Gorilla Twins

Really cute gorilla news!  Rare gorilla twin born.

Gorilla News

http://gorilla.cd/blog/

Daily updates on the situation in the Congo and how its affecting the gorillas, the park, and the rangers. Check it out!

Evolutionary Studies

Some articles on evolutionary studies:

Early Man Couldn’t Stomach Milk.
Chimps Use Spears To Hunt Mammals.
Chimp “Stone Age” Finds Are Earliest Nonhuman Ape Tools.

Sad news

This is really sad and depressing news. Reports of Congolese Rebels eating Mountain gorillas. This article also contains a graphic image that may disturb some.

Also more bad news, 30% of Fish Species in China’s Yellow River are Extinct. Due to overfishing and pollution among others.

Bad news for orangs

This is not good news for orangutans. Intentional forest fires in Indonesia killed up to a thousand orangutans this year. If this continues, they may be extinct within the decade.

Baboon Gangs!

Baboon “gangs” causing havok in South Africa! They even broke into houses and ransacked fridges! Read here.

Also, this was during the summer but when I was at a state park in Pennsylvania I saw a Great Blue Heron! Way cool, I never saw one in the wild before. I couldn’t get a picture though.

Giant Asian ape & humans coexisted

I forgot to post this article about Gigantopithecus blacki, the ancient giant ape. It has been determined that “Giganto” and humans coexisted for a time in China 300,000 years ago. Giganto may be related to Sivapithecus, an extinct ancestor of orangutans.

Gorilla tool-use

GORILLAS USING TOOLS. It is the first documented use of tools among wild gorillas. Now all the great apes are known to use tools. Evidence that all great apes use tools adds insight to human evolution. It suggests that tool use emerged in primates before humans split from the great apes. Tool-use was once thought a distinguishing characteristic of humans.

Though tool use is likely infrequent among gorillas, the new evidence provides insight to how gorillas see the world and interact with their environment, Breuer said.

“The most fascinating thing about this observation is the similarity [to humans] with which the gorillas solve the problems in this particular habitat,” he said. “If you or me want to cross a swamp, we use the same solutions as gorillas.” [from the NGS article]

Self-recognition

Here’s an interesting little article about capuchin monkeys. Unlike most apes, they can not recognize themselves in mirrors, but they do recognize that it is a living creature. Article.

New monkey!

A new species of monkey was recently discovered in Tanzania, the highland mangabey. The article is here. The researchers placed it in the genus Lophocebus, the genus for mangabeys, but are unsure if it will stay there or if a new genus will be made for them.