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Chimpanzees Quotes

Browse 135 quotes about Chimpanzees.

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Chimpanzees Quotes

“...two chimpanzees were observed maltreating a chicken: One would extend some food to the fowl, encouraging it to approach; whereupon the other would thrust at it with a piece of wire it had concealed behind its back. The chicken would retreat but soon allow itself to approach once again--and be beaten once again. Here is a fine combination of behavior sometimes thought to be uniquely human: cooperation, planning a future course of action, deception and cruelty.”

Human NatureCrueltyChimpanzees
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“After a while, the human caretakers called the chimpanzees to the feeding building and most of them left the place where the body lay, with the exception of two females, mother and daughter, who remained next to the corpse. The mother, who had had an especially close relationship with the deceased, carefully examined his face and then grabbed a grass stem and began to clean his teeth. She spent several minutes engaged in this task, all the while remaining under her daughter’s attentive gaze.”

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Book:Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death
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“Wambach's concerns raised questions about the impact that deaf signers could have on Project Nim, and perhaps inadvertently about how Terrace's study might compare with the work done by the Gardners in Nevada, who had expressly designed their experiments to include deaf signers. Simply having Falitz sign at the weekly meetings and interpret for Wambach in the discussions brought a new dimension to their work. Wambach was not particularly critical of Terrace, who was older and far more established than she, but she wanted the staff to have a better understanding of the world of deaf speakers—those who used ASL because they needed a language. Thanks to Wambach, the chimp project began attracting deaf volunteers (including one who is remembered for having love and hate tattooed on his knuckles), who formed a small subculture within Terrace's staff. In an attempt to bridge these two worlds, one night the deaf volunteers arranged to plug up the ears of the hearing staff and take them out to a restaurant for dinner. They were instructed to communicate exclusively in ASL from the moment the plugs were placed in their ears on the way to the restaurant, during the meal, and all the way back to Delafield. The hearing group found the experience to be a terrible struggle. But what made an indelible impression on Johnson was the way that everybody in the restaurant spoke really slowly and loudly to them, treating them as if they were all mentally incapacitated.”

ChimpanzeesLanguage LearningSign LanguageAslNim Chimpsky
Book:Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human
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“[...] the chimps had many empty hours to fill. Time can seem endless and often cruel for caged animals. Nim and Sally did have some diversions in their enclosure: a small television set, rarely watched; a tire swing; a basketball set; and a variety of allegedly indestructible toys. But the chimps mainly passed the time interacting with each other—grooming, cuddling, playing, chasing. When occasional squabbles erupted, their high-pitched screeches could be heard from a distance. Minutes later the couple would make up and hug. Nim was frequently seen signing “sorry” to Sally, who always forgave her close friend. On his own, Nim spent hours flipping through the pages of old magazines, seeming particularly diverted by images of people. The magazines, which Nim tore to shreds, were swept away at the end of each day and replaced by new ones in the morning. But he did manage to keep two children's books intact—no small accomplishment. His prize possessions, they were carefully tucked away in the loft area of his cage. (WER would have appreciated Nim's affection for books.) During the day, Nim brought the books down from the loft and pored over them intently, as if studying for an exam. One was a Sesame Street book with an illustrated section on how to learn ASL. The other was in essence his personal photo album from his New York years, a battered copy of The Story of Nim: The Chimp Who Learned Language, published in 1980. In it, dozens of black-and-white photographs of Nim— with Terrace, LaFarge, Petitto, Butler, and a handful of others—tell the story of his childhood (or an idealized version of it) from his infancy to his return to Oklahoma. Nim appears dressed in little-boy clothes, doing household chores, and learning his first signs. The book ends with a photo of Nim and Mac playing together, cage-free, in Oklahoma. The accompanying text explains that Nim is a chimpanzee, not a human, which was why he had been sent back to IPS.”

BordersAnimalsAnimal WelfareCaptivityChimpanzeesEnrichmentAnimal BehaviorAsl
Book:Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human
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“What … what other species are still endangered?” asked Ponter. Mary shrugged a little. “Lots of kinds of birds. Giant tortoises, Panda bears. Sperm whales, Chim…” “Chim?” said Ponter. “What are---?” He tilted his head, perhaps listening to Hak providing its best guess at the word Mary had started to say. “Oh, no. No. Chimpanzees? But … these are our cousins. You hunt our cousins?” Mary felt all of two feet tall. How could she tell him that chimps were killed for food, that gorillas were murdered so their hands could be made into exotic ashtrays? “They are invaluable,” continued Ponter. “Surely you, as a geneticist, must know that. They are the only close living relatives we have; we can learn much about ourselves by studying them in wild, by examining their DNA.” “I know,” said Mary, softly. “I know.” Ponter looked at Reuben, then at Louise, and then at Mary, sizing them up, it seemed, as if he were seeing them—really seeing them—for the first time. “You kill with abandon,” he said. “You kill entire species. You even kill other primates.” He paused and looked from face to face again, as if giving them a chance to forestall what he was about to say, to come up with a logical explanation, a mitigating factor. But Mary said nothing, and neither did the other two, and so Ponter went on. “And, on this world, my kind is extinct.”

