Ape Shit the zine

@monkeywire

Primate news, with a bent toward the troubled relationship between humans and other primates. Zine #1 available: orbooks.com/catalog/ape-shit/

193 Folgt1.227 Follower758 Posts

Reddit YouTube Website Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir monkeywire.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· 25d

Badly written science papers are a dime a dozen but this one is almost comical. Wanted to read this but - damn! - the combo of jargon and passive verbiage in the abstract alone is something else. (From the _American Journal of Primatology_)

A collection of images, one featuring a female macaque monkey mounting a male and another of a female mounting another female. Another pair of pics shows a single macaque using stones. Jargon scattered throughout.

Text from the abstract of this paper: "After challenging the view that cultural processes mainly produce behavioral adaptations, we urge researchers to adopt a pluralistic view on Darwinian evolution by emphasizing the diversity and importance of evolutionary by-products and highlighting the heuristic merit of concepts such as behavioral spandrels and exaptations, particularly in the domain of cultural evolution in primates. We then use the concept of the “structure-function interface” and draw from our own research on macaques to provide two examples of possible behavioral adaptations and their corresponding by-products, both of which are maintained via the proximate mechanisms of cultural processes and pleasurable feedback. These two behavioral by-products are female homosexual mounts and object play, and their putative functional counterparts are female-to-male mounts and tool use, respectively. We provide empirical evidence from the structural analysis of behavior to support our contentions that some non-conceptive sex cultures may neutrally drift from behavioral adaptations to by-products and that some object play cultures may exaptively afford tool use. Our approach dovetails with, and expands upon, a pluralistic perspective on evolutionary theory."

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· 26d

Just saw this viral video of kids climbing gas pipes to get on top of a wardrobe, and my first thought was "these kids must be living in a region with monkeys." www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/1uy8pjq/a_mother_asked_her_children_to_recreate_how_the/

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· 26d

Solly Zuckerman’s 1933 primates physiology textbook includes a single photo to illustrate chimpanzees. Mind-boggingly dense about animal emotions, he (likely unwittingly) used a pic that poetically represented the captive experience.

An adult female chimp sits alone in something approximating a fetal position, curled up on a fake tree stump in a zoo enclosure. She has a "lost" expression on her face, and is self-grooming the hair on her head.
Photo is credited to F.W. Bond

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· 27d

New monkey alert! A colobus with curiously orange lips! Detail: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/science/meet-earths-newest-monkey-and-check-out-its-orange-lips.html. video via the original paper journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0349857

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· 27d

In the category of things likely funny only to someone who searches Google every day for monkey news, I love how the headline writers here managed to add in the "abandoned at birth" trope to the ol’ "zoo captive picks a winner" classic. 1/2

A screenshot of Google News results for "monkey" shows a number of stories about the same press release: a chimp predicting England will beat Argentina in the World Cup semi-final. But one of those headlines [indicated with a hand-drawn red arrow] is different and reads "Adorable chimp abandoned at birth predicts England will win World Cup semi-final"

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· 29d

An excerpt from the book in question (The Ape People, 1971, by Geoffrey Bourne of the Yerkes Center)

Photo is of a book page that reads:

"Literature, particularly early literature, is full of references to the sexual behavior of apes and their desire to have sexual contact with human females. But any woman who believes this would be a thrill would undoubtedly be disappointed by the penises of those animals. A woman ravished by an ape would scarcely feel a thing."

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 9

The Fresno Bee, California, included this detail in their September 28, 1930 story. 2/2 www.newspapers.com/image/701471546/

A photo of 4 hot air balloons on the beach, each with monkey-sized baskets beneath them. This event was a promotion for the coconut market.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 9

In 1930, many newspapers reported that Joe Doaks (pictured) won the International Monkey Balloon derby. What most papers didn’t mention is that Joe won because all 3 of his competitors climbed the ropes and tried to puncture the balloons, presumably to ground them. 1/2 #RESISTANCE

Photo of a macaque monkey in the basket of a hot air balloon, holding on to the ropes and staying put.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 8

Excerpt from his obit:

Text from the Center's obit:

"When he first came to the Center, he was introduced to several of the resident chimpanzees, but Marco was frightened by most of the much larger chimps (females, too). We then tried him with Butch, also a former wild-caught circus performer and small in stature. During their first two weeks together, Marco and Butch occupied the same larger habitat, but did not interact in any way... no contact at all.

"Then, one day, we had a visit from a group of senior ladies who walked past the habitat, and I think their sudden presence startled both Marco and Butch! Each chimp let out a little scream and raced into the other’s arms for a comforting hug… and then they began grooming each other. From that point on, they have been best friends for over two decades, spending their days together playing, grooming, and resting."

Photo: Marco and Butch playing together in their enclosure,

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 8

R.I.P. to Marco, who died at 67 from heart failure at the Center for Great Apes Sanctuary. Marco was a short dude with a lot of "pizazz," always eager to greet people with a clap and a toss of a big toy in the air. 1/2

A very sweet-faced, happy chimpanzee with slightly silver hair and a warm smile

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 7

In case a visual helps here. A red-mantled howler.

A scowling, bright orange monkey stares down at the photographer, presumably ready to let loose.

Apologies to the photographer -- couldn't find the online source for this pic.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 5

Baby gorilla forced to pose with hairless white monster for author photo again #primates

Many captive apes develop a sort of Stockholm Syndrome with their captors. Not this little gorilla, who eyes medical researcher Geoffrey Bourne warily as Bourne grips him tightly in a forced embrace.

This photo is on the back cover jacket of Bourne's book _The Ape People_ (1971)

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 3

Photos of baby gorilla John Daniel (1917-1922) helped counter the then-prevailing view of gorillas as ferocious beasts. But a few months after this one was taken, John Daniel was sold to Ringling Brothers and died shortly thereafter.

