The Great Ape Project

[CrystalCastles2o11]

they want stop all programs to find Anti-AIDS medication.

they want death for all Gays.

[CrystalCastles2o11]

what about rights of Bananas?.....they have similar 50% Of human DNA ! btw....chimpanzees have only ~86.7% of human DNA...

now remembered banana...with 50%!... chimpanzees the same rights with humans? LOL

[MacJulian88]

@CrystalCastles2o11 Not the SAME rights, you idiot. BASIC rights.

Big difference.

[CrystalCastles2o11]

@MacJulian88

And why only for Apes?..WHY not "THE Great ANIMAL project"???....Dolphins more smart than apes.Dogs have more emotions than apesThis is must be "The Great ANIMAL protection".

[orgasplosion]

I am going to cry when chimpanzees go extinct

[gamezonic]

i love apes, i dont need a long comment like the ones below to say that

[RReederHunt]

I love the little guy that's yawning at :12. It's unfortunate that people think caring about wild animals means there isn't care or concern for humans. All creatures are importnt

[stephjuhler999]

I support the Great Ape Projest and legal rights for other sentient beings too. What about dolphins? They're smart as well.

[EastenNinja]

Fuck off, I lose any hope I have in humanity with this,

legal process to protect them?

fuck this world, of course cruelty should be stopped but to give the same rights is stupid,

It goes against every principle

[MsExoticBliss]

We are still abusing, enslaving and killing our own species. The world needs to get its act together real quick! As the dominant species we Humans should be worried about other advanced beings from places outside of planet Earth and protecting the others. "United we stand divided we fall." Yes I also do think that creatures that advanced would find us and our planet pretty much not worth concoring. Rambling.. These videos make this primate excited :p

[MacJulian88]

@ThePeracha Not any exceeding the protection of other mammals that I am aware of. That means no more than a rat or a guinea pig. Does that sound fair?

[MacJulian88]

@ThePeracha I understand, but you should read the declaration of the Great Ape Project before you assert that it calls for other apes to be equal to humans, which is false. It just gives them much needed basic rights that we should have given them a long time ago. Yes, they exceed the rights of a hedgehog or a dog, but that's only fair and does not mean they make them equal to humans in a court of law.

[MacJulian88]

@ThePeracha You could say that about anything that isn't explicitly meant for humans. If you would in fact do this I rest my case.

[MacJulian88]

@ThePeracha Why "before"? Can't we do both? Will granting basic rights to other great apes somehow delay our help for fellow human beings?

[MacJulian88]

@ThePeracha This video is clearly not about money. It is about rights. If you disagree with the proposition you essentially disagree to allow them a right to freedom, among others.

All this is saying is, "Look, let's make the torturing and slaughter of these apes illegal. I don't see why anyone would disagree simply because humans are supposed to be in some way superior. It has no bearing on the issue.

[ARandomCanadian]

Because they aren't the same species. Humans over animals. Are you fucked or what? You'd rather save a chimp over a 4 year old kid?

[gcampb41]

They are NON-HUMAN. They are not POLITICAL AMIMALS! An ape may have similar intelligence to infant humans, but infant humans grow into infinitely more intelligent beings. Humans have been selected and are the most dominant and succesful beings, we can differentiate right and wrong, we are capable of living in the 'state' as Aristotle put it. Apes cannot. It is idiotic granting apes rights before we can guarantee the rights of all humans first of all.

[alyraly]

I am ashamed to be a part of the primate spices that does this to its closest relatives.

[TheDuperman]

Yea we are evil..........

[narutofan4545]

We eat monkeys thats like canbillesim i spelled that wrong

[maire83]

to all the ppl out there who think apes should have the same rights as human beings, I have a question for you: where does one draw the line? Apes only? What about gibbons and marmosets?

AND . . .

this IQ test info bite is exactly why they're so unreliable, even for people. Don't get me wrong I'm all for saving these great creatures but going about it by saying humans and apes get the same rights is absurd. Studies say parrots are smarter than some apes. Where do we draw the line?

[BaileysBeads]

Does one need a line?

[ivanmikhailov]

Why not just respect the rights of those beings with a capacity to envision a future and feel pleasure and pain at its prospect. I think we're obligated to take into consideration the interests of other beings. If a being has an interest to continue its existence into the future, this is a real issue that needs to be addressed. It can strongly be argued that apes have this--maybe some birds, and cetaceans as well. Monkeys (not apes), farm animals, etc. don't have it. No line is necessary.

[mapscannotcontainme]

Good response, Ivan, but because not all people respect those rights in animals especially in our closest relatives the Great Ape Project attempts to guarantee respect for them.

I am interested in, as Colin Blakemore said in opposition of GAP, what if a disease struck all hominids? Should testing one of the other great apes be done or should it be done just on a human?

