Monkey-related News

“People think I have the power because I have the monkeys…”

Posted by admin on February 12, 2010
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But they would be wrong!

Hilarious skit about what you can do with a room full of evil monkeys from the Kids in the Hall. Thanks to Shelf Monkey for pointing this one out:

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You can find it at youtube too, if the embedded video doesn’t work.

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BBC to preview Chimp-O-Vision

Posted by admin on January 26, 2010
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Early critical buzz already has the film's main director, Bobo, as a potiential BAFTA nominee

Early critical buzz already has the film's main director, Bobo, as a potiential BAFTA nominee

According to Metro.co.uk, the BBC is going to be the first national broadcasting network to show a film shot entirely by chimpanzees.

There is no word yet on what the various entertainment unions plan to do about this radical attack on their livelihoods. The British actor’s union, Equity, should be especially worried, as Metro reports that the movie stars the chimpanzees as well.

Metro says:

Betsy Herrelko, studying for a PhD in primate behaviour at the University of Stirling, came up with the idea of giving the chimps a camera to see if she could learn how the animals perceive the world and each other.

You can read the whole article here. HT to Monkeywire. Photo by Tim Ellis.

Monkeys and apes can talk, so why don’t they?

Posted by admin on January 12, 2010
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I loathe you.There’s a fascinating article about language and why monkeys don’t talk. According to the New York Times:

Monkeys and apes possess many of the faculties that underlie language. They hear and interpret sequences of sounds much like people do. They have good control over their vocal tract and could produce much the same range of sounds as humans. But they cannot bring it all together.

The poor little buggers are locked in. Chimps, for example, could really use language, especially while their planning a coup or other political moves. But they can’t make the jump. It makes you wonder if some day we may be able to help them do so, just as David Brin hypothesized in his Uplift series. Photo by ecmorgan.

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Boozy Vervets

Posted by admin on December 29, 2009
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It’s a few days late, but this Christmas present came to me via Monkeywire. Vervet monkeys stealing drinks from tourists in St. Kitts.

The BBC announcer tries to make this seem like a nature show, and even compares the drinking habits of monkeys with those of humans. (Apparently the rates of teetotalers, moderate drinkers and raging alcoholics is roughly the same, indicating that our hooch predilections may be genetically determined.)

But mostly it’s a video about drunken monkeys.

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You can find the sloshed simians here, and Monkewire is here.

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Taekwondo – monkey style!

Posted by admin on December 17, 2009
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Rule number one of monkey fight club is you turn on the humans!

My monkey-fu is stronger than yours!A news story in the California Chronicle reports:

MONKEYS trained in the art of taekwondo turned on their handler – kicking his head in.

LoWung, 42, taught the martial art to primates so they could entertain crowds at a shopping centre in Nshi, China.

But shoppers found it even more entertaining when one sharp monkey floored him with a kick to the head.

Read the full story here.

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