A young gorilla, John Daniel, poses lovingly with a 3 year old white girl with a bowl haircut, in this b&w studio photo from December 1920. John has one arm gently embracing the girl around her shoulder.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jul 1

Love this baboon's speedy, two-legged retreat. I'm guessing this was taken in South Africa. via Reddit

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jun 29

It never gets old. #primates #resistance

A text excerpt from Earnest Hooten's 1942 primate textbook, Man's Poor Relations, includes a subsection titled "How Howlers Behave Toward Human Beings"

Highlighted text in the paragraph quotes Ray Carpenter: "I would usually be sitting quietly observing the animals as they in the trees above me. Either seen or unseen, an individual would slowly approach to a place directly above me or as near-by as possible, and then would release excrement, either urine or fecal matter or both."

The first sentence reads: "The commonest reaction of a group of howlling monkeys to the presence of man is to howl at him."

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jun 28

In the early 1900s, published reports claimed that an ape species had been discovered in S. America. The story was traced back to a faked photo by a scientist working for Shell oil. He staged the pic of a taxidermied spider monkey for a greeting card.

Black and white photo of a bizarre-looking, stuffed spider monkey holding an egg and sitting on a log. He wears a vapid expression, with eyes half-closed and his mouth agape, revealing crooked teeth.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jun 25

My new favorite book based on the title alone

Yellow and blue book cover, titled "Raccoons are the Brightest People" by Sterling North, author of Rascal (a memoir about raising a young raccon that was later adapted and turned into a dreadful Disney movie).

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jun 12

It's not a contest, but...

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· May 22

Postures and Gestures of the Young Chimpanzee in a Temper Tantrum. From N. Ladygina-Kohts. 1935.

Black and white photos of a young, terribly unhappy chimp in poses similar to that of a human toddler. In most photos, his mouth is wide open (in a couple of cases, with eyes closed) and his hands/arms are stretched out all over the place.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· May 5

The white-faced saki was named for the white faces that appear only on males. The females have gray faces, w/ a few bits of white, but they have bright orange chests, which males don’t. So you could alternately call these the orange-chested sakis (not really). (Photo: Christina/Adobe Stock)

Photo of a monkey with very dark body hair but a face encircled by an off-white mane. He is chewing on a broken tree branch and looing up toward the sky. His eyes are brown and look very human, owing to the white sclera.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· May 1

Antonio De Lima Junior, a fisher in Brazil, captured some awesome footage of spider monkeys creating a "body" bridge in the canopy to help others pass www.tiktok.com/@antoniojunior146/video/7626732564660669704

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Apr 22

Feeling victorious after finishing my zine cover. Issue #1 will be a deep-dive into Helping Hands, a U.S. group that promoted "service" monkeys for over 40 years. Anyone wanna guess how you can tell the monkey on the cover is NOT a Helping Hands monkey?

Cover of issue #1 of a new print zine called Ape Sh*t: The Zine for Primates. (The asterik in the title is intended to look like poop splatter.)

"The Bizarre History of the Service Monkey" plugs the main feature. The image is of a tufted capuchin (a tiny brown monkey) with her tongue hanging out and her teeth revealed. She is cut out and placed over a background of blue vintage wallpaper.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Apr 16

And here is AP's version with the classic line about rejection. It may seem subtle but this angle is essential, as it positions zoo staff as heroes and rescuers. (AP does score brownie points for using "his" instead of the more typical "its," tho)

A screen shot of the text from the lead of AP's story, with leads with "In Mexico, a baby mopnkey is growing up clinging to a plush toy after being rejected by his mother."

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Apr 15

Nice piece from PRIMATES recounts the history of chimps imported into Japan. Rita, below, was purchased by the Osaka City Zoo to entertain crowds. In ~1940, she was photographed wearing a gasmask to boost morale during WWII. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A circa 1940 black-and-white photo shows a young chimpanzee wearing a soldier's cloth bag, shoes, and a gas mask. Photo via Osaka Tennoji Zoo.

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Apr 9

From Frans de Waal's _Peacemaking Among Primates_ (1989)

Photo of an adult chimpanzee withdrawing her lips into a grimace that highlights her gums and teeth.

The caption on the photo reads: "Fully adult chimpanzee may lapse into childlike behavior when upset. This female begged for food from another female but was rejected. She is screaming in frustration, hitting herself with spasmodic arm movements. (Yerkes Primate Center)"

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Apr 2

At the funeral for an 85 year-old woman who fed wild macaques near Bengaluru in India, one monkey approached the body to give her a final hug. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengalu...

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Apr 2

From Man and Monkey (1968) by Leonard Williams, who ran a proto-wildlife sanctuary in 1960s Cornwall and grew weary of visitors saying that all woolly monkeys look alike. #primates

Top: 3 b&w headshots of different woolly monkeys.
Bottom: 3 b&w headshots of 3 white men, who all kinda look alike.

--from Man and Monkey by Leonard Williams

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Mar 12

1/ Any experienced copyeditors up for a unpaid gig? We’re finishing up issue #1 of a new print zine about primates. Part animal studies, part media criticism, part weird history. Issue #1 takes a deep dive into the use of capucins as cheap labor: as helper monkeys and beggars (for organ grinders).

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Feb 16

I have so many questions

Pic of page 62 of a book by Vicki Croke with highlighted text that reads: "A drill at the San Diego Zoo finds human females—particularly blonds—sexually appealing, and the zoo capitalizes on this to collect semen samples."

From _the Modern Ark: The Story of Zoos: Past, Present, and Future (Avon, 1997)

Ape Shit the zine@monkeywire· Jan 24

Wondering what went wrong with this July 1975 AP story because the monkey they captured and killed is clearly not a capuchin. Wrongful conviction?