[ivanmikhailov]

Why not use unwanted, disabled human infants with a very low chance of a normal life. They have no where near the capacity to feel emotional pain and suffering as a fully grown ape. I think it's a good way to disolve the illusion of speciesism and get a better idea of what exactly we're proposing.

[Vanmeter815]

"Wouldn't it be better to have a dispassionate discussion here without using emotionaly charged words"

Absolutely. Also just warning, don't take my enthusiasm as condescension. I may disagree, strongly even but the respect still remains in me for my adversaries. Its just the internet though, it feels completely loose to me and not to be taken very seriously especially a little lame youtube video comment section lol.

[Vanmeter815]

Why stop at chimpanzees? You specieists! In one second you squash a fly or a wasp and then you rant about chimpanzees? You silly person, don't wasps deserve rights too? You are all hypocrites.

On a more serious note, go join peta. I'm sure in 30 years they will be pushing for legal marriage rights for people and their animals, something which I'm sure you all desperately desire.

[EviTheFreak]

You obviously have no clue what you're talking about.

First of all, it's about basic human rights for all great apes, not just chimpanzees.

Second of all, do wasps have our conscience? Do they feel emotions like we do? Are they in any way similar to us in terms of genetics? Are they in immediate danger of extinction? Do wasps communicate with us? Do we hunt them for meat and torture them for our amusement?

I think not.

[Vanmeter815]

Since when was consciousness a factor? You specieist. They do feel emotion! In my heart I feel they do! I talk to them all the time. Supposedly they share a common ancestor as well right? We are all one big family, just because a sponge or a pine tree or even a wasp for that matter are so far distant relatives, they are STILL relatives. Quit being a hater. And of course we kill wasps for amusement, it is horrible! And of course they face extinction, ever heard of colony collapse disorder?! XD

[EviTheFreak]

It's speciesist, not specieist.

I'm not going to bother replying to the rest of your mental garbage. :P

[Vanmeter815]

I'm joking you silly Darwinist.

[Abaharaki]

But you make a solid point. How can we know where to draw the line. Any criterion that we can use to judge whether an animal deserves right will likely be contestable. ETF if your criteria are conscience, emotions, genetic similarity, danger of extinction, capacity for communication and treatment, then clearly apes are only a few species that deserve those same right.

[Vanmeter815]

Sure, that is true if you go by that criterion of emotions and consciousness and the like. I just think its scary to treat them as you would humans, which I know most of you will simply retort with your already entrenched natural and historical worldview of humanity. "Whats special about humans you silly nutjob VanMeter? We are merely apes/animals!" The responses are always the same. Many don't realize that the common descent idea does not necessitate us viewing ourselves as lowly.

[Abaharaki]

Scary? Lowly? Interesting choice of words, and very telling. Wouldn't it be better to have a dispassionate discussion here without using emotionaly charged words? I thought you were making a decent argument among your hyperbole, but it turned out to be rhetorical.

[Vanmeter815]

Its not like a wrote those words with meaningful emotion behind them. I kind of meant the word scary to mean freaky. In otherwords, you are a freak if you treat great apes as you would people(marrying them, treating them better than other people who are in need, etc.). I meant lowly as simply the intellectual non differentiation between people and animals. Lowly is not an emotionally telling term in my opinion, I don't know why you thought it was.

[IdaMiaDot]

@Vanmeter815 Speciesism is neglect or dismissal of a particular species or organism regardless of their inherent traits and characteristics. Insects generally possess only a few thousand or few hundred thousand neurons. Their emotional experience is extremely limited and in many cases so slight it is of no concern. Elephants, for example; possess hundreds of billions of neurons (one hundred billion more than humans), and can undergo enormously powerful emotional and physical trauma.

[MethanolCH3OH]

@Vanmeter815 If consciousness isn't a factor, then should we give human rights to chairs or a television set? Also, if you're talking to wasps and expecting (and thinking you get) answers means the psychologist wants to meet you very badly.

[drainide]

@Vanmeter815 your so dumb, i can picture what kind of an idiot you are in person, i'd love to give you a hard slap on the face with my hand

[ARandomCanadian]

I think pigs and rats should have the same rights as us since their since their genes are almost indentical to ours.

Also handicap people can't communicate, they should all get exterminated.

[joshuaWEC]

@ARandomCanadian I certainly hope you're being sarcastic when you say that handicap people should be exterminated, I work at a group home for people with mental disabilities and they are some of the most loving and caring people i have ever met. I if you do truly believe in what you said, i hope you grow up someday and have a change of heart.

[ARandomCanadian]

@joshuaWEC I was being sarcastic. People value the lives of animals more than they do of handicaps. Because they're able to communicate, someone said...

[Vanmeter815]

People don't pray to Buddha, Buddhism is still a religion. Same goes for Darwinism, and you can't deny that some people do exhibit religious traits who are Darwinists.

