Thanks dad: Orphaned chimpanzee who is now star of new Disney film pictured embracing his adopted father who saved him from death in the jungle

By SHARI MILLER

Cuddles with daddy: Oscar sleeps inside the protective arms of his adopted father Freddy, as captured in Disney's new documentary, Chimpanzee

After he was orphaned two years ago, scientists did not think a young chimp could survive without help from an adopted parent - and least of all from the alpha male.
But that's exactly what happened to 'Oscar', the star of new Disney documentary, Chimpanzee, when he was welcomed in by patriarch 'Freddy'.

Alone: Oscar was orphaned after his mother was killed, possibly by a leopard

Having previously shown great aggression over the other males to secure leadership of his chimp colony, Freddy now proved he could also be the daddy of them all.Never before have film-makers or scientists witnessed a male taking on the mothering role of a young baby in this way.
They watched in amazement as Freddy showed a tenderness towards the young orphan. He allowed tiny Oscar to ride on his back, cracked nuts for him and delicately groomed his fur.

Helping hand: Freddy cracks open nuts for the orphaned Oscar

Before long, Freddy was sharing his nest with Oscar cradled inside his massive arms.
Such an adoption, which is extremely rare, is captured in all its poignancy in the film, which is released in the UK next month.

Father and son: The adoption of Oscar by a dominant male like Freddy surprised scientists

World-renowned primatologist Professor Christophe Boesch, who has spent more than 30 years studying the chimpanzees of Taï Forest National Park in Africa's Ivory Coast, where the filming took place, said such behaviour in the animal kingdom was almost unheard of.
‘I’ve never seen a male like Freddy take up the role of a mother like that,’ he said.

Swing time: Oscar plays among the woodland of the Tai Forest, in Africa's Ivory Coast

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Well that's one way to get your five-a-day! Cheeky chimp steals all his friends' carrots

By JILL REILLY

Greedy: This cheeky chap is well on the way to having his five a day - after stealing an entire meal of carrots and chomping his way through the whole lot

This greedy chimpanzee is well on the way to having his five-a-day - after stealing an entire meal of carrots and chomping his way through the whole lot.
After the mammoth meal was thrown in for him and his friends by zoo keepers, the greedy animal proceeded to collect them all before dashing off to eat them on his own. But there were so many he could barely hold them all - and had to stuff half of them in his mouth as he didn't want to leave them behind.

Caught on camera: The hilarious moment was captured by keen photographer Susi Fischer, 45, who couldnt believe her eyes while on a trip to Neuwied Zoo in October

When one fell out his mouth he wasn't prepared to leave it behind and stopped before picking it up with his foot.
He then ran off and scoffed his haul into his mouth before he could be challenged.
The hilarious moment was captured by keen photographer Susi Fischer, 45, who couldn't believe her eyes while on a trip to Neuwied Zoo in Germany last month.

Time to eat: Ms Fischer: 'He scooped up the lot and ran off with them all for himself. The others didn't seem too annoyed, or at least they didn't show it as he was the alpha male'

Susi, from Weisenheim am Sand, Germany, said: 'It was just feeding time like any other day only he must he much have been more hungry than usual.
'He scooped up the lot and ran off with them all for himself. The others didn't seem too annoyed, or at least they didn't show it as he was the alpha male.
'It was really funny so I started snapping away with my camera. I don't think I'll ever see something this funny again.'

Quick: In a rush to get them away from everyone else the chimpanzee dropped one out his mouth and picked it up with his toes

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The first stars of the space race: Black and white pictures of Nasa chimps who went where no primate had gone before

By JAMES NYE

Check Up: Doctors examine Ham the chimpanzee after his space flight on Feb 01, 1961, in Florida

Long before Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 won the space race for the United States, the real stars of NASA were led by Ham and his fellow astro-chimps - the first Americans in space.
One of over a dozen chimpanzees trained by the U.S. to beat the Soviet Union’s attempt to win the space race, Ham made history over 50 years ago as the Cold War extended into orbit.
As the Russians moved closer to sending a human into orbit, the Americans decided to use three-year-old Ham — in a style reminiscent of a gas-detecting canary in a mine — to find out whether humans would be able to survive in space.