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Book:Hominids
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“These are the orphans, confiscated from illegal traders, that make up the population of at least nine sanctuaries. It is the same in Asia where several sanctuaries receive a never-ending series of pathetic infants whose mothers are killed after coming into contact with illegal loggers or as a result of the terrible fires that drive them out of the forest. 90% of the apes photographed for this book are orphans from the bushmeat or pet trade. Many of them have seen their mothers killed, and sometimes butchered, in front of their eyes. Each individual ape has his or her own tragic story of pain and trauma. Each one is different. ~ Jane Goodall”

PhotographyChimpanzeesGorillasBonobosOrangutans
Book:James & Other Apes
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“My own diagnosis of my problem is a simpler one. It's that I share 50 per cent of my genome with a banana and 98 per cent with a chimpanzee. Banana's don't do psychological consistency. And the tiny part of us that's different - the special Homo sapiens bit - is faulty. It doesn't work. Sorry about that.”

DifferentProblemBitsMy OwnShareSpecialSorryTinyPsychologicalCentsConsistencyDiagnosisHomo SapiensBananasChimpanzeesGenome
Book:Engleby: A Novel
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“Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutan shave been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest,living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in harmony with the environment.”

WayYearsHas BeensSuccessfulEnvironmentHarmonyForestsFantasticDestroyingChimpanzeesPrimatesGorillasOverpopulationWoods And ForestsOrangutansFantastic Life
Author:Jane Goodall
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“The fact that all our ape cousins - chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans - can acquire signs - is powerful evidence that our hominid ancestors' first language was gestural and that the vocal version of language was a relatively recent development. My own guess is that vocal language began emerging about 200,000 years ago.”

YearsFirstsFactsLanguageMy OwnPowerfulAtheismDevelopmentEvidenceYears AgoPositive AtheismVersionsAcquireAncestorCousinVocalEmergingApesChimpanzeesGorillasOrangutansHominids
Author:Roger Fouts
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“With regard to the alternatives, we already have them. The cellular and genetic lines of research in humans are the most promising. AIDS is caused by a virus, so it makes sense to study the virus, not chimpanzees. We have learned virtually nothing about AIDS from the chimpanzee. Every major advance in AIDS research ... has come from human studies.”

HumansLinesStudyAtheismMajorsResearchRegardAidsAlternativesMake SenseVirusesChimpanzeesCellular
Author:Roger Fouts
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“Louis [Leakey] was anxious to initiate a scientific study of these chimpanzees. It would be difficult, he emphasized, for nothing was known; there were no guidelines for such a field study; and the habitat was remote and rugged. Dangerous wild animals would be living there, and chimpanzees themselves were considered at least four times stronger than humans. I remember wondering what kind of scientist he would find for such a herculean task.”

HumansKindWould BeRememberScienceDifficultAnimalKnownWonderStudyFourDangerousFieldsTasksScientistStrongerIronyAnxiousInitiateHabitatWild AnimalChimpanzeesGuidelinesRugged
Author:Jane Goodall
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“Another potentiality of our irrepressible juvenility is a capacity to maintain until the onset of senility an active creative interaction with our environment. We persist in exploring, investigating, inventing, discovering. In these respects humans of all eras, in all societies, all ages of life, are more like baby chimps and not at all like the sedate and rigidly conforming adult chimpanzee, who hasn't changed much since she was five or six years old.”

YearsHumansAgeCreativeEnvironmentFiveChangedBabySixAdultsCapacityActiveErasInteractionDiscoveringPersistExploringConformOur EnvironmentInventingChimpanzeesInvestigatingSix Year OldsSenilityIrrepressible
Book:Adolescence: The Farewell to Childhood
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“Is it not possible that the chimpanzees are responding to some feeling like awe? A feeling generated by the mystery of water; water that seems alive, always rushing past yet never going, always the same yet ever different. Was it perhaps similar feelings of awe that gave rise to the first animistic religions, the worship of the elements and the mysteries of nature over which there was no control? Only when our prehistoric ancestors developed language would it have been possible to discuss such internal feelings and create a shared religion.”

FirstsHas BeensDifferentFeelingsSeemsPastLanguageWaterAliveMysteryElementsWorshipAweInternalsAncestorRespondingRushingChimpanzeesPrehistoricMystery Of Nature
Author:Jane Goodall
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“If we fail to realize our full potential as human beings, we live more on an animalistic level. This is fine for dogs, cats, and chimpanzees but doesn't work quite so well for women and men. Without the capacity to freely shape our own lives, much as a sculptor might carve stone, we inevitably slip into negativity and depression.”

IfsMenHumansWellsMightRealizingHuman BeingsLevelsFailingDogFineShapesMen And WomenCapacityStonesCatSlipsNegativitySculptorsFull PotentialChimpanzeesAnimalistic
Author:H. E Davey
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