#we would be like an orangutan

[apes-like-us]

#this poll is my masterpiece i spent so long thinking of appropriate adjectives #we would be like an orangutan #primates #apes #great apes #gorilla #chimpanzee #bonobo #poll #primatology #anthropology #gibbon

[thefaestolemyname]

#I joke #But I have to admit I have wondered before #What would it feel like to be a plant? #The wind? #A rock? #An amoeba? #An orangutan? #But in the end #Do we even know what it's like to be ourselves? #Entangled Life #Merlin Sheldrake #🐸

[two-calicos-in-a-trenchcoat]

Im trying to tell if im dehydrated or if I got sunburnt on my lips yesterday or if im having an allergic reaction to something

Cuz my eyes and nose also burn a little

But not my whole nose

And also my eyebrows a little??????

Also my head is still fuzzy from being around a lot of people all day yesterday and going to the grocery store was maybe a mistake but I needed bagels

But then I was waiting for my mom to confirm she needed heavy whipping cream and not half and half (the carton we have rn looks the same as the half and half they had but nothing like any of the heavy whipping cream cuz theyre apparently out of the heavy whipping cream in that brand but it was confusing me) a bunch of people were suddenly all around me and it was making me feel uncomfortable and trapped

Also walking around all day yesterday hurt so even my trick of putting my left foot up on the seat didn't keep my hip from locking up when I got out of the car

#i feel very bleh and i can guess what the reason for part of it is but the rest i have no idea #i was expecting my back and hips to hurt today #i was not expecting parts of my face to feel crispy #i wore sunscreen. why do you feel crispy #also i was allergic to something around the asia/Australia part of the zoo cuz my eyes kept getting super watery and itchy around there #either im allergic to a plant there or im allergic to orangutans and merino sheep #my mom thinks it could be a perfume someone was wearing cuz she was smelling a lot of perfume but i didnt smell anything like that #but it happened around the tree orangutans and the merino sheep #nowhere else #i doubt it was actually the orangutans but that would be funny lol #makes me wonder how many people are allergic to animals we havent domesticated and will never know cuz theyll never be #around that animal #wasnt there an astronaut that got to space and found out he was allergic to something there #something about choosing a very specialized career studying something very few people have a chance to be up close to #and finding out youre allergic #hm. i need sugar. it helps the brain fuzz #unfortunately dillons is finally actually out of my soda and they were out of cherry clearly Canadian so i couldn't get that either #i wonder if dillons isnt gonna carry boylan soda anymore #considering they havent restocked in over a month #they still have other types from that brand but those ones are less popular #if so that sucks cuz ill have to start going to world market if i want it which is on the other side of town #or drinking cherry coke again which isnt terrible but its definitely my last choice for cherry soda #also the real cane sugar makes a big difference and unfortunately they dont sell cherry coke with cane sugar

[rockatanskette]

One of the running themes in "humans are space orcs" circles is the idea that humans will bond with anything. I can think of plenty of stories of humans making friends with wild animals, alligators, predators, creatures that aliens would immediately recognize as too dangerous for contact. But I was reading a story about two orangutans released back into the wild today and there's a certain element to that story I haven't seen so often: humans will bond with animals regardless of whether the bond is reciprocal.

For every story of a human making friends with some unlikely creature, there are dozens of stories of conservation specialists tranquilizing animals, tending to their wounds or illness, and releasing them because they're too dangerous to handle consciously. Stories of tagging birds of prey and timber wolves and Siberian tigers. Fat Bear Week? Any of those bears would rip your face off without hesitation. But they're round and fluffy and intimidating and beautiful and we love them even though they hate us. We make an effort to protect our monsters, because we love our monsters.

Imagine an alien planet that's experiencing ecological degradation. Their flora is dying, and they can't figure out why. And, offhandedly, in a diplomatic mission, an allied planet mentions that humans have successfully reversed similar devastation on Earth. So they reach out and Earth sends some experts to check it out. And what do they suggest? Reintroducing an apex predator that used to be a scourge against alien settlements. The species still exists in other regions of the planet, but it is slowly disappearing outside of its native habitat.

The aliens are askance. They've told bedtime stories to their young of these creatures: how they tear apart their prey, how they've eaten their organs and rip apart their homes. Some suggest that it's a trick—that the humans are trying to prompt them into destroying themselves.

But there are many alien cultures on this planet, with many different stories and some of them agree. The world watches in anticipation as the humans help their predators. They seek them out, these fearless otherworlders, putting them to sleep and tending their wounds. They keep track of the beasts, not to harm them, but to protect them.

At first the doomsayers' prophecy seems to come true. The predators devour prey animals like a feast, like a slaughter to people who have never been so close to the circle of life. But then, slowly, not over months but over years, comes change. The prey no longer eat the leaves and buds of every tree; some are left to bloom and fall. The refuse rots in the dirt, and the floods cease as the soil grows thick with compost and rotted bone, thick enough to hold water. The shapes of rivers change to protect their surroundings from the rain. The pollinators rebound.

