Choose the tool that another monkey chose

Tiago Falótico@tfalotico.bsky.social · 11h ago

Excited to share our new paper in Proc. R. Soc. B! 🐒🪨 We found that wild capuchin monkeys prioritize "social cues" (signs of previous use) over raw material quality when choosing nut-cracking tools. A big step in understanding cultural evolution in primates. #AnimalBehavior #primatology

Chimp of the Week: Toby’s captor in Indiana died and left instructions for him to be shot. Fortunately, @animallegaldefense.bsky.social got him to the Center for Great Apes sanctuary, where even the quarantine enclosure is relatively luxurious. No more pizza, Mountain Dew, & Fanta, for this guy.

Goode's new series, "Monsters of Gods," comes to HBO this Thursday, August 6.

Animal Instinct: After ‘Tiger King’ and ‘Chimp Crazy,’ Filmmaker Eric Goode Exposes His Own Past With the Illegal Reptile Trade

Goode admits he was “part of the problem” in the new HBO docuseries ‘Monsters of God,’ which takes his gonzo style of documentary to dangerous new levels: “People don’t realize how fucking crazy we ar...

vanityfair.com

4 from @ugarles.bsky.social and 1 from me

1/ Ape Sh*t issue #1 is now shipping via mail order. One advantage of print-on-demand is that you can make corrections in future printings. So here’s a deal: Anyone first to find a typo or factual error in issue #1 gets a copy of #2 when it's out.

A new study surveys primates’ cross-species relationships, in the wild and in captivity. The key takeaway: Photos of monkeys with other animals are adorable. doi.org/10.1007/s103...

Chimp of the week: Ronnie from Wales Ape & Monkey Sanctuary. Considered remarkably chill, he grew up with a young orangutan and uses sign language to tell visitors to take off their glasses, hats and coats. www.ape-monkey-rescue.org.uk/chimpanzees/...

Thought this episode of the Overshoot podcast about politics within animal groups was awesome. We know about chimpanzee politics but primates aren’t unique: social dynamics in most animals aren't all about aggression & domination.

Animals and the Right to Politics — Population Balance

For millennia, animals have been treated as property or passive recipients of moral concern rather than as political beings with agency. Political philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, authors...

populationbalance.org

Last seen smoking a cigarette, telling a reporter to leave him alone and "go back to kissing jimothy's ass." they grow up so fast.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire.bsky.social · 2w ago

Punch turns 1, has friends, no longer carries around the plushie. And journalists now refer to him as a "he" instead of how they reference other individual monkeys, as "it." Celebrity certainly has its benefits.

Punch turns 1, has friends, no longer carries around the plushie. And journalists now refer to him as a "he" instead of how they reference other individual monkeys, as "it." Celebrity certainly has its benefits.

Japan’s monkey sensation Punch turns 1, drawing a flood of well-wishing messages, in photos

Punch, the orphaned monkey at a Japanese zoo that stole many people’s hearts by clinging to an orangutan plushie, is marking his first birthday with a flood of well-wishing messages from his fans arou...

independent.co.uk

Ape Sh*t #1 follows IUCN guidelines against sharing photos of humans with nonhumans because they inadvertantly fuel the primate pet trade. What’s tough is that even the movie Madagascar - cartoons! - got idiots to seek out primates as pets. human-primate-interactions.org/best-practic...

Best Practice Guidelines – Responsible Images of Non-Human Primates

Best Practice Guidelines for Responsible Images of Non-Human Primates A document detailing appropriate imagery (photos and videos) to be shared of non-human primates. The document describes in deta…

human-primate-interactions.org

The first issue of Ape Shit is now available via mail! (coming to stores in September) It investigates the the American saga of the "service monkey," the former practice of using monkeys as thieves, how capuchins fight back against their captors & more. orbooks.com/catalog/ape-shit/

Original _European Psychologist_ paper with much more detail is pay-walled here: econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10....

What Became of the Chimps Who Revolutionized Our Understanding of Animal Behavior?

What Became of the Chimps Who Revolutionized Our Understanding of Animal Behavior?: It’s a harrowing tale of deadly winters in Berlin captivity

nautil.us

1/ Study: Great apes in zoos are (still) too fat Tho obesity has been a problem for decades, zoos as a whole have yet to move the needle. Some clear remedies discussed here: more fiber and leafy edibles and less — or, better yet, no — cultivated fruit. That’s right, no more bananas!

