Latest Primates News
Koko the gorilla, who learned sign language, dies at 46
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Koko the gorilla, whose remarkable sign-language ability and motherly attachment to pet cats helped change the world's views about the intelligence of animals and their capacity for empathy, has died at 46. Koko was taught sign language from an early age as a scientific test subject...
Live animals, meat, ivory, wood seized in trafficking stings
PARIS (AP) — Thousands of live animals along with tons of meat, ivory, pangolin scales and timber were seized in a monthlong global crackdown on the illegal wildlife trade that Interpol said exposed the international reach of traffickers. The live animals recovered in the stings included turtles in...
Primate center sued by PETA offers to give up chimps
FESTUS, Mo. (AP) — A center in eastern Missouri is offering to give up its chimpanzees and other primates to settle a lawsuit filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Lawyers for the Missouri Primate Foundation in Festus told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday the center's owner, Connie Braun...
Congo's Ebola outbreak poses challenges for bush meat
MBANDAKA, Congo (AP) — For 25 years, Patrick Matondo has earned a living buying and selling monkeys, bats and other animals popularly known as bush meat along the Congo River. Standing on the riverbank in Mbandaka, a city affected by the deadly new outbreak of the Ebola virus, the father of five said that...
Prague zoo says it's on its way to breeding rare lemurs
PRAGUE (AP) — Prague's zoo says its attempt to breed critically endangered white-belted ruffed lemurs is on the right track. David Vala, the zoo's chief primate curator, said Friday that three lemurs born April 22 have been doing well. Vala said: "We haven't won yet, but we already have the most difficult...
Orangutan forest being logged despite Indonesian gov't vow
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Environmentalists say a tropical forest that's home to critically endangered orangutans on Borneo island is being logged more than a year after Indonesia's forestry and environment ministry ordered a halt to the forest's exploitation. Greenpeace said Tuesday its investigations at...
Africa's mountain gorilla population now exceeds 1,000
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A new survey shows Africa's critically endangered mountain gorillas have exceeded 1,000 after conservation efforts, making them the only great ape in the world considered to be growing in number. The WWF says mountain gorilla numbers have increased to 604 from an estimated 480 in...
Visitors to zoo witness gorilla birth in exhibit
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Visitors at a Pittsburgh zoo got a surprise when they witnessed a gorilla giving birth in the exhibit area. Moka, the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium's 22-year-old Western lowland gorilla, gave birth to her third baby Friday morning. The zoo says Moka is very attentive and has been...
Scientists say Chinese-backed dam risks orangutan habitat
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Scientists are calling for cancellation of a Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam in Indonesia that threatens the habitat of a newly discovered orangutan species numbering only 800 animals. In the journal Current Biology, the experts say the 510-megawatt dam in Sumatra will flood or...
Milwaukee zoo officials investigate gorilla deaths
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Officials at Milwaukee County Zoo are trying to determine whether the recent deaths of two of the zoo's gorillas are related. WITI-TV reports the zoo's other gorillas weren't on exhibit Wednesday. Zoo officials announced the death Monday of Naku, a 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla. Her...
LOADING MORE STORIES