Decades later, other cities and nations begin to accept this human myth of "conservation." Champions arise, alien champions, now, who go into the depths of the wilderness and the seas to protect those predators from the apathy of time.

Not all of them make it. This is something else the humans teach. Sometimes the tranquilizers are not enough. Sometimes the timing is wrong. Sometimes accidents happen. And when they do, the aliens look to humans for an answer for why they should protect these creatures who have killed those they love?

"Because they knew the risks," the humans say. "Because they would be the first to speak to save them. Because they taught you to see the beauty in the wild and you must not close your eyes."

So, despite themselves, they don't.

#humans are space orcs #earth is space australia #humans are space australians #this wasn't originally about steve irwin #but it turned into being about steve irwin #i'm crying about stingrays now #it's fine

[itsabouttimex2]

Monkiefam: Part One

Transformation Troubles

(Part Zero) (Part One) (Part Two)

“It’s for your own safety, kiddo.”

Those words ring in your mind as you stare out of the window, watching as your “father” trains your “brother”. You idly watch them clash, deftly swinging their staffs, blocking, counter-attacking, and breaking through each other’s defenses. Wukong stands leagues above MK, even though the kid is learning fast. You’ve gotten used to the sight of the monkey demon correcting his mentee’s stance, shifting his arms and legs, hauling him off the ground and dusting his clothes off when he knocks him down. Once, you would’ve stood in wide-eyed awe, caught on every fluid strike and powerful swing. Now, it’s become so commonplace that you barely bat an eye.

You only really start to pay attention when they start rapidly shifting between several forms from the 72 Transformations technique.

Although your “family” had allowed you to partake in basic training exercises like stretches and warmups, anything beyond that was strictly off-limits to you. As MK mastered skill after skill and bolstered his arsenal of techniques, you were stuck inside, only able to watch him grow. All to keep you safe, in their own words. One was a monkey demon and one was an inheritor to the legacy and powers of said monkey demon. They were powerful and mystical, and you were a regular human, short-lived and fragile. Weaker, slower, squishier.

But more than smart enough to learn a few of their tricks.

And brave enough to try one out.

“If you wanna change your body, you gotta change your thinking first, bud.”Wukong had instructed MK with these words not too long ago. From a hawk to a tiger to even something as small as a butterfly, Sun Wukong had already mastered all 72 and MK was well on his way to learning to do so himself.

You only had one in mind to start with. If you wanted to ever escape the smothering clutches of these two warriors, you weren’t going to be able to do it with any kind of mindless force. Being able to take the form of a hawk might’ve sounded useful, but the Monkey King could easily outspeed you. A tiger? Both of them could take the same form, and were much stronger to boot. Picking something like a spider would easily keep MK away, but wouldn’t deter Wukong in the slightest.

So instead, you settled on the monkey. Then, you had plausible deniability on your side. You could shrug it off as ‘wanting to be more like him’ or ‘wanting to see what it was like’ if Wukong asked you why you’d been practicing transformations at all. MK wouldn’t need any sort of explanation from you, because he’d probably just get excited about you learning such a technique.

You have your plan. And your reasoning, if things go poorly. All that’s left to do is to get started.

Change your thinking.

Wild, exuberant energy. Skillful jumps and leaps. Dexterous limbs and powerful bodies. Unbridled curiosity. Devotion to your troop.

An innate desire to revel in freedom.

At first, you had worried that the transformation might hurt. But then the whole world flashes gold and your body shifts and reshapes, and you feel better than you ever have before. A burst of adrenaline rushes through you, glowing sparks of white hot energy coursing your veins. You lie there on the floor for a few minutes, trying to regain your composure as the searing ecstasy of success flows through your shifted body.

And then there’s a knock on the door. You try to scramble to your feet, only to trip over your unfamiliar appendages. You slip and lightly thud against the floor, which only worries your captor more.

“You doing okay in there, bud? Training ran a little long, huh?”

You can’t respond. You try to respond, but nothing akin to speech comes out. Only silk-soft chittering. Then it hits you.

You aren’t a gorilla, a chimpanzee, an orangutan.

“Are you still mad that we won’t let you train with us? Am I getting the silent treatment now, kid?”

No, you’ve shifted into one of the little monkeys that flourish on Flower Fruit Mountain.

“Aww, don’t be too upset, alright? Hey, I’ll have MK bring us some of those noodles the two of you like, okay? The three of us can eat together.”

And you don’t know how to turn back.

“Y/N?”

You only have a few seconds to register the concern in his voice before the door between the two of you flies off the handles, broken down by a single kick from Wukong. He crosses the threshold into your room, looking around not only in worry, but tentative anger. If you had broken out again, he was going to…

You look up. He looks down.

There’s only a couple of seconds where he’s confused, head tilted curiously to the side at the sight of the little monkey in front of him. Then, recognition writes itself across his face.

His eyes widen in adoration as the end of his tail curls into a sort of heart. He dashes forward and snatches you off the ground with a huge grin, holding you up to his face. He nuzzles you against himself, brushing his cheek against your own. He only pauses to call out to his student.