Go Go: Three chimpanzees Duane, Jim, and Chu eat snacks while strapped in their model space capsules. The chimps were among 75 being trained for space missions at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico on Jan 13, 1961

Beyond: At left, Ham tries out his combination couch and life support system in preparation for his flight. At right, Mercury Atlas-5 takes flight from Cape Canaveral on November 11, 1961

Monkey See: Several men open the space capsule of Ham the Space Chimp after his historic flight on a recovery ship off Cape Canaveral on Feb 1, 1961, in Florida

The most famous of all the chimps who were launched in Mercury space capsules that ultimately carried Alan Shepherd, the first American man into orbit, Ham was actually not named until after his January 1961 flight succeeded.
The name by which he’s now known — an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center at the Air Force base — was only used when he returned safely to earth.
This was because NASA reportedly wanted to avoid bad publicity should a named and therefore humanised animal be killed.

Parade: Chimps are trained at Holloman Air Force Base for space flight

LIFE magazine's Ralph Morse — who photographed the Space Race and NASA astronauts for more than a decade — told LIFE .com that even 50 years later, he fondly recalls the astro-chimps
'Ham, especially, was a very friendly fellow,' he said. 'Those were great assignments, shooting the early years with NASA. You really got the sense that these were incredibly smart people just working their tails off to do something that had never been done before.'
The Soviet Union sent dogs into space in 1957, but the U.S. decided on chimps because of their genetic similarities to humans.
Originally from Cameroon in Africa, and once a star attraction for a Florida zoo, Ham was added to the astro-chimp team in the United States Air Force to go into space.

Team Work: At left, a chimp learns how to operate his space capsule and at right, a chimp bonds with his trainer during a check up at Holloman Air Force Base

Blast Off: The Mercury space capsule carrying Ham the chimpanzee heads for outer space

The difference between Ham and the Russian dogs was that he would not only go up into space, but also come down again safely.
He and his fellow chimps were prepared for the flight for almost three years, and taught to complete simple tasks in response to lights and sounds.
Pushing a lever within five seconds of seeing a flashing blue light earned him a banana pellet; failure gave him a mild electric shock to the soles of his feet.
'According to one story, which strict scientists contend is apocryphal,' LIFE magazine wrote at the time.
'A veterinarian gave a banana to a chimp before a rocket sled ride. As the animal peeled it, the ride started with a lurch and the monkey got the banana full in the face.

Introductions: US astronaut Alan Shepard, right, is photographed with chimpanzee Ham who preceded him in space with a 16' 39'' seconds sub-orbital flight performed aboard the Mercury Redstone rocket on January 31, 1961. At left, another astro-chimp named 'Enos' is pictured

Smile: 'Ham,' the astro-chimp, reaches for an apple offered to him by a crewman of the USS Donner. This was the first food for the chimpanzee following a 420-mile ride in a Mercury capsule launched by a Redstone Rocket from Cape Canaveral

Relax: Enos, a 5 1/2 year old space chimpanzee reclines in the flight couch in which he is about to make his space flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA on the Mercury-Atlas 5 capsule

Safety: A monkey is fitted out with an oxygen mask during a face test at the USAF Wright Air Development Center, near Dayton, Ohio

'The next time the chimp was offered a banana before a sled ride, he took, peeled it, and smeared it over the veterinarian’s face.'
Teams of scientists put the apes to the test on machines that measured if they could cope in with gravity, velocity and the heat of space.
On January 31, 1961, Ham was launched on Mission MR-2 — but almost immediately there was a hitch.
The flight path was a degree higher than it should have been, meaning the craft reached an altitude of 157 miles above the earth — higher than the planned target of 115, and oxygen levels began to drop.
For six minutes of the flight, Ham was weightless as the capsule sped across the sky at around 5,000mph.

Exit: Ham, the space chimp, reaches for the hand of US Air Force veterinarian, Richard E. Benson, upon his arrival at the recovery ship after his historic ride through space on Mercury-Redstone 2 in 1961

Journey: At left, Enos, is escorted by Airman Michael Berman (L) and M/Sgt. Edward Dittmar on his return to Patrick Air Force Base, following his space flight. Enos was launched from Cape Canaveral November 29th and twice orbited the earth before landing safely in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda. Ham is pictured right

Home: A chimp is trained at the Holloman Air Force Base for space flight

Drive: A chimp operates a device during training at Holloman Air Force Base for space flight

