Today, the zoo...

[sqbr]

I love the tone of this article: Chimp planned rock attacks on zoo visitors.

Aww! Look at how ingenious his plots are to kill the zoo visitors! And see the sociopathic calm with which he prepares his weapons! Isn't nature inspiring?

I also like the way chimps disprove all those fluffy ideas about animals being too simple and pure for war and cruelty. I saw a doco once where one chimp cheerfully beckoned a park keeper (with whom he had an established relationship) over while his friends snuck around the other side to bring him down (the keeper outsmarted them, but geeze)

Really it's the same sort of anthropocentrism that leads to people arguing that animals don't have love or real language or whatever: humans being a special kind of nasty is still us being special.

Comments

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

In the Planet Earth series (or it could have been Life of Mammals) there is footage of chimps hunting colobus monkeys. They seem to plan and allocate roles then head out to the hunt, they rarely come home empty handed. There is one scene where a few chimps are tearing this monkey apart alive and it shows the face of the colobus. You can't look at that and tell me animals don't feel fear and pain, it's awful to look at.

[vegetus.livejournal.com]

Out of curiousity have you seen the film Earthlings?