“MK, bud, you gotta come see this!”

Once you hear excited footsteps pounding down the halls, you know that you’re in for a long day.

#platonic yandere #Yandere Lego Monkie Kid #Yandere LMK #Platonic Yandere LMK #Yandere Sun Wukong #Yandere MK #Monkiefam

[battle-acs-official]

I'm about to go on a rant about Sasquatch.

I'm not sorry.

So.

Sasquatch. Bigfoot. Big hairy thing in the woods. What is it, and why is it so fucking hard to find?

Honestly, the simplest and most effective answer to basically any question asked about it is: "It's an Ape. Duh."

Okay, what is it? It's an Ape. A Great Ape. What specific branch is unknown, but it DEFINITELY ISN'T A GIGANTOPITHECUS DESCENDANT!!! Giganto was an Orangutan relative and Sasquatch is clearly more related to Apes like Gorilla and Chimpanzee. Stop that. Just because it was big doesn't mean that that's the only animal Sasquatch could be related to.

On the point of bigness, first, Giganto is good precedent for Apes being able to get that big, so the argument that Sasquatch couldn't as big as it's reported to be is already dead.

Why would it get so big, though? Well, why did everything else that came across the Bering land bridge get so damn big? Bountiful resources, need to adapt, freedom for experimental forms to arise due to lack of competition. Everything in the Ice Age Species Exchange did 2 things: Got really fucking big and got really fucking weird, so an ape coming over would experience the same lack of competition and adaptive pressures.

So why would we have such a hard time finding them if they've been here the whole time? Well, for starters, we do find them. Often. You just stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes, and chant "Hoaxes and Bears! Hoaxes and Bears!". So... That's a you problem. Also, let's put ourselves in the mindset of a Sasquatch for a minute here:

You're a Sasquatch.

You're probably somewhere between Gorilla and Chimpanzee levels of intelligence.

You're hanging out, doing your thing, walking through the woods, and you enter a clearing.

The clearing is full of dead shit, fires and screaming, hairless murderous cryptids that can kill basically anything it wants.

You recognize that this thing is a threat.

You also recognize that they usually stay in or near the plains.

You also recognize that they usually don't come out at night.

You also recognize that if they can see it, they can kill it.

You make the easy connection that the best method for not being killed by these things is to go where they don't (Deep forests and inaccessible mountains) and do your thing when they're inactive (Night).

Now, practice this habit for an absolute bare minimum of the last 10,000 years (the last time the Bering land bridge was accessible, but they likely would have came over on one of the earlier openings, which was up to several million years ago) and you have an animal that is very well adapted to seeing Humans as an existential threat and keeping well the fuck away from them.

Alright, well, if they're real, why haven't we found fossils? ... My guy, do you have any idea how ludicrously difficult it is to find ANY Primate fossils? We have functionally 0 Chimpanzee fossils. We have a handful of teeth for Gorillas. Orangutans, also mostly just a couple dozen teeth. Gigantopithecus, the guy that everyone points to (erroneously) as an ancestor of Sasquatch, is only known from a partial jaw bone. Most of it's anatomy is just speculation.

For all practical purposes, there may as well not be any Primate fossils.

So now tell me why you would expect to find any Sasquatch fossils?

Well, why are primate fossils so hard to find? Forests. For a fossil to be preserved, the animal needs to either be buried swiftly after death in mostly light sediment, like sand and silt, or have their bones picked clean and, still, buried in some form of sediment quickly (like burial in a grave).

Forests rarely ever have such conditions. Most bodies are left in open air, humid, bioactive, scavenger filled conditions with very few chances to be buried (unless they end up falling in a river).

Oh, and North American forests are possibly the worst possible forests for fossil preservation, if for no other reason than fucking porcupines. Little bastards actively EAT BONES. So, yeah, finding fossils in NA forests is nigh impossible for an already nigh impossible animal to expect a fossil from.

Alright, but that doesn't explain why we can't find them. Well, for starters, we do, you guys just call all the witnesses liars, drunks or idiots. And expecting that kind of reaction tends to dampen one's enthusiasm to tell people what you've seen...

... So that's your fault, when you really think about it.

Also, who's gonna fund a multiple years expedition into the most remote reaches of the continent, with people the scientific (ha, ironic) community has made a habit of condemning as quacks and hoaxers, with military grade search and reconnaissance equipment, trying to build an entirely new field of study from scratch, to find an animal that is deliberately, consciously, trying to not be found.

Oh, so you just conveniently just can't find any evidence, but it totally exists? We have hair, which is call hoaxes. We have foot, hand and full body prints, which you call hoaxes. We have dermal ridges (the stuff that makes your fingerprint, but they exist on your hands and feet), which you call hoaxes. We have photos, which you call hoaxes. We have videos, which you call hoaxes. We have audio recordings, which you call hoaxes. We have basically everything short of a physical specimen.

Well then get a physical specimen!

A) Again, they are actively trying to stay away from humans. They likely don't visit the same places twice when they see humans around.

