VBS.TV's Gorillas In The Midst

They’ve put up their show for everyone to watch online. If you don’t know much about the problems with conservation efforts in Uganda, I recommend you watch because they also touch on the political conflicts and controversial issues that looms over the conservation efforts.

I’m very pleased with this interview, and even more displeased at Georgianne Nienaber’s comment. Nienaber is an ‘investigative environmental writer’ and tactiless opponent to WildlifeDirect and the ICCN rangers. She says that the arrest of Honore Mashagiro in March of 2008 in relation to these killings was all a setup and masterminded by the strategic interests of white supremacists — and the hero, Paulin Ngobobo is nothing but a figure head. I think she’s smoking crack. She’s using this excellent discussion on gorilla conservation with a major news source to leverage her own conspiracy theory, that is ‘founded’ on no evidence, whatsoever.

If you don’t believe me check out the video of Ayumu rocking the test:

Very impressive performance. Luminosity Games has remade Ayumu’s game. If you wanna try to see if you’re any better than Ayumu, give it a shot here. I’m not very good at the game.

The photo to your right shows one of the sneaky males climbing a cultivated papaya tree to harvest some fruit. The look on his face is priceless.

Of all the evolutionary psychological studies involving chimps I shared with you this past week, this one “Chimpanzees Share Forbidden Fruit,” is the most remarkable. Here’s the abstract, the full text of the article is openly accessible for anyone to enjoy reading in first hand,

“The sharing of wild plant foods is infrequent in chimpanzees, but in chimpanzee communities that engage in hunting, meat is frequently used as a ‘social tool’ for nurturing alliances and social bonds. Here we report the only recorded example of regular sharing of plant foods by unrelated, non-provisioned wild chimpanzees, and the contexts in which these sharing behaviours occur. From direct observations, adult chimpanzees at Bossou (Republic of Guinea, West Africa) very rarely transferred wild plant foods. In contrast, they shared cultivated plant foods much more frequently (58 out of 59 food sharing events). Sharing primarily consists of adult males allowing reproductively cycling females to take food that they possess. We propose that hypotheses focussing on ‘food-for-sex and -grooming’ and ‘showing-off’ strategies plausibly account for observed sharing behaviours. A changing human-dominated landscape presents chimpanzees with fresh challenges, and our observations suggest that crop-raiding provides adult male chimpanzees at Bossou with highly desirable food commodities that may be traded for other currencies.”

If you don’t believe what you’re reading the authors provided two video clips showing some sly and slick male chimp entering what is obviously and occupied by humans (because of the buildings) climbing a tree, stealing fruit, and making a mad dash as if he were a bandit. Then he shares an intimate moment with his lady friend, munching on some fruit.

I’ve edited the clips together and put them up on YouTube for all y’all who can’t play the file types they provided.