When I started this project I knew the hardest part was going to be not letting every documentary be about primates. Not a lot of people know this, but I'm a full blown ape-addict. A primate-ophile. A lemur-lover. A chimp cherisher. Okay, you get the point. I like monkeys. So just be forewarned if 80% of the documentaries I watch this year are about apes and orangutans, I really tried to keep it to a minimum. (Side note- the reason this post is a day late is because I got distracted looking into how to become a primatologist and fell asleep.)
Before diving into this documentary, (which proved to be the mother of ape docs) I feel the need to clear up a common problem among primates- the name calling. For years I've used the terms 'ape', 'chimp', 'monkey', and the like interchangeably. I thought by marking their distinctions here it would forever be added to my mental Rolodex.
According to The Grammarist: "Prosimians are a small group comprising lemurs, lorises, bushbabies, aye-ayes, tarsiers, and a few others. Apes are another small group containing larger species of primates such as chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, humans, orangutans, and gibbons. Monkeys include every species of primate that is not an ape or a prosimian." And monkeys have tails. Glad we got to the bottom of it. (ha!)
Anyway this doc discusses the multitude of similarities that exist between primates and man, and then spends most of the time identifying the few contrasts that exist. The film looks to answer the sentence "humans are the only animal that can ___." Through a series of experiments the film tries to determine what traits humans possess that other animals do not, from an understanding of basic physics to the complexity of oral language.
What I Learned: Man, a whole bunch. Did you know that each chimp has a unique call (called a pant-hoot) that enables them to be identified? Also, primates have an INSANE short term memory- in one of the tests the primates were shown a screen with flashing numbers which would then disappear and they had to put them in order from lowest to highest. They got it right time and time again, with less than a few seconds to memorize the location of the numbers. Also, Great Apes are one of the only animals in the world (besides humans) who can identify themselves in a mirror? Like, they really know it's them and not another Ape.
Here- check out this baby chimp check himself out in a mirror for the first time. (experiment starts at 1:15)
Finally, the most important thing I learned was that primates don't teach their young: they don't slow down their actions to show their children what they are doing. I think this is an amazing contrast to how humans teach their young. The idea is that in the wild, animals don't have time to learn and must develop an understanding immediately, so they are just expected to pay attention to their elders and literally "ape" what they see till they understand it. What if I taught my kids that way? Never told them anything, just went on living my life and seeing what they picked up? They'd either be geniuses by the age of 4 or the state would take them away. Guess we'll see.
What I Liked: Like I said, I'm a sucker for primates. I liked the various experiments that showcased how smart these animals are. It almost got to be too freaky though- in some of the experiments the animals seemed too aware of what they were expected to do. I admit it kinda gave me the willies to see these creatures using tools, working in cooperation with other animals, and openly communicating with their human keepers.
What I Didn't Like: This doc was a labor of love for me. Though I thoroughly enjoyed it, it felt like it dragged on a bit too long. I had to watch it in spurts to keep my attention focused. Also, it was almost an overwhelming amount of information: each experiment, and there were 10-15, was so fascinating I could have watched a whole doc. just on them, but they were introduced and dismissed rather quickly.
Overall, not the best monkeydoc I've seen, but certainly not the last. Here it is on youtube in ten parts-
And, for no reason at all, here's an ape smelling his finger and then fainting. So human it's scary.
No comments:
Post a Comment