Firsts: 'Kokomo, Jr.' holds his nose after checking a headline stating that a Russian is the first spaceman. Everyone knows that Kokomo Jr.'s cousin, U.S. space chimpanzee 'Ham' had made trip into space earlier this year and returned safely

It splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean 16 minutes and 39 seconds later, and when rescuers reached it, Ham gratefully accepted an apple and half an orange.
He was unharmed by his adventure, and went to live at the National Zoo in Washington for 17 years. He died at North Carolina Zoo at the age of 25 and is now buried at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The space race didn’t end with his flight, though.
Although NASA said that they had put a primate into space, the Russians argued that the flight was only sub-orbital — in other words, it hadn’t gone right round the world and did not count.
So, famously on April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin entered the history books when he became the first man in space aboard Vostok 1.
The Americans followed a month later on May 5 when Alan B. Shepard became their first astronaut. By then, Ham already had his feet up.

Cheeky: 'Ham' the chimpanzee wears a disdainful expression as he is released from his Mercury capsule seat after his historic space flight on Jan 31, 1961



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Chimpanzee 'asks' zoo visitors to free him from enclosure in heartbreaking film that shows him pointing at a window bolt and making a sign language

By ANNA EDWARDS

The YouTube user who uploaded the video claims that the monkey wanted to escape and was telling him to twist open the bolts

Intelligent and inquisitive, chimpanzees have always been able to communicate with man.
But this heartbreaking video shows just how desperate this chimp is to be understood and to be let out of his cage.
The chimp is seen in the video motioning to a watching visitor to unlock the bolt on what appears to be a glass door and lift the window, so he can be free.

Helping hand: The chimpanzee desperately tries to communicate with the human visitor

Tapping on the window the chimp repeatedly urges people standing on the other side of the glass to let them outside.
It links its fingers together, a signal similar to the American Sign Language representation of the word 'gate'.

Let me out! The chimp seems to make a sign that is similar to ASL's gate gesture

Alex Bailey from Manchester, who recorded the interaction at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, interprets the signs as a direction to free the chimp, The Telegraph reported.
One chuckling man taps on the window and copies the chimp's actions, mimicking the animal's mimes of opening the window.
A bystander can be heard giggling and saying: 'He wants us to open it'.
But the chimpanzee is more focused on trying to make itself understood, as it longingly looks at the people in front of him.

Communicating: The video shows the visitor mimicking the chimp's hand motions

The video, which lasts around 48 seconds, was filmed at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, according to The Telegraph.
If it is communicating with sign language, it is not the first chimpanzee to do so.
Washoe was a female chimpanzee who was the first non-human to learn to communicate using American Sign Language.
The animal, who died in 2007, learnt 350 words, and taught her adopted son Loulis.
Other chimpanzees were later taught 150 or more signs, which they were able to combine to form messages.

Understand me! The chimp points to its hands as it attempts to make itself understood

Chimpanzees and humans share many similarities and they are believed to be our closest relative in the animal kingdom.
Chimpanzees communicate using a variety of grunts, screams and other sounds.
Most of their communication, however, is done through gestures and facial expressions.
Many of their facial expressions – surprise, grinning, pleading, comforting – are very similar to humans.
Humans have one fewer pair of chromosomes than other apes, since the ape chromosomes 2 and 4 have fused into a large chromosome (which contains remnants of the centromere and telomeres of the ancestral 2 and 4) in humans.
Chimpanzees are often incorrectly called monkeys, but are in the great ape family just like us. The other great apes are orangutans and gorillas.
Human brains have a high surface area because they are much more wrinkled than chimpanzee brains, with greater numbers of connections.
These and a larger frontal lobe, allow us a greater capacity for abstract and logical thought.



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The great ape escape: Panic at German zoo as five chimpanzees create makeshift ladder out of branches and jump out of pen

By ALLAN HALL

Planning their escape?: The mischievous chimps photographed last week

A great ape escape caused panic in Germany when five clever chimpanzees broke out of their zoo compound, using a ladder they had fashioned together out of tree branches.
After scaling the wall on Wednesday, the primates were able to walk among the 2,500 visitors to Hanover's Experience Zoo.
While the chimps were content to taste life on the other side of the fence, a five year old girl and an an elderly man were hurt in the panic as staff hurriedly evacuated the park.