How are Abrahamic faiths and others self-centered?

[GeniusIdiot]

Darwinists? Can you give me detailed characteristics about that?

[Vanmeter815]

Darwinian evolution, or the idea that *all* life has arisen through random natural selection and mutation and that all life shares a common ancestor. According to the proposed phylogenetic tree, a sponge shares a common ancestor with a palm tree, and a crab has a common ancestor with a human.

This is a giant extrapolation. Perhaps common descent is true on some level, I'm open to that, but to that extent? No... I don't believe that.

[GeniusIdiot]

And that doesn't make all the other theories religions as well?

[Vanmeter815]

What do you mean?

[GeniusIdiot]

When you say Darwinian evolution are you talking about evolution as a whole? If so, then evolution is classified as a theory if not fact. That would make all the other theories religions. Evolution is not religion though. It's a scientific solution of reality through much speculation and testing. It's just an understanding. It formulates the idea of what is like likely to actually happen while only using actual factors in reality. Nothing supernatural or beyond human comprehension is added.

[Vanmeter815]

I'm talking about the theory of universal common descent. Many people make philosophical deductions on these whatever findings and turn it into many things unscientific. Social Darwinist ideas such as eugenics for example. This is what I mean. People take this theory of origins and turn it into something that it isn't. They turn it into a religious view of things that basically denies any transcendence of any kind, it is naturalism run amuck and it masquerades as science.

[Vanmeter815]

I have no problem with people simply believing in evolution and leaving that as a scientific answer. I do however have a problem when people take this theory and extend it beyond science and extends into questions that philosophy and theology should answer.

[Vanmeter815]

Yes, people are special. We are clearly different from other living things in that we possess unique characteristics. I care about animals, I believe it is a sin to hunt and I believe it is a sin to be cruel to them. We should respect them, but it is quite pathetic to go all out on some little nutty Darwinian project like this... and lets not be hypocrites about it, that's exactly what this is. Its not about the animals themselves, its about their offspring.

[Vanmeter815]

How do great apes hold any relevance to our survival? Its ridiculous to think that they do. "But i smell the stench of organized religion"

You might be smelling your own stench, your completely entrenched in a false and potentially devastating worldview. Its both organized and militant. This video is highly despicable because it supports an initiative to give animals rights, far beyond the line. I am against both animal cruelty and equal rights for animals. Don't get me wrong, animals are great.

[freestyler15x]

"But i smell the stench of organized religion"

earlier you wrote "Animals are great and all but people are 1000000x more special." Hypocrite?

I wont get you wrong, you think animals are great, but you couldnt care less if they go extinct.

Why do you think humans are so much better? Is it because you think god created this world just for you, and that animals are just here to entertain you?

The sure smells like the stench of religion to me

[Vanmeter815]

Don't be bashing other ways of thought or other ideologies either because Darwinism is really not that much of a science but more of a religion. This video proves my point.

[freestyler15x]

Please tell me if you have met someone who prays to Darwin. Darwinism is not a religion. It is a way to understand the processes that occurred in nature to arrive at the variety of life we have today.

Im not trying to bash other peoples ideologies. Im just trying to point out that other peoples ideologies are incredibly self centered and based on ancient ways of understanding the world. I am not a darwinist. I am a moral, rationally thinking individual.

[londono3]

If we cannot in all our human wonderfulness see the need to keep the great primates of the planet alive then we are doomed to fail as a species . Humans are not any more special . We are just another animal on this planet trying to live love and be happy . But i smell the stench of organized religion trying to make humans superior to anything else.

[Vanmeter815]

Well you have failed to differentiate between people and animals. Animals are great and all but people are 1000000x more special. Yes I'm a specieist which in my view just means you aren't taken aback by false ideas.

[Vanmeter815]

Yes, but you have failed to differentiate between people and animals. My concern is much much greater for people who are suffering terribly rather than the great apes. I don't really care all that much if great apes go extinct as long as there are people who we should be focusing on instead. Some people literally care more about animals than humans and those people I label as nuts.

[veganmochi]

It's disheartening when people don't realize empathy does not need be a small circle. Violence, apathy, carelessness, no matter which species is the target, share the same foundation. There can be no improvements for people, the environment, or animals, if the consensus is, "These people, these animals, these things are more important that these other things." Empathy has no hierarchy.

[JLProud]

Great video.

[Vanmeter815]

I really couldn't care less about the well-being of any apes as long as there are people in Africa and other areas who are dying of starvation and terrible living conditions. Once all people on earth have basic needs fulfilled, then I will care about saving animals.

[ahonestwoman]

People aren't going extinct. Great Apes are...If the great apes disappear then we will be next. Think and pick up a book....The Great Apes are going extinct because, of their habitat is the rainforest and do you know that the rain Forrest is something to keep humans from going extinct. Just saying.

