Orangutan Granted 'Personhood' Turns 34, Makes New Friend

WAUCHULA, Fla. (AP) — A orangutan named Sandra, who was granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina and later found a new home in Florida, celebrated her 34th birthday on Valentine's Day with a special new primate friend.

Patti Ragan, director of the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida, says Sandra “has adjusted beautifully to her life at the sanctuary” and has befriended Jethro, a 31-year-old male orangutan.

Prior to coming to Florida, Sandra had lived alone in a Buenos Aires zoo. Sandra was a bit shy when she arrived at the Florida center, which is home to 22 orangutans.

To read more on this story, click here: Orangutan Granted 'Personhood' Turns 34, Makes New Friend

A Few Years Before Koko Passed Away, She Shared an Important Message to Humankind that Needs to Be Heard Now More Than Ever

The world was struck with grief once again when the beloved gorilla, Koko, passed away at the age of 46.

Koko's ability to use sign language to communicate with people warmed the hearts of millions worldwide.

She even became best friends with Robin Williams, and felt tremendous grief after learning about his tragic death in 2014.

It wasn't just Koko's ability to learn American Sign Language that stunned the world, it was her empathetic personality and worldview that everyone found to be so fascinating.

As Koko got better at communicating, thanks to the efforts of animal psychologist Francine "Penny" Patterson, many people wondered, "What could ape say to mankind?"

The former San Francisco Zoo resident actually had a lot of important things to say.

Gorillas may not be smarter than humans, but we sure could learn a lot from them.

A few years before Koko passed away, she shared an important message to humankind that needs to be heard now more than ever.

For the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Koko had an important message for world leaders.

"I am gorilla. I am flowers, animals. I am nature," she began signing in front of a dark background.

"Man Koko love. Earth Koko love," she continued. "But man stupid, stupid! Koko sorry. Koko cry. Time hurry."

Then she looked down in deep thought, before finishing off her message. "Fix Earth. Help Earth. Hurry! Protect Earth. Nature see you. Thank you."

As much as many people would like to deny the existence of climate change, it's only doing a disservice to the world by thinking that the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of the environment is not making a negative impact on the world.

As Koko said, she's part of nature, and so are we.

It's humankind that has a powerful impact on this world, and it's up to us to change the world for the better.




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Heartbreaking Tributes Pour in After Famous Gorilla who 'Captivated the World' Dies at 46. 

Koko, The Famous Gorilla Who Learned Sign Language, to Be Laid to Rest at Animal Sanctuary. 

Koko, The Famous Gorilla Who Learned Sign Language, to Be Laid to Rest at Animal Sanctuary

Koko, the gorilla who mastered sign language and became a pop-culture phenomenon, will be laid to rest Saturday in a ceremony at an animal sanctuary in Northern California where she lived for decades.

The western lowland gorilla died in her sleep Tuesday morning at the age of 46, according to the Gorilla Foundation, which is headed by animal psychologist Francine "Penny" Patterson, who worked with and cared for Koko since the primate was a year old.

Koko was renowned as one of the most intellectual apes in history, beloved by millions of people around the world. Under Patterson's tutelage, she learned more than 1,000 words in sign language and came to understand over 2,000 words spoken to her in English.

"She taught me more than I taught her, for sure," Patterson, 71, told ABC News in a telephone interview Thursday. "She had opportunities to show her brilliance and that’s what we saw. We saw a person, really. She had all the attributes of a person and then some."

To read more on this story, click here: Koko, The Famous Gorilla Who Learned Sign Language, to Be Laid to Rest at Animal Sanctuary

Heartbreaking Tributes Pour in After Famous Gorilla who 'Captivated the World' Dies at 46

When a celebrity passes away, fans around the world take to social media to share their condolences and their favorite songs, movies, or events that the deceased was a part of. But what happens when a famous animal passes away? On Thursday, June 21, fans around the world are sharing their loyalty and despair over the “gorilla who captivated the world,” Koko.

Koko the ape was one of the most beloved animals in the world who captured the world’s attention years ago over her amazing connection with humans and other animals. The research center that has done a lot of work with the gorilla announced her death.

They said, “The Gorilla Foundation is sad to announce the passing of our beloved Koko.”

Koko was best known around the world for her ability to communicate through American sign language and for her love of kittens. In 1978, she was even featured on “National Geographic.”

To read more on this story, click here: Heartbreaking Tributes Pour in After Famous Gorilla who 'Captivated the World' Dies at 46

Meet Shabani, The Handsome Gorilla That Has Japanese Girls Going Ape Over Him

Shabani, the 'handsome gorilla' is driving Japanese girls mad. The Australian-raised gorilla finds fame as women flock to the zoo to see him because he is 'so good-looking'.

Shabani now lives in Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Nagoya, and has attracted a large following of admirers who visit him because he is so 'handsome'.

The western lowland gorilla was raised at Sydney's Taronga Zoo but moved to Japan in 2007.

Zoo officials said there has been a notable increase in young female visitors thanks to Shabani.