An escaped chimpanzee strolls among guests at Hanover's Experience Zoo

A total of 27 seven police cars raced to the scene to help steer the animals, which are often aggressive, extremely strong and capable of killing a human in seconds.
They were joined by zookeepers armed with pepper spray.
'At first it was quiet and then panic broke out,' said one visitor.
A five-year-old girl hurt herself when she fell over at the sight of them but was not seriously injured.
An elderly man also needed medical attention when he was locked in the tropical house in 100 degree heat as the chimps roamed outside.

Their enclosure, meanwhile, sat empty as feeding time came and went

Four of the five chimps - seven in total live in the enclosure - tasted freedom and decided they didn’t like it much.
They wandered back to the enclosure on their own - but leader of the pack Maxi was enjoying himself on the outside.
'He took himself off to see the head gorilla,' said Simone Hagenmeyer, the zoo spokeswoman.

Guests were hurried to exits for fear one of the escaped chimps might attack a human

'He was a bit harder to coax back.
'He’s getting on a bit so we gave him a ladder to climb back into the enclosure.'
An inquiry is now underway to determine what happened.
The zoo could be faced with a huge bill for the fleet of police, ambulances and fire engines that raced to the scene.

The chimps scaled the walls of their using a makeshift ladder

source: dailymail

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Check me out! Determined baby chimp takes first faltering steps away from safety of his doting mother's arms

By EMMA REYNOLDS

Brave explorer: The tiny chimpanzee wobbles slightly as he tries to look tough for the camera

This is the moment an adorable baby chimp took his first faltering steps away from his mother.
His beard and wrinkles belying his tender years, the brave youngster looked a little unsteady on his feet as he determinedly approached the camera in a bid to show off his confidence.
But his courage soon faded and he fled back to the safety of his family.
Photographer Konrad Wothe captured the sweet little chimp making his first forays out into the big wide world in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, Africa.
The 59-year-old's incredible, close-up shots reveal the true depth of the wide-eyed baby's heart-warming relationship with his family.

Growing up: The young animal is clearly keen to become independent, left, but is still deeply reliant on his doting mother, right

In one photograph, the youthful chimp appears to smile as he is cradled in his devoted mother's arms.
In another, he cautiously eyes the camera while sticking close to his parent's side.
Mr Wothe, from Munich, Germany, was delighted to be able to photograph the young chimp from such close quarters.
He said: 'As soon as the babies reach the age of six months they start to explore and leave the safe body of the mother and climb in the trees.

Nuts to this: Konrad Wothe photographed the little chimp at the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, Africa

'This baby was trying to intimidate me with short attacks, but before it reached me it ran back to mum and showed me grimaces.
'Within six days with the chimps I only had one close encounter with the baby and I was happy to get such nice shots.'
He added: 'You are lucky to find a female group of chimps and even more if they have a small baby among them.

I'd kill for a banana: The toddler relaxes with his mother in these rare and revealing close-up shots

'Each tourist or photographer has a limited time the apes. You are only allowed around an hour per day.
'The best time to see them is when they're on the ground. If they're up in the trees, it's very difficult to photograph them.'

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Aping human behaviour: Chimp turns into chain-smoking, beer-swilling chump at zoo

By AMY OLIVER

Puffing away: A chimpanzee exhales a huge draw of cigarette smoke at Tianshan wild animal zoo in Tianshan, Xinjiang, China

They are our closest living relatives.
But one chimpanzee may have taken the similarities between primate and man too far after being snapped chain smoking and enjoying a cold, can of lager.
The ape puffed on a cigarette at Tianshan wild animal zoo in Tianshan, Xinjiang, China, exhaling like a pro in the sweltering heat.

One is never enough: The chimpanzee then lights another cigarette from his first, unfinished one

He then used the half-smoked cigarette to light another one.
As if that habit wasn't bad enough, the chimp was then photographed guzzling down a can of beer, while his cigarette rested in his other hand.
The chimp is not the first ape to light up.
Another, from Zhengzhou Zoo in Henan province, China, took up smoking and spitting in 2004 after becoming sexually frustrated.

