News - GAP Project

News

posted in 10 Mar 2024

Elena Liberatori, the judge who made history with the case of orangutan Sandra

Pedro Pozas Terrados, from GAP Spain, spoke to Judge Elena Liberatori, who in Argentina declared the orangutan Sandra, who lived alone in Buenos Aires Zoo, a "non-human person" and therefore with acquired rights. Sandra currently lives at the Center for Great Apes in Florida, USA.

posted in 17 Feb 2024

In memory of Steven M. Wise (1950 – 2024)

GAP Project Brazil/International deeply mourns the death on February 16 of Steven M. Wise, a lawyer and great defender of the rights of nonhuman animals, who worked to break the barrier of species beyond humanity.

posted in 22 Dec 2023

Interview: Biruté Mary Galdikas, the great forgotten one. A lifetime dedicated to the defense of orangutans and their habitat

Galdikas talks about his work of more than 50 years and highlights the challenges of protecting orangutans. "To save wild populations, we need to recognize the importance of forests and trees. (...) Without trees and forests, humans and great apes will not be able to survive in a climate-changed world."

posted in 21 Dec 2023

Chimps can recognise peers decades later – especially if they got on well

Researchers have found bonobos and chimpanzees can recall peers they spent time with in the past, even if they have been separated for decades. What is more, this recognition appears to be influenced by whether they got on well with each other – or not.

posted in 04 Dec 2023

Colombia: TV program calls for urgent transfer of chimpanzee Yoko

The TV story explains the whole case of the chimpanzees Pancho and Chita, who were shot and killed after escaping from their enclosure at Ukumari Biopark in July, and also the urgency of transferring Yoko, the only remaining chimpanzee at the site and in Colombia, to the Great Apes Sanctuary of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil.

posted in 29 Nov 2023

In memory of Johny – 05/20/2000 – 11/29/2014

"Johny was the beginning of everything, of a struggle that will never die." The Starostik couple took care of a baby chimp rejected at birth in a zoo and created a suitable place for welfare in captivity.

Residents' Stories Johny

posted in 28 Nov 2023

Chimpanzees make tactical use of high elevation in territorial contexts”

A very interesting study was recently published in the scientific journal PLOS Biology and has made headlines in the last few weeks. According to the study's authors, chimpanzees would also use military recognition tactics based on observations of "enemy territory" from high elevations, which were believed to be an exclusively human skill.

posted in 09 Nov 2023

Unknown past

Little is known about Johnny's origins and past. When he arrived at the Sanctuary, for example, he didn't have two fingers on his right hand, and there is no record of an incident that led to this.

Residents' Stories Johnny

posted in 03 Oct 2023

Book review – “Primatology, Ethics and Trauma”, by Robert Ingersoll and Antonina Anna Scarnà

Although these studies have brought to light important facts about the abilities and intelligence of chimpanzees, some scientists have argued that they are inconclusive, questioning their scientific value and, above all, the psychic and traumatic impact caused to the “guinea pig” chimpanzees.

posted in 07 Sep 2023

Spain: GAP Project calls for the Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes and their inclusion as World Living Heritage of Humanity

Given the perilous situation in which great ape populations find themselves and the dramatic appeal by UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, in which she recently declared that their populations are in danger and that “the protection of these humans’ cousins, from whom we have only a 2% difference in DNA, is a collective responsibility”, the…

posted in 01 Sep 2023

Giving Day for Apes

Starting today, September 11, until October 3, 2023, join Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries for a global day of giving in support of qualified sanctuaries and rescue centers providing rehabilitation or long-term care for chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, gibbons and orangutans throughout Africa, Asia and North America.

posted in 31 Aug 2023

Suzi and Singer, a historic meeting

Exactly 10 years ago, on August 31, 2013, philosopher Peter Singer visited the Great Apes Sanctuary of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil. One of his hosts was chimpanzee Suzi, who was then two years old.

Residents' Stories Suzi

posted in 23 Aug 2023

The human-chimp bond captured in an iconic photo

In 1964, Jane Goodall’s husband Hugo van Lawick took a photo of her and an infant chimp reaching out to each other. Decades later, it continues to impact how we view chimpanzees. On 14 July 1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall arrived by boat to the shores of Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania. Here, in what is now Gombe…

posted in 15 Aug 2023

Jeff McCurry, Harambe’s friend

The excellent photographs that Jeff McCurry has taken of nature and its living beings are extraordinary and his existence is full of that wonderful contact with Mother Earth, showing us in all its splendour, the colourfulness of life. His sensitivity and empathy towards other species made him have a special relationship with a male gorilla…

posted in 14 Aug 2023

Colombia: About the difference between a zoo and a Sanctuary and the transfer of chimp Yoko

On August 8 the Colombian TV channel Pasión Animal #PasionAnimalTV dedicated an almost entire program to the case of chimpanzee Yoko, currently the only resident of the Ukumari Biopark zoo. After the escape followed by death of Chita and Pancho in July, activists are negotiating the transfer of Yoko