B) Sightings are rare, brief and probably deliberate on the Sasquatch's part as a way to scare you off. You're not going to be running around the forest on your normal hike with a tranquilizer gun to quick-draw at a moment's notice and that animal is definitely not going to let itself be seen for very long.

C) Hunters usually have a habit of NOT shooting the upright, human-shaped things in the woods. Even if it very obviously looks like a Sasquatch, most people would likely hold their fire in case it's an asshole in a suit.

D) Even if you manage to shoot one, do you have a chopper to haul it out? No? Well good luck dragging a 6-10 foot tall, 400-700 pound behemoth out of the woods with nothing but your bare hands.

And finally E) I'd like to at least hope that most people would be hesitant to kill something that looks so much like a human. If you saw a mother and young, could you really bring yourself to killing them?

Any debate is welcome, just be civil.

#sasquatch #bigfoot #yeti #cryptid #cryptids #cryptozoology #cryptozoolologist

[tanadrin]

If you think there are at least some non-animal organisms, like archaea or fungi or all opisthokonts plants, that meet the stated criteria, select the first option ("Animals or other.") We're discussing terrestrial, biological life only, though, so extraterrestrial life, supernatural beings, or machine intelligences do not figure in to this scheme (but feel free to discuss them in the notes).

Eumetazoa is, AFAICT, the largest group of animals that includes all animals with at least some nervous tissue--so not sea sponges. But it does include a few clades without nervous systems, like the Placozoa.

Chordates are all animals containing a dorsal nerve cord specifically: chordates do not include, e.g., insects, molluscs (including octopuses and squid), and starfish. Chordates do include all fish.

Tetrapods include all animals with four limbs and distinct digits; this excludes most, but not all fish, and includes reptiles, mammals, dinosaurs (including birds), and amphibians.

Mammals includes all animals that nurse their young, have fur, have a neocortex, and have three middle ear bones. This group includes monotremes like the platypus, as well as more familiar animals like dogs, cats, cows, horses, mooses, and more(ses).

Primates includes monkeys, lemurs, apes, tarsiers, lorises and, of course, humans (though all of these clades include humans).

Hominids include gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and humans ("apes").

Hominins includes just humans and chimpanzees (including bonobos). (I think; the taxonomic nomenclature distinguishes between Hominidae, Hominini, Homininae, Hominina, and Hominoidae, so I might have mixed some of these up. Blame the ICZN or whoever is responsible for this mess.)

Australopithecines (equivalent to "Hominina," I think, but don't quote me on that) includes all extinct hominins more closely related to humans than to any other extant species, like Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus, and of course later species like Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

Homo is the genus that includes the whole human family in the broad sense: modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo erectus, and Homo habilis.

Homo sapiens includes only anatomically modern humans, as we emerged around 300,000 years ago in Africa.

#i really wanted like four or five more options #to make this poll with sufficient granularity #oh well #pretend eukaryotes bilateria vertebrates and placental mammals are also on the list #and possibly synapsids and the eukaryotes+archaea group just for fun

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

I do 100% believe that if we put the other great apes throughout school like we do with humans, they would be able to talk and work like humans do. those are literally just Guys that we’re denying an education. I fully trust an orangutan to vote

#molly mumbles #lol

[ape-apocalypse]

Apes fans have long believed that Freya Allan's human character was called Mae. This name came from numerous articles and interviews, though I feel like I'm now struggling to find a direct quote from any cast or crew that name her Mae. Why the confusion? The new IMAX trailer features a longer clip of apes hunting humans through the forest. Most notably, as we see Freya Allan hide among the tall grass, Noa comes riding in calling two names: Raka, the orangutan seen wearing Caesar's symbol and... Nova? Why would he be calling for Nova and not Mae?

Fans will remember that Nova was the human girl found and adopted by Maurice during War. Made mute by the mutated virus, but seemingly not actively dying like most humans who get sick, she is given the name while playing with the logo of a Chevy Nova. This name is a callback to the feral human who Taylor bonded with in the first Planet of the Apes film. So the name Nova is not unheard of in this film series but why would a character we've been told is called Mae for months now be named Nova? 

According to a recently published article by the magazine Total Film, the term Nova is a name apes call humans. This is an interesting revelation to the lore building of ape society. I could see descendants of Caesar's group telling stories of Nova, the one human who spent significant time with their community, and expand her name to a label for all humans as the years go on.

Freya Allan also revealed an additional name for her character. "Noa also calls her Echo, which I love." She's not been able to share much about her character, trying to protect story details, but she did hint more at her mysterious history. All the actors went through movement lessons. This is obvious for those playing apes but it seems even those playing humans had them too, which makes sense given their more feral nature. However, Allan said that “It was a different process for me because of Nova’s backstory”.

She goes on to describe the experience of learning this new movement, “There’s a sort of rabbit-in-headlights quality to the physicality. It was important in terms of just feeling uncomfortable being around these apes and how scary that is, but also feeling ‘less than’ in terms of how the world is and how humans are within this world.”

Nova… Mae… Echo… whatever her name might be, I can’t wait to see her mystery unfold!