His rise to fame has been fueled largely by Twitter, where fans post pictures of him claiming he is 'too handsome'.

His adoring Twitter following often refers to him as an 'ikemen', which means a 'good-looking man'.

Taronga Zoo’s Senior Zookeeper, Allan Schmidt said “Shabani was moved to Australia from The Netherlands as a two-month-old in December 1996 with his family.”

When asked if he was surprised by Shabani's popularity he said, “No because the Japanese are crazy... The Japanese love their fads.”

He added, “I would say most people would consider him fairly dashing.”

Schmidt said this is not the first time 18-year-old Shabani has enjoyed viral internet fame.

After moving to Nagoya, he was pictured in 2007 walking along a tightrope in the zoo enclosure.

“He's used to the limelight. He was born in The Netherlands and moved to Australia as a baby, where he grew up with a very stable father and mother”, he said.

“It's not surprising he's very successful, he was moved to Japan to mate with three female gorillas, where he has had two healthy male offspring.

Shabani has lived at the Japanese zoo since 2007, but has only recently become so popular, Rocket News 24 reported.

Pictures of the gorilla posted online capture him in moments where he appears to be flexing his muscles, staring broodingly into the distance or playing with the younger gorillas.

Comments posted online describe him as 'hot' and 'too handsome'.

“I went to Higashiyama Zoo. This hot Shabani ikemen was certainly handsome,” one woman wrote.

Another posted photos with the caption: “Shabani who is in Higashiyama Zoo is famous as the too handsome gorilla!”

Meanwhile another visitor posted a picture at the zoo with friends with the caption: Went to see the handsome gorilla Shabani... it was a fun holiday.”

The Question of Whether Only Human Beings Deserve Human Rights: Chimpanzees Get a Day in Court

A year after the starting fight for legal personhood for the research chimpanzees Hercules and Leo, the apes and their lawyers got their day in court. At a hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday, a judge heard arguments in the landmark lawsuit against Stony Brook University, with a decision expected later this summer. At stake: the question of whether only human beings deserve human rights.

A decision could set a precedent for challenging, under human law, the captivity of other chimpanzees—and perhaps other species. It’s a radical notion, and many legal experts doubted whether the lawsuit, one of several filed late in 2013 by the Nonhuman Rights Project, would ever reach court.

But Justice Barbara Jaffe decided to consider the arguments. “The law evolves according to new discoveries and social mores,” she said while presiding over the hearing. “Isn’t it incumbent on judiciaries to at least consider whether a class of beings may be granted a right?”

Jaffe posed that question to New York assistant attorney general Christopher Coulston, who represented the university, where the two chimps are housed. Coulston had argued that Jaffe was bound by the previous decisions of two appellate courts, which had ruled that other Nonhuman Rights Project chimps didn’t qualify for habeas corpus, the legal principle that protects people from illegal imprisonment.

Both those decisions are controversial. In one, judges decided that habeas corpus didn’t apply because the chimp would be transferred from one form of captivity to another—in this case, a sanctuary. But illegally-held human prisoners have been released to mental hospitals, and juveniles into the care of guardians.

In the other appeals court decision, judges declared that chimps are not legal persons because they can’t fulfill duties to human society. But that rationale arguably denies personhood to young children and mentally incapacitated individuals, as several high-profile legal scholars, including Constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe, pointed out. He filed a brief on behalf of the Nonhuman Rights Project, saying the court “reached its conclusion on the basis of a fundamentally flawed definition of legal personhood.”

In fact, Nonhuman Rights Project attorney Steven Wise argued, New York law only requires judges to follow appeals court decisions involving settled legal principles—which animal personhood is not. That set the stage for the pivotal question: What is the basis of legal personhood? Wise said it’s rooted in the tremendous value placed by American society and New York law on liberty, which is synonymous with autonomy. “The purpose of the writ of habeas corpus isn’t to protect a human being,” he said. “It’s to protect autonomy.”

By that standard, Wise said, chimpanzees qualify. “Chimps are autonomous and self-determined beings. They are not governed by instinct,” he said. “They are self-conscious. They have language, they have mathematics, they have material and social culture. They are the kinds of beings who can remember the past and plan for the future.” In a human, argued Wise, those capacities are grounds for the right to be free.

Coulston marshalled an argument elsewhere made by Richard Posner, a legal theorist and federal appeals court judge who has written that legal rights and personhood were designed with only humans in mind. “Those rights evolved in relation to human interests,” Coulston said. “I worry about the diminishment of those rights in some way if we expand them beyond human beings.”

The cognitive capacities of chimpanzees have been compared to 5-year-old humans, said Coulston; how would the legal system handle animals with minds comparable to a 3-year-old, or a 1-year-old? “This becomes a question of where we’re going,” he said, with chimp personhood opening the floodgates to lawsuits on behalf of animals in zoos or on farms, or even pets. “The great writ is for human beings,” he said, “and I think it should stay there.”