Global Data From Great Ape Zoo Populations Confirm a High Prevalence of Overweight Individuals

A global database reveals that a majority of great apes kept in zoos are overweight, likely as a result of the mismatch between their biology and their zoo diets. Corrective measures are necessary to....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Badly written science papers are a dime a dozen but this one is almost comical. Wanted to read this but - damn! - the combo of jargon and passive verbiage in the abstract alone is something else. (From the _American Journal of Primatology_)

Just saw this viral video of kids climbing gas pipes to get on top of a wardrobe, and my first thought was "these kids must be living in a region with monkeys." www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/1uy8pjq/a_mother_asked_her_children_to_recreate_how_the/

Solly Zuckerman’s 1933 primates physiology textbook includes a single photo to illustrate chimpanzees. Mind-boggingly dense about animal emotions, he (likely unwittingly) used a pic that poetically represented the captive experience.

New monkey alert! A colobus with curiously orange lips! Detail: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/science/meet-earths-newest-monkey-and-check-out-its-orange-lips.html. video via the original paper journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0349857

In the category of things likely funny only to someone who searches Google every day for monkey news, I love how the headline writers here managed to add in the "abandoned at birth" trope to the ol’ "zoo captive picks a winner" classic. 1/2

“A 2026 study in the American Journal of Primatology, based on a year-long field study of a macaque troop in central Nepal, found that nearly half of their diet now comes from cultivated crops.”

Monkey vs machine: Nepal tests AI to fight crop-raiding macaques

KATHMANDU — At dawn in Birta Deurali village of Kavrepalanchok in central Nepal, maize fields aren’t quiet. Farmers stand guard, scanning the trees for movement, but they aren’t the only ones there. “...

news.mongabay.com

In 1930, many newspapers reported that Joe Doaks (pictured) won the International Monkey Balloon derby. What most papers didn’t mention is that Joe won because all 3 of his competitors climbed the ropes and tried to puncture the balloons, presumably to ground them. 1/2 #RESISTANCE

R.I.P. to Marco, who died at 67 from heart failure at the Center for Great Apes Sanctuary. Marco was a short dude with a lot of "pizazz," always eager to greet people with a clap and a toss of a big toy in the air. 1/2

#primates

Gorilla moms swap babies at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo

In a story that sounds more akin to a Greek myth or a Shakespearean play, two new gorilla moms at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo are raising each other's baby boys.

kuow.org

You're welcome, for some good news. "traditional rulers... regret not entrusting the women with conservation leadership much earlier... “If we had involved these women a long time ago, we would have eradicated most of the threats to the sanctuary,” Akie told Mongabay."

The women leading a quiet conservation revolution in a Nigerian gorilla sanctuary

BOKI, Nigeria — The morning light fills Ulom with warmth and radiance. A dome of mountains, their green vegetation spread out like giant green walls, is visible at the edge of this serene village in N...

news.mongabay.com

Baby gorilla forced to pose with hairless white monster for author photo again #primates

Nice piece from @chrisnsimms.bsky.social

Orangutan mothers seem to plan playdates for their offspring

Female orangutans are generally solitary, but they travel more and eat less in an apparent effort to ensure their offspring have someone to play with

newscientist.com

Here’s one clear way to help all kinds of wildlife: stop eating animals

MUST READ: Global boom in livestock farming since 2006 is piling pressure on nature, report finds, reports Fiona Harvey in The Graun. Wildlife at risk as demand for cropland and water grows to feed 50% rise in farmed animals, campaign alliance says. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Photos of baby gorilla John Daniel (1917-1922) helped counter the then-prevailing view of gorillas as ferocious beasts. But a few months after this one was taken, John Daniel was sold to Ringling Brothers and died shortly thereafter.

That city in Thailand where they host a giant feast for macaques every year and tourists come to feed the monkeys year-round? Yeah, that one.

Nearly 100 monkeys escape enclosure in Thailand - UPI.com

Officials in a Thailand city said authorities are scrambling to capture nearly 100 monkeys that broke out of their enclosure.

upi.com