Jun 19 2008
Life returning to normal at Great Ape Trust
The Great Ape Trust in Iowa is returning to normal after the floods which caused so much disruption.
The ape homes are now clean and dry after a heroic effort by staff.
Archive for June, 2008
Jun 18 2008
Female chimpanzees play a subtle mating game
From the Guardian:
British psychologists working in the forests of western Uganda have recorded the first evidence of sexual politics influencing the mating calls of our closest primate ancestors.
Researchers spent 10 months in the Budongo forest observing and recording calls from a community of 78 chimpanzees, only eight of whom were adult males.
They found that chimpanzees varied wildly in the extent of their calls during mating, but noticed a pattern that had never been spotted before. Audio recordings revealed that females were more vocal during sex if there were other high-ranking males around, but that they toned the noise down significantly when aggressive females were nearby.
The findings suggest that chimpanzees are able to use their calls for more complex social communication than previously thought.
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Jun 13 2008
Great Ape Trust Flooded
The Great Ape trust of Iowa has been caught up in the floods. Fortunately, all the apes are safe in their well-designed buildings. All non-essential personnel have been evacuated.
The trust has contingency plans to evacuate the apes to zoos temporarily in the event of an emergency.
It looks like the worst is over, and things are beginning to return to normal. It’ll take a while to clean up the damage though.