A beer as well? Why not: The chimp then gets stuck into a can of lager

Feili, then 13, had aped tourist behaviour, taking up the foul habit when her partner - 28 years her senior - was unable 'to meet her sexual demands'.
Then there was Ai Ai, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, from Xian, in central China's Shaanxi province, who took up comfort smoking when her mate died in 2005.
But the most famous smoking chimp was Charlie who died aged 52 in Mangaung Zoo, South Africa in 2001. He first sparked up after tourists threw him a couple of lit cigarettes.
At the time, a zoo spokesman said Charlie had only been an 'occasional smoker'. He lived around 10 years longer than the average chimp.
Video: Charlie the chimp filmed when he was a young smoker in Paignton Zoo, Devon



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Are dogs cleverer than chimps? Man's best friend is swifter on the uptake, says study

By FIONA MACRAE SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT

Showdown: A recent study found that dogs may actually be brighter than chimpanzees

Chimps may be known as the brains of the animal kingdom. But sometimes only dogs get the point.
Scientists pointed at one of two objects, asked for it to be brought to them, and counted up how many times their orders were obeyed.
In the study, the dogs did better than the chimps, despite the chimpanzee’s brain being the more similar to our own.
The team, from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, placed pairs of similar-looking objects, such as a piece of hosepipe and a piece of rope, at the back of a room.

They then pointed to the one they wanted, while order a dog or chimp standing with its back to the objects, to fetch the correct one.

If it did as asked, it was given some food as a reward.
Babies are capable of following such orders from the age of 14 months, suggesting the task is relatively simple, at least for the human brain.
Despite this, none of the chimps picked the object that had been pointed out at a rate that was higher than chance. However, more than a quarter of the dogs appeared to understand the task, the journal PLoS ONE reports.

Fur play: Ozzy from in Norwich, UK, shows off his balancing act while Jack, from Los Angeles in the U.S., is demon ice-hockey player

The German scientists suggested their results could be explained by pet dogs being bred to follow orders.
They said: ‘Dogs’ special receptiveness to human co-operative communication makes them the perfect social tool for certain activities like herding and hunting.
'One hypothesis is that dogs see human communication as imperatives and spatial directives, ordering them what to do and where to go next.'
Previous research has concluded that dogs make better pets than cats – but only by a whisker.

source: dailymail

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The heartbreaking plight of research chimps who have spent their entire 30-year lives in laboratories

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Caged for life: A young chimp chews on a piece of cardboard as he stares through the bars of his cage

Chimpanzees are being kept in research centres their whole lives and deliberately infected with killer diseases, a process activists describe as 'torture'.
The plight of these laboratory apes has been highlighted by a new report, which goes inside the labs and talks to the scientists involved, set to air on NBC this week.
Researchers who work with the chimps at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio say their suffering contributes to mankind's understanding of how to combat deadly illnesses such as hepatitis and Aids.

Experimentation: Lab chimps undergo repeated medical procedures by researchers hoping to conquer killer diseases

And they insist that the animals are not mistreated, but are kept in outdoor enclosures whose condition is similar to that of a sanctuary or a zoo.
But campaigner Jane Goodall told NBC that it was inherently cruel to lock up chimpanzees 'in a small space with no choice', saying: 'All invasive research is torture.'

Born behind bars: A young chimp knows no other life but being in a lab

She particularly drew attention to the fact that at the Texas institute, chimps are kept in the research programme until they die, rather than being released to an animal sanctuary once they reach old age.
This means that apes like Rosie and Ken, both 30 years old, have already undergone more than 100 medical procedures, and will not leave the laboratory for the rest of their lives - which could last another 30 years.

Cruel: Anthropologist and primatologist Jane Goodall says the government should ban lab tests on chimps

John VandeBerg, director of the centre, argued that it provides its animals with a quality of life as good as they would get at a sanctuary.
And he claimed that even if they were no longer the subject of day-to-day research, the procedures they have already undergone could be crucial in future medical breakthroughs.
I think of the chimpanzees in the same way that I think of a library,' he said. 'There are many books in the library that will never be used this year or next year.
'Many of them might never be used again. But we don't know which ones will be needed tomorrow, next year or the year after.'
Chimpanzee research was central to the development of a vaccine against hepatitis B, and scientists hope that they could also be used in the battle against hepatitis C.

A question of freedom: Chimps are confined within the Texas Biomedical Research Institute their whole lives

Because so many animals at the Texas institute are infected with hepatitis and other diseases like HIV, the NBC camera crew which filmed them was not allowed to approach the cages and had to shoot from a distance.
The chimps live outside, in enclosures known as primadomes - and one scientist who works with them said that this should dispel 'the wrong opinion that these animals are in little bitty cages in a dark room with no windows'.

source: dailymail

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