#kingdom of the planet of the apes #planet of the apes #freya allan #noa #nova #mae #reboot pota #pota #wes ball #owen teague #proximus caesar #kevin durand #mine #chimpanzee #chimp #war for the planet of the apes #war of the planet of the apes #original pota

[pissvortex]

I’ve noticed there’s a slight trend of ppl going to the zoo to show apes different pictures and videos. Was actually introduced to the trend by a vid of someone showing an orangutan the WOMBO COMBO SSBB video. As someone studying primates, do you think this has any adverse effects on them? Would you discourage the zoo guests from doing this? I know you said at the sanctuary you worked at, y’all would put on movies for the chimps. But since you were invested and involved in their long term care, I assume the rationale and long term effects are probably different that zoo goers showing apes internet bs on their phones.

the main negative impact seems to be that some gorillas are genuinely getting screen addiction and developing bad socialization habits such as ignoring other gorillas in their enclosure. basically there's no reason for zoo guests to be doing that. it's a lot different if its like occasional enrichment at a sanctuary though.

[bookishdaze]

My too long theory post about Mae as Reverse Caesar? This is multiple theories, really...

My theories on Mae's origins have ranged from her just being a lone smart girl among feral humans, to her coming from an underground civilization living in a bunker (My personal favorite. I like Fallout, lol).

Here's one that came to mind recently. It's not my main theory for her, (I still think she's just from some colony of smart humans) but it's my most "creative" and "crazy" one, but if people are allowed their crazy astronaut theories, THEN I'M ALLOWED THIS ONE 🤪

I'm gonna be calling her Mae/Nova for this.

Feel free to poke holes in this theory by the way, hehe.

This theory came to me after watching the new trailer, where we hear her being called "Nova," and we also get a shot of her riding on horseback with Raka. It reminded me a lot of Nova from War riding with Maurice.

So I thought, 'Huh, we're getting another blonde girl named Nova riding on horseback with an orangutan in the exact same way. It almost looks like the characters and plot for KOTPOTA could be a reworked version of what a plot could look like for a direct War sequel following a grown up Cornelius with Nova and Maurice and ohhhhhh-'

*puts on tinfoil hat* So my weird train of thought led me to this wacky theory: Mae/Nova is a human that was taken in by Raka as a child, and he has been raising and taking care of her. Just like Maurice did for Nova. She's kinda like Tarzan.

At first I had thought Raka met Mae/Nova because she was separated from her human colony and he was helping her get back home before they ran into Noa.

I also thought that maybe they come from a place where humans and apes already coexist, and I honestly still think either of these is the case tbh, but this part of a recent article made me think otherwise.

The "rabbit-in-headlights" bit makes me doubt she comes from a place where there are intelligent humans. (It's still possible she could be. I'll get to that later). To me this sounds like she's smarter, but still has some "animal" behaviors.

As for why Raka took her in, it can totally just be coincidence that we have another friendly orangutan who adopted a young girl.

Or maybe it became some sort of, ehh, tradition? Him wearing a necklace with Caesar's symbol and talking about how apes and humans used to live side by side makes him sound like a religious person. Maybe somewhere along the line, it became custom for those who follow his faith to "adopt a Nova" to raise and take care of, like Maurice did.

There is a difference, though. Raka could have been taking care of Mae/Nova, but he still sees her as an...well, an animal. A very smart animal that he feels a responsibility towards. I know him viewing her as an animal sounds pretty harsh, but keep in mind that humans have regressed to be like animals at this point.

And there's also this scene where he just....tosses her some food. It's no different from the way humans toss a friendly animal some food, really.

"But why does she seem frightened by the apes at the fireplace if she's been raised by Raka?"

I think she's scared of Noa here.

Orangutans are actually solitary creatures (I googled, lol), so it's very possible that it's just been her and Raka, and any newcomer makes her nervous.

Ok ok ok, so he's a guy who has taken in an animal that shows signs of intelligence and has taken it upon himself to nurture and care for this animal because his personal beliefs tell him that in doing so, he could potentially make the world a better place.

Like Will did with Caesar.

"So she's reverse Caesar." Yeah. That's pretty much what I've been trying to get at with all my rambling. Yay, parallels!

And we know Will cared for Caesar, but he always saw him as an animal. A very smart animal, but an animal nonetheless. He had him on a leash, and as much as he didn't want to, he still took him to the primate shelter. It wasn't Will being cruel, he just treated Caesar the way any human would have treated an animal, no matter how close they are.

Of course, like Caesar, Mae/Nova is gonna go through some changes. She's a young girl growing into adulthood. She'll have "needs and wants," as this article states.

Those needs and wants could be many things. To be regarded as equal. No longer wanting to feel inferior. And if she truly is some lone smart girl among a world of feral humans, she's also gonna feel really really lonely. (Think about it. If she does not come from a colony of smart humans and she truly is the only one, that's tragic. I'd be depressed, man).

So she'll also want friendship and companionship. To have a friend or anyone she can relate with. She'll most likely find this with Noa, since the article says, "...there are far more parallels and commonalities between the two of them than they might have originally imagined."

