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I have been warning you and warning you: It just takes one judge, wanting to make history, to kick the props out from under our tottering societal embrace of human exceptionalism. In Argentina–next door to Brazil, where a judge was previously poised to grant a writ of habeas corpus to a chimp when the animal died–a court has declared an orangutan a “person.” From the Reuters story: An orangutan held in an Argentine zoo can be freed and transferred to a sanctuary after a court recognized the ape as a “non-human person” unlawfully deprived of its freedom, local media reported...

(Reuters/REUTERS - An orangutan named Sandra, covered with a blanket, gestures inside its cage at Buenos Aires' Zoo, in this December 8, 2010 file photo. An orangutan held in an Argentine zoo can be freed) BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An orangutan held in an Argentine zoo can be freed and transferred to a sanctuary after a court recognized the ape as a "non-human person" unlawfully deprived of its freedom, local media reported on Sunday. Animal rights campaigners filed a habeas corpus petition - a document more typically used to challenge the legality of a person's detention or imprisonment - in...

Orangutan In Argentina Zoo Recognised By Court As 'Non-Human Person' Sandra, 29, can be freed in Buenos Aires and transferred to a sanctuary Animal rights campaigners win after filing habeas corpus petition Tommy the chimp is not a person, New York court decides Sandra the orangutan 21 December 2014 An orangutan held in an Argentinian zoo can be freed and transferred to a sanctuary after a court recognised the ape as a “non-human person” unlawfully deprived of its freedom, local media reported on Sunday. Animal rights campaigners filed a habeas corpus petition – a document more typically used to challenge...

A Naples man is accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after an incident Friday outside a bank, where he told deputies he was half orangutan and needed to call the “Fusion Center” to ask about his monkey blood. Collier County sheriff’s deputies arrested 51-year-old Mark Loescher, of the 1100 block of Reserve Way Boulevard, outside the Wells Fargo Bank at 5094 Airport-Pulling Road N. A woman there said a man in a green car pulled out a gun after she told him his vehicle was smoking. Deputies said they responded to the bank shortly before 5 p.m. to...

Results from research conducted by a team of scholars and scientists on the dietary lives of orangutans in tropical Borneo have given possible clues to how very early human ancestors may have adapted, survived and changed millions of years ago. In addition, the results may help scientists better understand eating disorders and obesity in human populations today. Led by evolutionary anthropologist Erin Vogel of Rutgers University (pictured below, right), the research team analyzed samples of compounds and byproducts in Orangutan urine over a 5-year period to determine the effects of protein recycling in their dietary, or eating behavior. What they...

Video

Did anybody see the NCAA UNC-Washington game that just ended? The (African-American) CBS announcer made that statement while comparing the player's height to his wingspan. I was just thinking if the announcer were white, he'd be having a "Jimmy the Greek" moment right about now...

When Surya, the orangutan, meets a hound dog by the river

Ever since I watched Clint Eastwood's movie, "Every Which Way But Loose", I have loved Orangutans. Add that to my love of dogs and you will understand that the story of Suryia the orangutan and Roscoe the hound dog would sooner or later grace this site. The duo became mates after meeting at a South Carolina sanctuary for endangered animals. They are now inseparable as Suryia and Roscoe can be seen swimming and playing together daily around the sanctuary.       The narrator of the video is Dr. Bhagavan Antle, who has his detractors like Carole Baskin of "Big Cat Rescue". ...

When Surya the orangutan meets a hound dog by the river, the two carry on like long lost friends.

New evidence underscores the theory of human origin that suggests humans most likely share a common ancestor with orangutans, according to research from the University of Pittsburgh and the Buffalo Museum of Science. Reporting in the June 18 edition of the Journal of Biogeography, the researchers reject as "problematic" the popular suggestion, based on DNA analysis, that humans are most closely related to chimpanzees, which they maintain is not supported by fossil evidence.

Two female orangutans have been seen cannibalising the bodies of their recently deceased babies. Such behaviour has never before been recorded in any great ape species. The two incidences occurred just one month apart in the same region of forest in Indonesia. The conservationist who witnessed both incidences suspects they were examples of aberrant behaviour, triggered by stressful living conditions suffered by both mothers. Humans aside, chimpanzees were the only great apes known to engage in cannabilism, the eating of members of the same species. The behaviour had also been inferred but not seen in gorillas, after the remains of...

Now animals fall victim to China toxic milk scandal as officials admit cover-up during Olympics By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 11:43 AM on 26th September 2008 The 'tainted milk' scandal, which has claimed the lives of four infants and left more than 50,000 children ill in China, is now putting zoo animals in danger. Two orangutans, aged one and three, and a lion cub are now reported to be showing signs of kidney stones after being fed the milk powder for more than a year. The animals are from the Hangzhou Safari Park World near Shanghai. All had...

GLEN ST. MARY, Fla. -- Mysterious ape sightings are bringing excitement to a sleepy Florida town. Residents have been hearing screeches in the night and stories of sightings echo on every corner. The local newspaper even ran a story about the sightings. "There is kind of that 'I've seen a bigfoot' type of feel to it," said resident Eric Lawson. "They said it made a nest in that tree, so it's probably somewhere here in the area." Some believe the mysterious animal is an orangutan -- one local family had found what looked to be an orange ape up high...

A hulking orangutan escaped from his cage and terrified restaurant patrons Wednesday, at the same Taiwan zoo where a crocodile recently chomped off a veterinarian's arm. The latest incident at the Shaoshan Zoo in the southern city of Kaohsiung began when the orangutan pushed his way out of his cage and wandered into a nearby restaurant courtyard. It was captured on camera by Taiwanese cable news station TVBS. As zoo officials scurried to bring the animal under control, he gleefully overturned picnic tables and motorbikes, forcing terrified diners to cower inside the eatery. The orangutan was finally subdued when an...

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26 - In hiring Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, to remake the monster classic "King Kong," Universal Pictures took a daring leap, paying him $20 million to direct, produce and be the co-writer of the film. With seven weeks to go before the movie's release, the risks are becoming clearer. After seeing a version of the film in late September at Mr. Jackson's studio in New Zealand, Universal executives agreed to release "King Kong" at a length of three hours. The film is substantially longer than Universal had anticipated and...

Evidence for the orangutan being the closest living relative of modern humans is based on at least 35 known characters that appear to be either exclusive to humans and orangutans or largely absent in outgroups.

...for use in genetics-based population divergence studies. Abstract: The length of the human generation interval is a key parameter when using genetics to date population divergence events. However, no consensus exists regarding the generation interval length, and a wide variety of interval lengths have been used in recent studies. This makes comparison between studies difficult, and questions the accuracy of divergence date estimations. Recent genealogy-based research suggests that the male generation interval is substantially longer than the female interval, and that both are greater than the values commonly used in genetics studies. This study evaluates each of these hypotheses in...

A MAN I KNOW, NED MARKOSIAN, teaches a doctrine called presentism. In presentism the past and the future don't exist. Aristotle is dead; therefore, there was no Aristotle. We meet to talk about this over coffee, maybe the ultimate nonpresentist drink. He has applied for and gotten tenure, and writes and publishes, hurling himself into that unreality, the future. I have been thinking about presentism lately, and consciousness, and language. Linguist Derek Bickerton wrote, "Only language could have broken through the prison of immediate experience in which every other creature is locked, releasing us into infinite freedoms of space...