Welcome, new ape relative: can you teach us not to kill you? | Jules Howard
by Jules Howard from on (#37514)
No sooner has the Tapanuli orangutan been discovered than it's facing extinction. The indifference of humans - the one thriving great ape - is the culprit
If I could be a fly on the wall at any point in the history of science, it would be to watch the young(ish) Charles Darwin - long before his ideas on our shared ancestry with apes were published - enter the orangutan enclosure at London Zoo in 1838. Within the enclosure there resided Jenny, a young and playful orangutan acquired by the British empire. Darwin went to sit with Jenny and observe her; in his hand was a mirror.
Related: New species of orangutan discovered in Sumatra - and is already endangered
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