News

Study shows chimpanzees have very personal perception of rhythm - September 12, 2022

Scientists followed a group of Waibira chimpanzees in the western forest of Budongo, Uganda, recording and analyzing the touches of seven males. Inflating their chests, with a guttural cry and holding an instrument, chimpanzees perform a drum roll using the thick roots of trees in a Ugandan forest, creating their own rhythms, revealed the study […]

Great Apes Rights, 30 years after - September 5, 2022

Although Spain was the only country in the world where Parliament’s accession to the Great Apes Project was successfully defended, a Law on Hominids or Great Apes has not yet been passed By Paula Casal – Professor at ICREA and at the Law Department at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona / President of PGS […]

GAP Project Spain presents Amparo Judicial in Argentina for the freedom of chimpanzee Johnny - August 25, 2022

On August 23,  GAP Project Spain Project initiated ACTION FOR AMPARO against the Zoo of the City of Luján, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for conducts against the fundamental rights of the chimpanzee Johnny. The sentence sent to the new Court states that it “seeks the protection and recognition of the fundamental rights of being […]

The Center for Great Apes: In memory of our beloved chimpanzee Jonah – 1996-2022 - July 20, 2022

The Center for Great Apes is heartbroken to share the sad news that our beloved chimpanzee Jonah has died. Jonah has been under veterinary treatments for cardiac disease for the past four years after he had a sudden collapse in 2018 while playing with the females in his group. With the daily care, diagnostics, and […]

(Human) Foolishness comes in different forms - July 11, 2022

By Jaqueline B. Ramos* It’s just about following the news to understand. And when they involve non-human animals, the adjective of lack of common sense is, unfortunately, more evident. Take, for example, a case that took place last month in Athens, Greece. On Saturday, June 25, a 27-year-old male chimpanzee escaped from his enclosure at […]

South African fossils may rewrite history of human evolution - July 5, 2022

By Charles Q. Choi (Livescience.com) Fossils found at the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa may be much older than previously thought. Ancient human-like fossils in South Africa may be more than a million years older than previously thought, which raises the odds that the species they came from gave rise to humans, a new study […]

Book review – Chimpanzee Memoirs: stories of studying and saving our closest living relatives - June 27, 2022

By Alyson Baker* Who are the people who do chimpanzee research, rescue chimpanzees from appalling situations and secure them places in sanctuaries, care for the rescued chimpanzees in captivity? Stephen Ross and Lydia Hopper saw the generational turn-over among “chimpologists” and decided to document the stories of some of these heroes. The contributors are from […]

Chimpanzees have an exceptional ability to produce complex vocalizations - June 15, 2022

Paris, May 18, 2022 (AFP) – Chimpanzees have an exceptional ability to produce complex vocalizations, with nearly 400 different sequences identified by a team of scientists in this ape, the closest to humans. “They don’t speak, of course, if we take human language as a reference,” warns evolutionary biologist Cédric Girard Buttoz, lead author of […]

Argentina: Freedom for the chimpanzee Toti - June 13, 2022

At the beginning of the year, the Public Defender’s Office of the Province of Rio Negro, Argentina, presented a request for Habeas Corpus requesting the release of Toti, a chimpanzee who spent his entire life in a cage. The chimpanzee is 32 years old and was born in captivity in Buenos Aires. He lived at […]

GAP Spain: Peter Singer arrives in Barcelona to present his new book (“Los Derechos de los Simios) and defend the creation of the Great Apes Law - June 8, 2022

Event “Derechos humanos y animales, dos días con Peter Singer” will take place on June 9th and 10th at Pompeu Fabra University Peter Singer, philosopher, great advocate of animal rights and author of two books that have become essential for the movement – Animal Liberation (1975) and, together with Paola Cavalieri, The Great Ape Project […]

“The Chimpanzee Whisperer”, by Stany Nyandwi with David Blisset: “I am riding in their truck” - May 9, 2022

By Alyson Baker* “The Chimpanzee Whisperer” is the memoir of Stany Nyandwi. Looking back over 50 years, we read of his home country, Burundi, a paradise with a bleak colonial history, being turned into “… a land of broken hearts” through a tribal civil war. We read of Stany’s love for his family, wrenched apart […]

In memory of Dr. Carole Noon (1949-2009) - May 2, 2022

Thirteen years ago today, Save the Chimps’ founder, Dr. Carole Noon passed away of pancreatic cancer in her home on sanctuary property. She remains an inspiration to all the lives she touched and a motivator to carry on her important work. More than 300 chimpanzees have found the peaceful and dignified retirement they deserve thanks […]

New book by Paula Casal and Peter Singer: “The Rights of Apes” (Los Derechos de los Simios) - April 27, 2022

The new book by philosophers Paula Casal and Peter Singer, “The Rights of Apes” (Los Derechos de los Simios, will be published in May. Paula Casal is the president of the GAP Project Spain. More and more is known about chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans, and it is becoming clearer how much they resemble two- […]

#FreeTommy – Each chimpanzee is an individual who has the right to live a free and fulfilling life - April 18, 2022

By Alyson Baker*  In the late 1980s I saw the movie Project X, starring Matthew Broderick. It made a big impression on me – it is fiercely critical of the human exploitation and degradation of chimpanzees. The chimps are credited as individuals alongside their human co-stars, and they have agency in the movie’s plot. Although, […]

Documentary “Persona no humana” begins its premiere at festivals and cinemas - April 15, 2022

April 15, 2022.- The documentary film “Persona no humana,  in which GAP Project has had an important participation, premieres at the International Documentary Festival of Valencia The next Sunday 8 (21:00) and Monday 9 (18:00) of May. From there, the journey begins at festivals around the world and screenings in movie theaters and other places […]

Sky after 30 years: a brief biography of three biomedical research chimpanzees in Japan - April 4, 2022

Many chimpanzees were captured in Africa to be guinea pigs in biomedical laboratories in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan was one of the countries that most “invested” in this practice, which only ended in 2006. Female Candy (photo) is one the chimpanzees caught in the wild for lab experiments purpose. The result is a group […]

World Biological Corridor has defined kilometer zero for chimpanzees - December 30, 2021

By GAP Project Spain The International Committee of the World Biological Corridor (CICBM) declared as the KILOMETER ZERO FOR CHIMPANZEES a large area in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The action took place together with the association Paradis des Primatas, which in the last year has been coordinating the formation of unarmed ecoguards with local groups. […]

Thomas Lovejoy, renowned biologist who coined ‘biological diversity,’ dies at 80 - December 26, 2021

Thomas Lovejoy, a well-known American conservation biologist who coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980, died on December 25 at the age of 80. Lovejoy, who lived in northern Virginia, spent more than 50 years working in the Amazon rainforest, founding the nonprofit Amazon Biodiversity Center and bringing worldwide attention to the threats of tropical […]

Happy Holidays and Happy 2022! - December 20, 2021

GAP Project Brazil/International wishes you Happy Holidays and a New Year with good health and peace!  

Artificial intelligence used to recognise primate behaviours in the wild - December 9, 2021

Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed new artificial intelligence (AI) models to recognise behaviours of chimpanzees in the wild. The method will allow researchers and wildlife conservationists to significantly cut back on time and resources spent analysing animal behaviour in video footage, according to the new paper published today in Science Advances. The […]