Orangutans to get Wi-Fi?
"Orangutans at a Milwaukee zoo could soon be video-calling their primate friends via tablet computers," BBC News reports. "The hairy tech fans have been playing with iPads since they were first introduced to them in May. Conservationist Richard Zimmerman said the next step would be to provide Wi-Fi access – meaning the apes could watch orangutans in other zoos. …'What we really want to do is to allow the orangutans to really play – to do paintings, to watch videos, to do almost as a human child would do with basic curiosity.' The animals have, Mr. Zimmerman said, been captivated by watching television on the devices, particularly when it featured other orangutans, and even more so when they saw faces they recognized."
Gorilla gets a flu shot
"It's zoo season – not flu season – in the Franklin Park Zoo's acre of balmy [25 C]tropical forest, where the last of eight western lowland gorillas was inoculated yesterday morning," the Boston Herald reported on Dec. 28. "Keepers administered yesterday's shot to Okpara, an 18-year-old male nicknamed 'Okie,' who calmly presented his shoulder to the oversize needle in exchange for a fruit and nut bar. 'He didn't even flinch,' [assistant curator Jeannine Jackle]said. 'He stayed right there and presented his arm again and asked for a treat.' Children's Hospital Boston donates the shots, which are administered annually to protect gorillas from their keepers' germs."
Chimps seem to know chimps
"Chimpanzees moving through the forest take into account other chimps' ignorance or knowledge of a threat when they raise the alarm," says The Guardian. "The apes were more likely to make warning calls when they spotted a venomous snake if others in their troop had not seen the danger, researchers found. As chimps in the know arrived at the scene, they passed the warning on to others who lagged behind but were still within earshot. Video footage of wild chimps foraging in Uganda's Budongo forest show apes at the front of their groups jumping with surprise on spotting a model snake lying camouflaged in the undergrowth. When the chimps regained their composure, they called out with repeated 'hoos' to alert those behind them that a threat lay ahead. They made calls less often when other chimps already knew of the danger. The behaviour suggests the animals knew what their fellow apes knew and made decisions over what warnings to give based on the information."
Smaller and feistier
"Small monkey groups may win territorial disputes with larger groups because some members of the larger groups avoid aggressive encounters, U.S. researchers say," reports United Press International. "Scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute say individual monkeys in large groups who will participate in defending their home territory often choose not to participate in conflicts in which the larger group is the invader, giving smaller groups a 'home field' advantage. …These behaviour patterns even the balance among groups and may explain how large and small groups are able to co-exist, the researchers said."
Old-fashioned remedy
Middlesbrough town council in England has come up with a "cheap but effective method of combatting anti-social behaviour in woods at Coulby Newham," says The Daily Telegraph. "Elderly people nearby had been upset by youngsters congregating in the woodland between Willowbank and Stainton Way to drink and smoke. Council staff thinned out the trees so the area was more visible from paths, then spread a thick layer of pig manure to deter the youngsters. … Since the muck-spreading, the area has been crime-free."
The overlooked superpower
"What are the world's biggest economies?" wrote Joshua Rothman recently in The Boston Globe. "Most economists would say the United States, Europe and China. But according to author Robert Neuwirth, that group should have one more member: the black market. Mr. Neuwirth is an economics journalist who's lived in bustling 'squatter cities' around the world, like Lagos, in Nigeria. Writing in Foreign Policy, he argues that 'it makes no sense to talk of development, growth, sustainability, or globalization,' without including the underground economy. The globe-spanning network of 'street markets and unlicensed bazaars' is home to nearly half the world's workers, around 1.8 billion people. Some estimates show that, even excluding criminal activity, the black markets of the world constitute 'an economic superpower' with a combined gross domestic product of $10-trillion (U.S.). (The U.S. gross domestic product is about $14.5-trillion.)"
THOUGHT DU JOUR
"Who begins too much accomplishes little." – German saying