimps at the Vilas Park Zoo have a private habit that is 
embarrassing to their caretakers: They like to flip though the pages 
of National Geographic.

The glossy color pictures from the explorer magazine, which often 
features animals in the wild, get torn out and sometimes kept near 
the indoor platforms where the chimpanzees and other primates sleep, 
said primate caretaker Mary Schmidt, who later suggested not 
publicizing this behavior.

"Really it's not the kind of thing we like to portray. It's just 
sending that same old message -- that they're just little humans," 
she said. "But they're not." Earlier, Schmidt had told a class of 
Edgewood Grade School students about a chimpanzee who had torn out a 
picture of Mick Jagger in a red sports car and kept it near her bed 
for three weeks.

The first-graders had come to the zoo Tuesday morning with two red 
wagons full of donations. They were giving the zoo more than $100 in 
change, various blankets and bedding material and -- at the request 
of the zoo keepers -- six boxes full of old National Geographic 
magazines.

"Originally we were just collecting money, but then we contacted the 
zoo and found out that they have monkeys who can read," said first 
grade teacher Susan Schlimgen.
"A lot of people thought they'd rip them up, but they actually page 
through them. I would imagine because of the pictures," said Amanda 
Kemnitz, a parent who accompanied the first-graders.

Schmidt, who later stressed that it would be a mistake to 
"anthropomorphize," or impute human behavior to, the primates, said 
National Geographic is chosen over other magazines partly because it 
has no staples.

But she added an observation of her own about the magazine: "They 
definitely have the most pictures of animals. Once in a while, you'll 
turn the page and see a big face of a gorilla, and you'll actually 
see (the chimpanzee) start. They'll react to it."

The two orangutans who ventured from their indoor shelter to the 
netted outdoor pen showed limited interest in the two magazines put 
out for them Tuesday morning.
One of them, an 11-year-old whom the caretakers call Mia, picked up 
one issue and folded back the cover to take a look inside. The page 
Mia opened to was mostly text, and the magazine got rolled up without 
more investigation.

"The chimps are more the magazine primates," Schmidt said.

Primate caretaker Chuck Craven said the primates usually aren't 
allowed to have magazines in the outdoor pens because they can cause 
a lot of litter. Most of the page-turning happens out of the public's 
sight, in the quiet hours of the day, he added.
First-grader David Kalish came up with the idea to have a class 
fund-raiser for the zoo, which operates entirely on donations. He 
said he wanted to help out because he loves animals.

"The zoo asked for National Geographics," he said. In all his trips 
to the zoo, though, he has never seen the primates leafing through 
magazines.

"Every day I go in the zoo, I go to the monkey exhibit. The last time 
I went to the zoo I saw some chimpanzees chasing each other," he said.

David wouldn't venture a guess about why the primates might favor 
National Geographic over other magazines.

"Maybe they want to figure out what's happening in other parts of the 
world," said David's classmate, Austin Renfert.