Okay, one question came to mind when coming up with this theory.

Why is she smarter than other humans? I got a few theories.

Theory 1. She could still be someone who grew up in a colony of intelligent humans, whether it be a colony in an underground bunker or anywhere else. It doesn't matter. But something terrible may have happened, like her colony was killed off, or she was separated from them as a little girl. Then Raka found her and took her in. Like Tarzan!

Theory 2. This one and the third one won't be as satisfying to fans, I assume. But maybe Raka noticed a lone child that was smarter than most, and he decided to take her in and help her intelligence grow.

Theory 3. She started off as an unintelligent feral girl, but being raised by an ape allowed her to slowly gain her intelligence back. I actually like this one. For starters, it's similar to the Planet of the Apes novel from 1963, where one of the astronauts became feral and unintelligent because of spending too much time in a cage with feral humans at a zoo, and Nova actually gained the ability to speak and became intelligent after spending a year or two in space with Ulysse, the protagonist.

Theory 4. She's like Megamind where she was launched into space from an alien planet as a baby while her homeworld burned all around her and she crash landed onto Earth. THERE'S YOUR ASTRONAUT THEORY.

I'm kidding. That was a joke. I know April Fool's was two days ago.

As for her name, we've gotten three so far. Mae, Nova, and Echo. I like to think of her name as a sort of symbol or indicator of her character growth, where I assume she'll gain the ability to speak at the end, or will have grown into herself as a person.

She'll start off as Nova. A common generic name given to all humans, given to her by Raka.

Then Echo. A more unique name given to her by Noa, but still not her own.

Then, finally, Mae. Her true unique name that she was either born with, or she picks out for herself.

Aaaaand I think that's it. I'm done. I know that was long, but I wanted to gather all of my thoughts and theories on Mae/Nova somewhere before I watch the movie in a month. Whatever her story is, I cannot wait to see it unfold. Now it's time for me to SLEEP.

#planet of the apes #kingdom of the planet of the apes #pota #kotpota #planetoftheapes #kingdomoftheplanetoftheapes #please feel free to pick this theory apart #thats the best way to test if something works #trying to break it as much as you can to expose where the holes are

[bignosebaby]

Human See, Human Post: How Social Media can Hurt Primates, and How we can Help.

"Animal influencers present their pets as perfect animals who love them and are sources of endless joy in their unique and quirky lives. Even those that preach responsible animal practices flatten the complexities into soundbites clean enough to keep even the most cautious animal lover clicking. This bombardment of pet primate content is appealing by design and a promotion for primate ownership that comic book ads could only dream of. Not only are these photos and videos of pet primates everywhere online, they draw you in. I love primates and if I didn’t know better I probably would find that video of a capuchin in a little outfit or that orangutan on roller skates pretty cute, but I know how they got there and where they go from here. No matter how sweet it looks, for the animal the likely scenario is birth to cage to YouTube to euthanasia at sexual maturity. There are variations, but a definite pattern.

Combatting the clickable tide of pet primate content is tough. I can’t expect someone scrolling their feed on lunch break to research the flood of animal videos one by one, or to respond well to accusations that the cute monkey video they hit like on is depicting animal cruelty.

Making money off of social media has never been more viable and while a pet monkey might cost a couple thousand dollars, the ad revenue, sponsorships, and fame from making pet monkey videos can cover the initial investment and then some. Clicks add up, and by taking yours away from someone and giving them to something better you can support ethical animal treatment and conservation without even thinking about it. Blocking and reporting accounts that post primate exploitation images while following and sharing accounts that post primates in ethical and healthy scenarios such as the wild, sanctuaries, or zoos, really matters.

The decades to come may see people equally appalled by the primate mistreatment disguised as love."

I wrote this article on primate welfare and social media! Read the full piece on Project Simia.

#apes #monkeys #great apes #primates #primates are not pets #is the primate vid cute #animal welfare #conservation #wildlife #animals

[galactic-academia]

There is a fury to Terry Pratchett’s writing: it’s the fury that was the engine that powered Discworld. It’s also the anger at the headmaster who would decide that six-year-old Terry Pratchett would never be smart enough for the 11-plus; anger at pompous critics, and at those who think serious is the opposite of funny; anger at his early American publishers who could not bring his books out successfully.

The anger is always there, an engine that drives. By the time Terry learned he had a rare, early onset form of Alzheimer’s, the targets of his fury changed: he was angry with his brain and his genetics and, more than these, furious at a country that would not permit him (or others in a similarly intolerable situation) to choose the manner and the time of their passing.

And that anger, it seems to me, is about Terry’s underlying sense of what is fair and what is not. It is that sense of fairness that underlies Terry’s work and his writing, and it’s what drove him from school to journalism to the press office of the SouthWestern Electricity Board to the position of being one of the best-loved and bestselling writers in the world.