[Flamethrower334]

compare mistreatment to extinction, the worst thing you can do to an animal is making it extinct forget mistreatment just support their survival in the wild so that future generations can enjoy them

[bulldoggin12]

language*

Which in fact, bonobos do have a vocal language which humans themselves cannot even decode yet. Some of the bonobos at the higher spectrum of intelligence in fact have an IQ of 90-100. 100 is supposedly the average human, but there are many who are lower...

I state this because I have been doing personal research on bonobos extensively and for a long period of time.

[werlloo]

If you're still able to read this I'm interested in knowing, if you know, what sort of IQ tests Bonobos took to show that their IQ is equal or similar to that of a human child? I'd also question these IQ tests as there have been times where human skill an intellect have been shown to be nothing but attributes to sub-conscious action known as the "Clever Hans effect" (brought about by a horse that could apparently count)

[bulldoggin12]

Well if you expect the type of written or picture completion IQ sort then you are sorely mistaken for those misrepresent even human ability. The previously mentioned IQ is actually determined by multiple tests and not just one or two. Such examples are the obvious MSR test which is often associated with self consciousness (all great apes including humans, naturally pass consistently) and several object permanence tests among other ones similar,

[bulldoggin12]

adding up to a practical autonomy value exceeding that of many autistic humans and slightly to moderately mentally retarded humans.

And explain to me why, a horse, a mammal, would be unable to count when an African grey parrot, a bird, could?

[werlloo]

Well in response to the grey parrot that could apparently count, the only case I have ever found was Alex the grey parrot. I really question if Alex could truly count instead of just being affected by subconscious clues or conditioning, which is what was discovered with the "counting horse" and led to the acceptance of the clever hans effect.

[werlloo]

Also in regard to Bonobos, it can also be possible that they can recognize the nature of mirrors as images of themselves due to exposure and not due to self-recognition? In the case of Gorillas, another great ape, have a low passing rate in MSR tests, in either case it would seem that they would not qualify as self-recognizing.

[bulldoggin12]

Correction: bonobos have a lot higher intelligence than a 4 year old human child. In fact, a dog has the intelligence of a 2 year old human child itself. I think you meant the bonobos who are being taught english speak at the level of a 4 year old human child. This is mostly due to the fact that they are learning a language which is not at all native to their species for english is a human language, not a bonobo languages.

[smartard]

do they get less respect because they are not "sentient"? if you remember, all of us were not sentient at one time- as a fetus. how come it is unthinkable to many to kill a bundle of thoughtless cells and it is fully acceptable to kill a thinking, feeling creature?

[kridinaa]

why do ignorant people think that just because a creature is not a "human" that they have no right to live in this world? fuck that shit! all living things deserve respect and the right to exist. and by the way hansome-whateveryourfaceis...H­UMANS are primates too, duche. go read a book then come and talk when you're a little bit smarter.

[Handsome815]

These abhorrent, stupid, redundant WRETCHES like the post below set a horrible example for all atheist "free-thinkers". I'll admit it was just a joke, but at the same time it really is absurd in my point of view. Don't ever call anyone a fundamentalist because you are VERY MUCH one sir. If you agree with this clip, that is.

[psychocalikitty]

I am not a Atheist dirtbag!!!

This is NOTHING ABOUT FRIGGIN' ATHEIST!!! It's about Saving one of God's creatures.

I don't think there is alot of room for people like you in heaven. I am pretty sure a Great Ape will be talking to God about your attitude!!!

God LOVES Great Apes

Jesus LOVES Great Apes

[Handsome815]

These people are pathetic. I'm going to go out and kill primates because of these evolutionists.

[fishmarc]

Handsome815: You are an ignorant, selfish asshole. I suppose you are a fundamentalist Christian without the ability to think indepently. With any luck your threat will turn out to be returned to you in kind. Shut up and go away.

[psychocalikitty]

Handsome815: You are pathetic...You know if you are a representative of God. I am sure God is very embarrassed of YOU right now.

God put all animals on this planet to be respected and taken care of.

We have broken one of God's laws by killing, exploiting and disrespecting these wonderful GIFTS OF GOD!!! 6th Commandment Bytch: Thou shalt not kill. (does not specify human either)

I think these APES are a hellva lot more human then you are.

Poop for Brains!!!!!

[bulldoggin12]

Humans are primates too, so do us a favour and go kill yourself also then. :)

[fishmarc]

They are now revising extinction of the bonobo, orangutan, gorilla at under 10 years. The chimpanzee may take slightly longer but not much more.

[middleeasterngouda]

great vid i'm going to your site right now

[spriteofbones]

Sad video.

Why must all wildlife documentaries end with melancholy?

[FlyingFossa]

Thanks for sharing this video. People need to be aware.