The midlife crisis cliché is not uniquely human because our primate cousins go through the same emotions. A team of international researchers have found that dissatisfaction in midlife may have evolved in our common ancestors rather than just from the stresses of modern life. The well-being of 508 captive great apes from around the world […]
July 27, 2011
Since news at work spread about my interests in our hairier cousins, any stories remotely connected to non-human primates are immediately thrown my way. And today was no exception. I was sent down to a press conference this morning at the Wellcome Trust where a panel of experts, who took part in an independent review […]
March 7, 2011
A half-century ago, more than three-quarters of Indonesia, was blanketed in plush tropical rainforest. But today it’s a different story; the growing demand to feed the world with pulp, paper and more recently palm oil (which is used in everything from lipstick and soap to “clean-burning” fuel) has seen half those trees destroyed leaving the organtuan […]
March 6, 2011
The debate about chimpanzees being used for medical research reached boiling point this week, as campaigners in the United States filed a legal petition. The row is over the fate of 14 chimpanzees who were allegedly moved illegally from a colony of 186 “research” chimpanzees that live in Alamogordo Primate Facility – AFP, (formerly the Coulston […]
November 19, 2010
Africa has always been a continent that’s intrigued me – the stunning landscapes; untamed wildlife; beautiful dialects that vary across bordering countries and a nation that embraces its tribal traditions. My father was born in Tanzania, or Tanganyika as he still refers to it, (the name was changed in 1964). I was taken there as […]
November 20, 2012
2