Researchers recently conducted studies suggesting that pigeons are as mathematically adept as primates, but they’re still a long way off from lighting fires and cooking their own burger like Kanzi, a 31-year-old bonobo does. He collects firewood, can strike a match or use a lighter, and fry up food. Sometimes referred to as pygmy chimpanzees, the highly intelligent animals are mankind’s closest living relative. And it shows. Read more »

The photo above, which has been circulating wildly on the net in the past 24 hours, is something that I found it so moving that I just had to post it. It’s an image published in the November issue of National Geographic of a deceased chimp named Dorothy who was cared for by the Cameroon’s Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center. Prior to being brought into the center, Dorothy was trained to drink beer and smoke cigarettes at an amusement park in Cameroon. After being rescued by Sanaga-Yong, it’s reported that Dorothy, who was estimated to be 40 when she died of heart failure, became a mother figure to many of the other chimps at the facility. About Dorothy’s death and burial, a volunteer at the center said: Read more »