Animal Sentience » laboratory

Chimps free at last

animalslife — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:13:26 +0000

This wonderful film clip is of chimpanzees who are being released to the freedom of a sanctuary. Most of them have endured many, many years of confinement in a laboratory.

Most were snatched from the wild as infants, and some bred in a laboratory, and used in medical experiments. Their reactions as they venture into the outside world clearly show that chimps are sentient, emotional beings.

It’s well worth visiting the sanctuary’s website for great photos of the chimps and their individual stories. How fantastic that these chimps finally have a life worth living!

Helpful Chimps

animalslife — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:31:41 +0000

Chimps in Japan have been seen helping their companions out, purely on the basis of need. They would hand tools over to chimps in a nearby pen; and most notably this was most likely to happen if the chimp really needed the tool and requested it, rather than if they just wanted it to play with. This shows that chimps care about the welfare of their fellows and will assist them even if there is nothing to be gained themselves.

This helping is not just reserved for other chimps too – in a previous study by Warneken, chimps were also witnessed helping humans in a similar task and handing a stick to them on request. Videos of both of these experiments can be found below.

Chimp helps human- scroll down the page, and play the first video in the list.

Sources:
Yamamoto, S., Humle, T.,Tanaka, M. (2009)
Chimpanzees Help Each Other upon Request
PLoS ONE, 4(10): e7416

Warneken, F., Hare, B., Melis, A. P., Hanus, D., Tomasello, M.
Spontaneous Altruism by Chimpanzees and Young Children
PLoS Biol 5(7): e184

Wild at heart

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:03:54 +0000

There is a fascinating film about captive rats who were released to a semi-wild habitat. The rats were descended from generations of rats who had all been born in a laboratory. They were released into a ‘farmyard’ setting to see how they reacted to this more natural environment and whether they knew what to do in order to survive. As the commentator says, “It is the first time they have seen the sky.” This great film shows you how they got on.

The first chapter, “Release”, is linked below and visit www.ratlife.org to see the other chapters – well worth watching!

Berdoy, M. 2002. The Laboratory Rat: A Natural History. Film. 27 minutes. www.ratlife.org