“Finish your yogurt, sweetheart, it’s good for your bones. And take a few almonds, so you’ll stay healthy.” You may have heard this before, and rightly so. Minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, are vital to our functioning as they ensure that our bones, muscles, heart and brain work properly. And the same holds for […]
Tag: Chimpanzee
July 14th is World Chimpanzee Day
We chimps are smart Perhaps as smart as you We are better at being chimps Than you humans Are at being you We love we quarrel We eat we play So many things we do During an average chimp day We are endangered What’s the fuss? We want you humans to Care about us
Sick chimps seek out medicinal plants to heal themselves, study finds
Wild chimpanzees actively seek out plants with medicinal properties to treat themselves for specific ailments,a new study has found. While most animals consume foods with medicinal properties as part of their routine diet, few species have been shown to engage in self-medication in a way that suggests they have basic awareness of the healing properties […]
Eco-Influencers Unveiled: Spreading Awareness of Lesser-Known Wildlife Facts
Social media personalities focused on eco-causes are educating millions about the hidden wonders of the natural world. Imagine getting schooled on the wild lives of animals by authorities who live and breathe conservation – that’s what happens when influencers harness social media to dish out fascinating facts about species’ survival strategies, quirky habits, and the […]
Chimps are dying of the common cold. Is great ape tourism to blame?
There was something wrong with the chimpanzees. For weeks, a community of 205 animals in Uganda’s Kibale national park had been coughing, sneezing and looking generally miserable. But no one could say for sure what ailed them, even as the animals began to die. Necropsies can help to identify a cause of death, but normally, […]
First report of wound treatment by a wild animal using a pain-relieving plant
Even though there is evidence of certain self-medication behaviors in animals, so far it has never been known that animals treat their wounds with healing plants. Now, biologists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Germany and Universitas Nasional, Indonesia have observed this in a male Sumatran orangutan who sustained a facial wound. He […]
Certified timber harvesting of tropical forests proves beneficial for gorillas and elephants
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified timber harvesting areas in Gabon and Congo boast a greater abundance of larger mammals, such as leopards, gorillas, and elephants, than non-FSC forests. Utrecht University researcher Joeri Zwerts and colleagues conclude this based on 1.3 million camera trap images gathered in fourteen commercially exploited forests. The researchers’ analysis reveals the effectiveness […]
Bonobos, the ‘hippy apes’, may not be as peaceful as once thought
Anthropologist Maud Mouginot recalls an encounter with bonobos early one morning in 2019 deep in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo that helped revise her impression of them as the peace-loving “hippy apes.” It was still pitch dark in Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve, in the center of the country, and she and colleagues were […]