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[gregory nahas <lettherebemonkeys AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_761989.html?menu=news.quirkies

Zoo chimps given wedding 

Two chimpanzees have been 'married' at a zoo in Brazil
to encourage them to start a family.

The 'couple' wore wedding gowns and even had a wedding
cake, Terra Noticias Populares reports.

The party was enjoyed by zoo visitors and children
were given little wedding gifts.

A spokesman for the Rio de Janeiro Zoo said: "Those
two were flirting outrageously over the fences for
four months and we decided to give them a chance.

"The male, Pipo, has been single for 10 years and it's
time for him to give up his bachelor life and give us
little chimps. We hope the whole wedding party
atmosphere helps them to breed."

The new couple have been given their own cage and
zookeepers expect them to start breeding soon.

Story filed: 13:45 Tuesday 18th March 2003


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http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0304/feature5/index.html

By David Quammen

Photographs by Michael Nichols 

The famed primatologist meets the chimpanzees of Congo's Goualougo Triangle, 
animals so
isolated they have no fear of humans—at least for now.  

Get a taste of what awaits you in print from this compelling excerpt.

As a small complement to other conservation measures taken in this part of 
Africa, saving
the Goualougo Triangle carries major significance. It enhances the 
possibility of
preserving a very large expanse of continuous chimpanzee habitat and, within 
it, a
sizable interbreeding population of chimpanzees (thousands, rather than 
merely hundreds
or dozens) into the next century and beyond. Securing such a single big area 
is crucial
to the survival of the species, given that so many of Africa's other 
chimpanzee refuges
are, like Gombe, far too small and too isolated to support viable 
populations. 

The chimps of the Goualougo Triangle still enjoy the possibility of an 
unbounded and
genetically robust future. That fact, in addition to their naive attitude 
toward humans,
is what has made them such a focus of interest and concern. But can they 
remain so naive?
If not, then what forms of chastening experience await them? Will they lose 
their
ingenuous curiosity about humans by way of the intrusive attentions of 
ecotourism, rather
than by the lethal traumas of hunting, habitat destruction, and beleaguered 
insularity?
Such questions reflect the real distance—it's more than just land 
miles—between Gombe and
Goualougo. 

Naïveté is a delicate, perishable state of being, and in fact the Goualougo 
chimps have
al-ready begun to lose theirs. Although they haven't acquired any noticeable 
fear of
humans, their curiosity seems less strong and impetuous than it was three 
years ago. The
episodes of excited mutual ogling are less frequent. The limelight of 
continuous study,
even by two such deferential scientists as David Morgan and Crickett Sanz, 
seems to have
jaded them slightly. The physicist Werner Heisenberg warned us about this: 
You can't
observe anything closely without affecting it somehow.

******

It's been ten years since she walked so far, Jane said. Her blistered soles 
reflected
that fact. Still, at age 68, her signature ponytail now going gray, she had a 
reservoir
of strength to spare—spiritual strength, if not muscular. She seemed 
invigorated by the
sheer joy of being back in a forest full of chimpanzees. 

Next morning Jane ventured out onto the Goualougo trails, hoping for a view 
of the
animals Dave Morgan and Crickette Sanz have been studying. But it wasn't like 
the
solitary, early days at Gombe. Here, now, she moved at the center of an 
entourage: a
Pygmy tracker, Morgan, Sanz, Mike Fay, photographer Michael Nichols with his 
unobtrusive
little Leica—and that was just the half of it. With each step Jane took, a 
crew from
National Geographic Television shadowed her, hungry to record every word and 
glance. The
forest itself became a TV stage. But she was patient and professional, 
hitting her mark
in every scene, repeating this or that comment when another take was called 
for, using
the television attention as she uses all such burdens and opportunities of 
fame—to get
her message out. That message, grossly compressed and presumptuously 
summarized, is:
Every individual counts, both among nonhuman animals and among humanity, so 
if you
renounce callous anthropocentrism and cruelty, your personal actions will 
make Earth a
better place. 

After five days in the forest it began to seem questionable whether Jane 
herself, the
guest of honor, would have an extended encounter with any chimpanzees 
whatsoever. One
problem was her damaged feet. Although the blisters didn't stop her from 
walking in the
forest, they did inconvenience her. But she borrowed a roll of duct tape, for 
emergency
foot maintenance, and carried on gamely. Another problem was the sheer 
collective bustle
of such a large group. You don't parade through the woods in a party of ten 
if you want
to see animals—not even if the animals in question are naive, or habituated, 
or flat-out
deaf. 

Finally, after most of a week, she did get a chance to enjoy what she had 
come for—three
hours in the presence of a relaxed group of chimps as they fed, rested, and 
otherwise
occupied themselves in a Synsepalum tree. It wasn't a dramatic encounter. The 
chimps went
about their business, showing no excited curiosity or reciprocal fascination. 
But it was
satisfying to Jane, who saw not just a gaggle of primates but individual 
creatures,
particularized under the names by which Morgan and Sanz have come to know 
them—the female
Maya, her infant daughter, Malia, the female O'Keefe, and a half dozen more.

Later that afternoon Jane and I sat in the forest discussing the problems 
facing Gombe,
her own years of experience there, and the prospects of an alternate future 
for the
Goualougo. At one point I asked about the difference between concern for 
individual
animals and concern for endangered, isolated populations. To her it's a 
sterile
distinction. "When I'm thinking about some forest being logged, and the 
bush-meat trade,"
she said, "it isn't just a population of chimps that's going. It's 
individuals." Destroy
individuals of such a species, and you eradicate also "all their wisdom, all 
their
cultures that have been passed down from one generation to the next." After a 
moment, she
added, "I can't separate the loss of a population from the harm to 
individuals." At Gombe
she had known four generations intimately. To the extraordinary chimps of the 
Goualougo,
she was a stranger. "It does take me back to my childhood dreams," Jane said. 
"You know,
I'm really happy that I got here—in spite of the blisters!" Next morning, on 
nearly
healed feet, she started walking back toward the world.  

Get the whole story in the pages of National Geographic magazine.