I have had the pleasure of working with Tierra Wilson for a couple years at the Gorilla Foundation. Since then, she’s moved off to veterinary school and I to graduate school. We’ve kept in touch and I was elated to hear that she’s going to Rwanda earlier this summer to study the mountain gorillas there. [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Primates’
August 6, 2008
A Massive Population Of Gorillas In The Congo Discovered, But 48% Of Primates Are At Risk Of Extinction
I have some bittersweet news to share with you. If you’re a regular reader of this site, you may know that gorilla populations have been reported as severely endangered. Most of the problems stem from deforestation and poverty. People chop down trees in Africa and ultimately ruin the ecosystems that support these great apes for [...]
July 15, 2008
Charlie Rose’s Talk On Gorilla Murders In Virunga National Park
Charlie Rose interviewed Emmanuel de Merode of WildLifeDirect, Brent Stirton and Godefroid Wambale four days ago — three men who know about the massacre of gorillas that happened last year in Virunga National Park. Their interview covers their account of the day where six gorillas were killed.
I’m very pleased with this interview, and even more [...]
July 8, 2008
Come to Doc’s Clock On Wednesday Night to Raise Money for Infant Gorillas
I used to work at the Gorilla Foundation, and am still on their organizational mailing list. This weekend they sent me an email announcing a fundraiser they setup for the Mefou Sanctuary in Cameroon on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008. Specifically the event is setup to raise money for their infant gorilla nursery.
The event will be [...]
July 7, 2008
Orangutans Are Shockingly Closer To Extinction
Anthropology.net blogger German Dziebel sent me this link about the dim future of orangutans in Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia. Afarensis has also covered this news. The results of a new survey of orangutan populations have been published in the journal Oryx. I don’t have access to the early advance view of the paper, but [...]
May 5, 2008
Video Clips of JJ from Bossou, Guinea fishing for tools
I just posted about JJ’s novel tool use, and I thought you may wanna see him actually fishing for ants. The authors of the paper provided videos of JJ using his tools. I’ve uploaded it to YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
May 5, 2008
Novel Tool-Use observed in a wild Chimpanzee from Bossou, Guinea
Even though I’ve been posting a lot on tool use lately, I’m sure you will appreciate this new study. The new study, “Invention and modification of a new tool use behavior: ant-fishing in trees by a wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) at Bossou, Guinea,” has been published in the most recent issue of the American [...]
April 29, 2008
Orangutan from Borneo photographed using a spear tool to fish
Tool use among orangutans was first documented by Carel van Schaik. In 1994, Carel observed orangutans developing tools to help themselves eat, while conducting field work in Gunung Leuser National Park, in the northwest Sumatra.
Specifically the orangutans [...]
April 3, 2008
Frans Lanting on the Fongoli Spear Hunting Chimps
It has been far too long since I’ve updated this blog. I apologize, there certainly has not been a lack of material to share — just a lack of time and overemphasis on Anthropology.net, which is totally my bad, I don’t intend to neglect this site again.
Anyways, photographer Frans Lanting recently travelled to take photos [...]
