Mr. Monkey Goes AWOL!

Bill the Chimp's Brief Adventure
From Associated Press

EUREKA, Calif. — An escaped chimpanzee is back at the Sequoia Park Zoo after a jaunt through a residential area that provided quite a sight for the Neighborhood Watch. Bill wandered off Thursday night after vandals cut a hole in his cage, officials said.
The Eureka Police Department received a call about 10:45 p.m. from a neighbor who said the chimp was in a backyard on Glatt Street. Zoo staffers arrived with police to take Bill home. "He was extremely stressed and excited," said zoo supervisor Gretchen Ziegler. She said changes to zoo security would be made immediately. The 59-year-old chimp came to the Sequoia Park Zoo from a European circus in July 1957.

Here's The Story, Of A Lovely Monkey...

A full house as Mojo's dad has two new babies
By Maureen Coleman
11 October 2005

The father of Belfast Zoo's famous monkey escapee, Mojo, has added two more babies to his family.
Tommy, who came to Belfast from Krefeld Zoo in Germany eight years ago, is now the proud father of 21 monkeys - following the birth of two new Colobus monkeys in the last few months.
The keepers haven't been able to catch the energetic newcomers - who like to play with the rest of the family - to find out what sex they are, so they have not been named yet.
Both the two mothers and babies are doing well.
Tommy, who is 11 years of age, made the headlines recently when one of his sons, Mojo, escaped from Belfast Zoo in June.
He was on the loose for about a week.
At the minute Mojo and his six brothers are awaiting their passports for their new home in sunny South Africa.
Zoo manager Mark Challis said: "We are delighted to have these cute new additions to the troop of Colobus monkeys and to be breeding these endangered species."

Homeless Monkeys

Monkey House Needed For Baboons

Eight monkeys rescued from a Portuguese zoo which closed 12 years ago, have secured a place in a primate sanctuary in the Swansea valley.

The Olive Baboons and Green Monkey have been kept in a temporary enclosure in Portugal since the zoo closed.

But the conditions are not ideal for the primates and exotic animal specialist Peter Heathcote from Newport is working to bring them to the UK.


The baboons have been held in a temporary enclosure for 12 years

He is trying to raise money for a new enclosure to be built for the monkeys.

"The sooner we can get the money, the sooner we can build the enclosure and get them into much better conditions," he explained.

He said that the primates are currently in an enclosure which is cramped and does not offer them enough stimulation.

Some of the primates are suffering from pressure sores because the flooring of the enclosure is not suitable for them.


The enclosure where the baboons are currently kept in Portugal

"The enclosure has a concrete base and it is very small. It is amazing they have survived as long as they have.

"It is very distressing to see them and we are desperate to get them better conditions to live in," said Mr Heathcote, who is a member of the Exotic Animal Welfare Trust.

Mr Heathcote, approached the Cefn-yr-Erw Primate Sanctuary in the upper Swansea valley about taking in the primates.

The owners of the sanctuary, which already has more than 50 rescued primates, agreed to take in the seven baboons and the green monkey, but a new enclosure has to be built before they can bring them over from Portugal.

Jan Garen, who runs the sanctuary in Caehopkin, near Ystradgynlais, with her husband Graham, must now raise the money for the enclosure.


A Green Monkey is among the group being brought from Portugal


"Because they are coming from abroad, they have to be put into quarantine, so we want to build a new enclosure which can be used to hold them for the quarantine period and which they can live in afterwards," she said.

"They need indoor quarters which will be centrally heated and they need an outside area too.

"As soon as we saw the pictures of the conditions they are in at the moment we wanted to help, it was quite shocking really."

I Thought I Saw Mr. Monkey At Menard's!

Gorillas Seen Using Tools In Wild
Sept. 30, 2005

For the first time, biologists have documented gorillas in the wild using simple tools, such as poking a stick in a swampy pool of water to check its depth.

Until now, scientists had seen gorillas use tools only in captivity. Among the great apes, tool use in the wild was thought to be a survival skill reserved for smaller chimpanzees and orangutans.

The research in the Republic of Congo's rainforests was led by Thomas Breuer of the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, which released details of his study. Breuer is in Africa and was not immediately available for an interview.