It’s the same sense of fairness that means that, sometimes in the cracks, while writing about other things, he takes time to punctiliously acknowledge his influences – Alan Coren, for example, who pioneered so many of the techniques of short humour that Terry and I have filched over the years; or the glorious, overstuffed, heady thing that is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and its compiler, the Rev E Cobham Brewer, that most serendipitious of authors. Terry once wrote an introduction to Brewer’s and it made me smile – we would call each other up in delight whenever we discovered a book by Brewer we had not seen before (“’Ere!’ Have you already got a copy of Brewer’s A Dictionary of Miracles: Imitative, Realistic and Dogmatic?”)

Terry’s authorial voice is always Terry’s: genial, informed, sensible, drily amused. I suppose that, if you look quickly and are not paying attention, you might, perhaps, mistake it for jolly. But beneath any jollity there is a foundation of fury. Terry Pratchett is not one to go gentle into any night, good or otherwise.

He will rage, as he leaves, against so many things: stupidity, injustice, human foolishness and shortsightedness, not just the dying of the light. And, hand in hand with the anger, like an angel and a demon walking into the sunset, there is love: for human beings, in all our fallibility; for treasured objects; for stories; and ultimately and in all things, love for human dignity.

Or to put it another way, anger is the engine that drives him, but it is the greatness of spirit that deploys that anger on the side of the angels, or better yet for all of us, the orangutans.

Terry Pratchett is not a jolly old elf at all. Not even close. He’s so much more than that. As Terry walks into the darkness much too soon, I find myself raging too: at the injustice that deprives us of – what? Another 20 or 30 books? Another shelf-full of ideas and glorious phrases and old friends and new, of stories in which people do what they really do best, which is use their heads to get themselves out of the trouble they got into by not thinking? Another book or two of journalism and agitprop? But truly, the loss of these things does not anger me as it should. It saddens me, but I, who have seen some of them being built close-up, understand that any Terry Pratchett book is a small miracle, and we already have more than might be reasonable, and it does not behoove any of us to be greedy.

I rage at the imminent loss of my friend. And I think, “What would Terry do with this anger?” Then I pick up my pen, and I start to write.

Extracted from Neil Gaiman’s introduction to A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-fiction by Terry Pratchett

#terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #neil gaiman

[injuries-in-dust]

The flying Zoo!

If human culture ever gets to a point where we can recognise other animals as fully sapient -meaning fully self-aware and as intelligent, or greater, than humans (instead of sentient -which merely means intelligent enough to be able to perceive or feel things.- then surely we wouldn't be able to leave earth and explore the universe without taking our fellow intelligent species with us.

Our ships would be wild, in more ways than one!

I'm thinking (off the top of my head):

Corvids and Parrot species are natural communication officers.

Octopi are the pilots. their multiple limbs mean manipulating the many controls of a starship would be easy, compared to a human.

Dolphins, and other Cetaceans, as navigators; naturally being better suited to thinking in three-dimensional travel than humans.

Elephants, Gorillas, and Chimps would be well suited to heavy jobs, such as security, or even moving cargo.

Our long-time companions, the canines, would also make good security, or good nurses in the medical corp.

Orangutans could actually make good doctors. (IIRC, there is a longstanding myth about apes that, if given a camera, a chimp is likely to smash it, a gorilla is likely to fight to see who gets to look at it first, and an orangutan will carefully take it apart to see how it works.) Their naturally curious nature means Orangutans would probably make good medics. (Tying into Indonesian mythology that orangutans actually have the ability to speak, but choose not to, fearing they would be forced to work.)

Our ships will be a wild mix of wide spaces for our avian crewmates, deep lakes and water-filled tunnels for our aquatic brethren and large and wide hallways for our ape, human, and pachyderm officers.

Humans may only be a footnote in the recorded history of earth races reaching out into the stars.

#humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #humans are space orcs #humans are weird #earth is weird #earth is awesome #earth is beautiful #earth is a deathworld #earth is space australia #drunk thoughts

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Mine Cart

Debut: Donkey Kong Country

What an important and influential box on wheels this is! It feels like everyone and their symbiotic Demodex mites have been putting mine cart levels in their games forever! We take them for granted like the air we breathe and also like the other stuff. It’s good we get to experience mine carts so much through games, since today’s youth and even today’s old people would rather use a SHOPPING CART and that is what is wrong with the modern world

Sorry. I fed the beginning of this post to the goats. I do not actually want to talk about the whole history of Mine Cart. Please just pretend I have just finished discussing all the appearances of Mine Cart between 1994 and 2010. Thank you.

Name: THIS Mine Cart

Debut: Donkey Kong Country Returns

Finally, in 2010, the Mine Cart was perfected! You can tell because it has a face now. The headlights are its eyes, and the grill is its toothy smile! It’s so happy! Happy to have a face. Now that the mine carts are little guys, I bet they have so much fun zooming along the tracks!