Wise countered by saying that denying freedom to an autonomous being is itself a diminishment; it could even come back to bite us, serving as rationale for limiting human freedom. He described the slippery slope as a separate issue. Freedom—or at least sanctuary—for Hercules and Leo is something to debate on its own merits, just as rights for any potentially deserving human should be considered without regard for social inconvenience.

It is true, though, that success could lead to personhood claims on behalf of other chimps, as well as other great apes, orcas and also elephants, for whom the Nonhuman Rights Project is now preparing a case. More than a third of Americans now support rights for animals.

Win or lose, Wise said at a press conference following the trial, the hearing itself was a victory. “Many human beings have these kinds of hearings,” he said. Chimpanzees “are now being treated like all the other autonomous beings of this world.” Whether they’ll continue to get that treatment will be up to Justice Jaffe. Or, more likely, whoever hears the almost inevitable appeal of her decision.

A Western Lowland Baby Gorilla Was Born At The Lincoln Park Zoo, in Chicago, Illinois

There's a new reason for families to swing over to Lincoln Park Zoo. A western lowland gorilla was born there in this week. Visitors can get their first glimpse starting Saturday.

The zoo is cautiously optimistic about the baby's health.

"The infant is looking very strong; it's clinging tightly to mom, and we're seeing a really good pattern of nursing for several minutes from both breasts then taking a nap afterward," said Maureen Leahy, curator of primates.

Mom Bahati, age 27, shows solid maternal instincts, Leahy said.

"At this stage, although the infant can cling on and sort of support herself, she can't do it for very long," Leahy said. "Mom will hold her close and tight to her chest even when she's out and about or climbing. We look for her to support the baby's head, very much like humans."

The newborn joins a troop of six individuals, including 2-year-old half-sisters Nayembi and Patty, born at the zoo in fall 2012. At one point, Patty approaches the newborn slowly, then reaches to brush her fingers over her nose as mom munches hay.

That's where silverback dad Kwan, 25, comes in.

"He is doing a really good job keeping a watchful eye over the new mom and infant," Leahy said. "The two toddlers are very curious; they've been approaching a lot and touching the infant, but when they start getting too bold, Kwan will come over and sit down next to Bahati and kind of cue the toddlers to take a step back and give the new mom a break."

Bahati had not given birth since 2004. Her two adult offspring now reside in other Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited zoos.

Among the Millions Mourning the Death of Robin Williams on Monday was Koko, a Gorilla who Communicates in Sign Language

Among the millions mourning the death of Robin Williams on Monday was Koko, a gorilla who communicates in sign language. Williams met Koko in 2001 at The Gorilla Foundation in Northern California, where the great ape managed to upstage the great comedic actor.

“Years later (on Aug. 11, 2014), Koko overheard Penny (Dr. Penny Patterson, Koko’s mentor and surrogate mother) talking on the phone about Robin, who had just passed away,” The Gorilla Foundation stated on its website. “She became extremely sad.”

“When you remember Robin Williams, remember that he is not only one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, he is also one of the world’s most powerful ambassadors for great ape conservation,” the organization said.

For his part, Williams called his conversations with Koko a “mind-altering experience.”

The encounter with Koko was just one of many efforts Williams made over the years on behalf of wildlife. In 2011, the actor appeared with other celebrities in a TakePart video to call attention to the annual slaughter of dolphins at the cove in Taiji, Japan, where the few survivors are sold to zoos and water parks.

“My friend doesn’t belong in captivity,” Williams says in the video. “The others are brutally killed.”

“Years later (on Aug. 11, 2014), Koko overheard Penny (Dr. Penny Patterson, Koko’s mentor and surrogate mother) talking on the phone about Robin, who had just passed away,” The Gorilla Foundation stated on its website. “She became extremely sad.”

“When you remember Robin Williams, remember that he is not only one of the world’s most beloved entertainers, he is also one of the world’s most powerful ambassadors for great ape conservation,” the organization said.

For his part, Williams called his conversations with Koko a “mind-altering experience.”

The encounter with Koko was just one of many efforts Williams made over the years on behalf of wildlife. In 2011, the actor appeared with other celebrities in a TakePart video to call attention to the annual slaughter of dolphins at the cove in Taiji, Japan, where the few survivors are sold to zoos and water parks.

“My friend doesn’t belong in captivity,” Williams says in the video. “The others are brutally killed.”

In 1995, the comedian narrated and starred in the PBS documentary In the Wild—Dolphins With Robin Williams. He followed the work of marine biologists and swam with Atlantic spotted dolphins in the Caribbean.

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As with Koko, he attempted to communicate with his newfound dolphin friends.

“What’s up, my main mammal?” he asked a spotted dolphin.

Closer to his Marin County, Calif., home, Williams once made an impromptu appearance at a fund-raiser for the local humane society, jumping onstage to riff with another comedian.

“The Marin Humane Society is very sad to hear about the passing of Robin Williams,” the group said on its Facebook page on Monday. “In 2009, we were honored when he gave a surprise performance at our Woofstock benefit concert.”



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