"This is a truly astounding discovery," he said in a statement. "Tool usage in wild apes provides us with valuable insights into the evolution of our own species and the abilities of other species."

Other scientists said the observations were important, but not surprising.

Breuer's observations were made late last year in a marshy clearing called Mbeli Baia located in Nouabale-Ndoki National Park where monitoring has been ongoing since February 1995.


This female gorilla in a Republic of Congo National Park kept finding herself waist deep after only a few steps. She retrieved a branch from a nearby tree and used it to test the depth of the water.


The first instance was observed last October when a female gorilla (nicknamed Leah by scientists) attempted to wade through a pool of water created by elephants, but found herself waist deep after only a few steps. Climbing out of the pool, she retrieved a branch from a dead tree and used the stick to test the depth of the water.

In November, a second female gorilla (named Efi) used a detached tree trunk to support herself with one hand while digging for herbs with the other hand. She also used the tree trunk as a bridge to cross a muddy patch of ground.

Details of the findings are being published in the online journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology. Video of the gorillas will be broadcast Saturday on the PBS program "Wild Chronicles."

Fairly or not, gorillas have been considered less capable than other great apes, in part because they have not been as extensively studied.

Chimps, for example, have been continuously observed in the field for 40 years since Jane Goodall launched her landmark study at Gombe Stream in Tanzania. They have become stars of television documentaries and glossy magazine articles, displaying their extensive of use of rocks to break open hard-shelled nuts and sticks to "fish" termites from mounds.


The infant 2 1/2-year-old female gorilla named Itebero, seen smashing palm nuts between rocks in a 'hammer and anvil' technique, at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International sanctuary in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, Oct, 8, 2005. This premeditated use of stones and sticks to accomplish a task like cracking nuts, which was considered among the most complex tool use behaviors, is intriguing scientists who say they have much to learn about what gorillas can do, and about the inplications on our knowledge of evolution.


In contrast, gorillas are much larger, stronger and slower.

"Chimps are portrayed as the super-ape and gorillas are the big brutes in the forest," said Richard Carroll, a primate expert and director of the Africa program at the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C. He has conducted gorilla field studies since 1980. He did not contribute to Breuer's report.

"Gorillas are very intelligent, but they don't have to be as delicate as chimps — they can just smash open the termite nest," said Carroll, who a decade ago reported observing gorillas using sticks to ward off attacking leopards.

"New studies like this show that especially lowland gorillas are very chimp-like in their abilities," he said.

Carroll said the new study was made possible by the establishment of protected parks in Congo by agreements between conservation groups, international agencies and the government. The populations of gorillas and other great apes are severely imperiled by logging, hunting and outbreaks of the Ebola virus. And, civil war in Congo has made field science dangerous for years. "It's a tribute to conservation efforts that allow people to sit and observe and not be in fear of their lives," he said.

Mr. Monkey Going Cold Turkey?

Chimp no longer has monkey on his back
Mon Oct 3,10:44 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A chimpanzee in a northwest China zoo has quit smoking after 16 years with the help of her keepers, official media reported.
The staff, worried about her declining health, weaned 27-year-old "Ai Ai" off tobacco by distracting her with entertainment and a tastier diet, Xinhua news agency said.
"The zoo keepers tried every way to divert the chimp's attention from cigarettes: a walk after breakfast, a music session after lunch and gym after dinner," Xinhua said.
She also got fried dishes and dumplings, as well as the usual diet of milk, bananas and rice, said one zoo keeper.
"I also put earphones on her so that she could enjoy some pop music from my walkman," he said.
"In the first few days, she squealed for cigarettes every now and then, but as her life became more colorful she gradually forgot about them altogether."
Xinhua attributed Ai Ai's habit to solitude and grief.
Living in a safari park in Shaanxi province, she had taken up smoking in 1989 shortly after her mate died, it said. Then she had become a chain smoker after her second mate died in 1997 and her daughter was moved to another zoo.
Xinhua did not say who had first given cigarettes to her or kept supplying them.
The Xian Evening News said the zoo was trying to find another mate for her.