News

Gorillas, orangutans and chimps die in German zoo fire - January 3, 2020

From The Guardian Dozens of animals including gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees were killed at a zoo in the western German city of Krefeld after a fire ripped through the monkey sanctuary in the early hours of the new year. The fire was likely to have been caused by Chinese sky lanterns that were set off […]

GAP Spain releases book “The Great Apes and their basic rights” - December 27, 2019

By Pedro Pozas (Director of Gap Spain and President of GAP Project International) At the end of 2018, the Great Ape Project Spain decided to write a book that would serve as the basis for the struggle for the basic rights of great apes as a celebration of our 20th anniversary in 2019. Yes, we […]

Happy Christmas and a lots of success in 2020 - December 13, 2019

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year! Happy 2020. GAP Project – 20 years of struggle!

Help Cozy and other chimps and primates - December 5, 2019

From PASA – Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance We cannot imagine the terrible suffering Cozy endured for the first 10 years of his life. He was bred in a lab in the U.S. and subjected to horrific medical experiments. After the lab no longer wanted him, he was sold as a pet and taken to Italy. Although […]

‘Property’ or ‘person’? How animal rights could open new moral frontier - November 27, 2019

By Eoin O’Carroll (The Christian Science Monitor) In a forested reserve in central Florida, Sandra is settling in to her new home. Thanks to a 2015 ruling by a judge in Argentina, her new life represents another hole in the increasingly porous wall separating humans from nonhuman animals. The 33-year-old orangutan is, according to Buenos Aires […]

Sandra’s first three weeks at CGA - November 26, 2019

From Center for Great Apes – CGA Sandra continues to explore and investigate her new surroundings as she is peacefully settling in to her new home. She’s very friendly to her caregivers and involves herself in new enrichment activities each day. She loves to wash her toys, her hands, and anything she thinks needs cleaning. Sandra makes beautiful […]

Black is happy! Watch the video - November 13, 2019

The approximate 50-year-old male chimpanzee Black was exploited in circuses when he was young and spent great years of his life at Sorocaba zoo, in the countryside of São Paulo state in Brazil. At the zoo he used to live with female Rita, who passed in 2011, and since then he was alone. Loneliness is […]

Ancient ape offers clues to evolution of two-legged walking - November 12, 2019

By Colin Barras (Nature) The fossilized remains of a newly discovered species of ancient ape suggest that it might have been able to walk on two feet, millions of years before the first humans appeared. The finding challenges the accepted idea that bipedal walking evolved much later in the ancestors of modern humans, and that […]

Itai Hoffman is GAP Project’s Delegate in Israel - November 8, 2019

PEDRO POZAS TERRADOS, International President of the Great Ape Project, a world organization for the defense of great apes and non-human beings, as well as the protection of their habitat, CERTIFIES that: ITAI ROFFMAN, by profession: (PhD, Evolutionary Anthropology) lecturer / researcher, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel; is […]

Female chimpanzee, 15, is caught smoking like a pro at a Chinese zoo after ‘tourists threw a cigarette into her enclosure’ - November 5, 2019

By TRACY YOU FOR MAILONLINE A video of a female chimpanzee smoking like a pro in an enclosure at a Chinese zoo has sparked controversy. Tourists had allegedly thrown a cigarette into the enclosure before the 15-year-old primate picked it up and puffed away. The news came after the chimpanzee’s 13-year-old ‘husband’ was filmed fly-kicking […]

Health reports of chimpanzee Black at the zoo show he was treated due to stress and coprophagia - November 1, 2019

Health reports of chimpanzee Black, who was transferred from a zoo to Great Apes Sanctuary of Sorocaba on May this year show the treatments he had been submitted to during the period he lived at the zoo.  The information was posted by news portal G1, which had access to the reports dated from 1981 to […]

Almost human, by Alfred Fidjestøl: the story of Julius, the chimpanzee caught between two worlds - November 1, 2019

Book review by Alyson Baker* Almost human is the biography of Julius, a chimpanzee who was born on Boxing Day 1979 in the Kristiansand Zoo, Norway, and who is now the alpha male of the zoo’s chimpanzee community.  He was born to Sanne, similarly born in captivity and with no idea how to be a […]

Groundbreaking decision of Brazilian Judge for captive elephant - October 24, 2019

By Jaqueline B. Ramos* Last Friday, October 18, female elephant Ramba finally arrived at SEB – Santuário de Elefantes do Brasil (Brazil Elephants Sanctuary) after a 73 hour trip all the way from Chile. If the news about her freedom from decades of captivity mistreating was not good enough, a groundbreaking decision of a Brazilian […]

Groundbreaking trafficking verdict in DR Congo! - October 23, 2019

From PASA – Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance We are excited to tell you about a huge step forward in protecting African primates. When baby Ingende arrived at Lola ya Bonobo, a PASA member in DR Congo, he was in dire condition. He had just been seized from the poachers that murdered his family. They were going […]

Hundreds of zoos and aquariums accused of mistreating animals - October 22, 2019

Many “gold-standard” zoos and aquariums worldwide let visitors pet, feed, and take selfies with animals, a new report finds. By Rachel Fobar (National Geographic) IN A NEW report, an animal welfare group has flagged hundreds of zoos affiliated with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) for mistreating animals, including making big cats perform […]

Baby chimp reunited with her mother - October 19, 2019

From PASA – Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance Sonia, a 2 year old chimp, is her mother’s joy and the pride of her social group at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, a PASA member in Sierra Leone. It as a shock to know that Sonia’s life was in danger again. She had her first harrowing near-death experience when she […]

GAP Brazil: Moments at the Great Apes Sanctuary of Sorocaba/SP – Catarina and Jango - September 24, 2019

Catarina and Jango worked for years in circuses and live together since she arrived at the sanctuary, in 2009. Jango arrived in 2003, castrated and with his teeth pulled off. Catarina is more then 40 years old and worked for more than 30 years of her life in the circus. Despite the abused lives of […]

Open letter to a Great Judge - September 23, 2019

In 2015, Judge Elena Liberatori, head of Court No. 4 of Administrative and Tax Matters of Buenos Aires, Argentina, made history in world legislation, recognizing the Orangutana Sandra, who lives for 25 years in the Buenos Aires Zoo, in the Barrio de Palermo, as a juridical personality to be judged by a Human Court and […]

Opinion: I love animals but it seems that my country has plenty of money, like it’s one of the richest countries in the world - September 23, 2019

By Prof. Alejandra Juárez* In a country with economic and social problems like ours it is inexplicable and shocking the money that is being spent on the move to give away our animals especially to the United States. But the most colossal thing is the expense that the city government has offered and spent on […]

PASA/Africa: One-legged chimp saved! - September 18, 2019

From PASA – Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance The stars were shining in the Congolese sky, and Yombe, one of the oldest chimpanzees at HELP Congo, who had lost a leg in a poacher’s trap as a baby, was still sleeping soundly. Yves, Bienvenu, Ntadi, and Sylveres, HELP Congo’s animal care staff, pulled themselves from their beds […]