News - GAP Project

News

posted in 16 May 2024

United States: 26 chimpanzees still await transfer to sanctuary trapped in laboratory

A large number of chimpanzees was used in laboratories in the USA from the 1930s until 2015, when the US FDA finally announced the end of the practice in the country. Then this question arose: What to do with the surviving chimpanzees? The most sensible answer: to relocate them to sanctuaries.

posted in 24 Apr 2024

Katai and Sansão: orangutans in captivity in Brazil

Female orangutan Katai is the only resident of the species in a sanctuary in Brazil. Sansão lives alone in the São Paulo zoo for years. A lawsuit requests Sansão to be transferred to the sanctuary, aiming to improve both orangutan’s quality of life.

Residents' Stories Katai

posted in 15 Apr 2024

The price of modernity can be high for our evolutionary relatives

Overview of the approximate potential direct (10 km) and indirect threats (50 km) on apes linked to mining activities. JUNKER ET AL., SCI. ADV. 10, EADL0335 2024

A study shows that the rapid growth of clean energy technologies is leading to increased demand for mining on the African continent, jeopardizing the well-being and survival of great apes in the wild.

posted in 03 Apr 2024

Children snatched away by the circus

Throughout her life in the circus, Lucy gave birth to several children, but had no chance of becoming a mother. The babies were snatched from her on the day they were born, probably to be sold.

Residents' Stories Lucy

posted in 26 Mar 2024

The Brazilian sanctuary where Toti, the sad-looking chimpanzee, can be transferred

Chimpanzee Cecilia today, at Sorocaba Sanctiuary, seven years after her transfer. Photo: Clara Estrada

Located in Sorocaba, 100 km from São Paulo, it has a total area of five hectares and 14 complexes in a forest area; since 2017, it houses the chimpanzee Cecilia, transferred from the Mendoza Zoo in Argentina.

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…