Mine Carts appear quite commonly in Cave levels, where they are seen often being ridden by mischievous mining moles! What rascally rodents! (moles are not rodents)

Upon being hypnotized by the Tikis, the Mole Miners fill the mine carts with copious amounts of bananas and- hey! HEY! These are different mine carts! What happened to my beloved gray grinner? The easy answer is “this is a different kind of cart made to be interlocked with others to form a train and we see this happen in the game”. But there is a better answer! In this game especially, bananas are shown to have magical properties, transforming empty wooden husks into real living Bad Guys. These bananas are, I assume, being transported to the factory for this very reason. But maybe these are the original mine carts! Maybe some of them, upon being full of bananas just right, spontaneously transformed into the happy, joyful vessel I am so convinced has feelings. Are you going to argue against that, in the world of this Magic Bananas Game? Punk?

Looks like THIS Mine Cart has struck it rich! It found and mined these crystals itself, fair and square. Good job! What’s it going to buy? None of our business! What is our business is that Donkey Kong cannot ride IN this one, but rather, surfs on top of it!

Honestly, what really made me so attached to Mine Cart like this was Tropical Freeze, where it has its own collectible figure! This was the first time I got to actually see its darling face, and to top it all off, it’s in the Kong Family section of the figure list! Mine Cart is part of the family! Back with 64 they seemed like they were stretching it by considering an orangutan part of the family, and here we are, with a Vehicle as part of the gang. It’s really quite nice, how it seems to imply that to the Kongs, as long as you help each other, you’re basically family!

Rocket Barrel is also part of the family. Rocket Barrel was in the Super Mario Bros. Movie! Mine Cart was not. But that is ok!

Mine Cart, this very Mine Cart with the darling face, is, as far as we know, planned to be the star of the mine cart roller coaster coming to Super Nintendo World! The one that’s supposed to feel like you are really jumping off of the track! I have been seeing a lot of excitement over the potential thrills, and I agree that it sounds really cool and fun! And best of all? All that fun and excitement, courtesy of my friend, DKCR Mine Cart. Everyone hyped for this roller coaster is, knowingly or not, hyped about Mine Cart (”character”)!

This is a Weird Mario Entity that is becoming real, and has quite a lot of hype about its introduction to reality. Just think about that. Isn’t the world beautiful?

#mine cart #donkey kong country #donkey kong country returns #donkey kong country tropical freeze #super nintendo world #mario entities #mario allies #donkey kong entities #donkey kong allies #mod chikako

[is-the-primate-vid-cute]

i love orangutans. a chimpanzee would kill you if you look at it wrong but orangutans just seem peaceful. like they'll mess you up but at long as you dont hurt them they seem pretty nice

You're right- you would be hard pressed to find evidence of an orangutan attack.

While this is only a side-note in your ask, I want to address the statement "a chimpanzee would kill you if you look at it wrong". We love orangutans, but we also love chimps and won't take chimp slander!

A lot of people, including those who follow this blog, are prone to villainizing chimpanzees for their aggression and social structures.

Yes, chimpanzees are incredibly powerful animals who have a reputation for war and physical violence. Being fearful of them and their seemingly trigger-happy aggression is understandable given the media content and the many chimpanzees who has famously attacked in the past; but they are also so much more!

Chimpanzees are capable of empathy. They adopt orphaned youngsters, even males will adopt a baby in need (Sniff, documented by Jane Goodall). They play. They have a rich vocal repertoire, one that allows them to communicate different predator threats. They can communicate fear, excitement, and They LAUGH! They need reassurance from one another- reaching out to their mothers for support or embracing one another after a tiff. They kiss their young. They teach each other how to utilize and make tools. They routinely show capacity for commitment, trust, altruism, and caring,

And they suffer.

Chimpanzees all over the world live isolated in labs, human homes, or inadequate facilities away from proper social groups, care or quality of life. These living situations do not allow the chimpanzees their natural behaviors, or their natural comforts, leaving them overly-stressed and reactive. Their natural habitat is shrinking- with each group being forced to overlap territories; this causes conflict. The blood-thirsty reputation chimpanzees have gained is due, in full, to humans.

Who are we to pass judgement on how wild animals react to fear or pain? How can we say, "oh they should be more like bonobos and solve their conflicts sexually" Ask them to change the natural course of their lives to better suit our morals? Are we so much better at resolving conflict, as a species? Do we villainize them as a way to deflect our own violent tendencies? 

To love chimpanzees is to love them the way they are. They are exactly how they need to be! Their unfortunate violent reputation is not something we want to encourage. When we speak about the deadly force chimpanzees are capable of, we must acknowledge our own role in their lives and give the animals respect as beautiful, complex animals deserving of a healthy dose of fear and wonder.

Not only that, but remember that aggression is not species exclusive! Even the "peaceful" apes can act in ways we might not expect. Aggression can sometimes be a positive sign of rehabilitation! Orangutan jungle school graduates that have moved to free roam in forests can behave anywhere from apathetic to aggressive towards the people helping them, which is a positive sign for their survival.

This is a video I love, this newly released male orangutan is not afraid to fight for his independence! Theres another video of an adult male orangutan fending off humans here, the people have his best interests in mind but not knowing their intentions, he makes a formidible adversary.

It's easy to typecast a whole species, and we add that aggression can happen in any species not to scold but to encourage loving primates in their entirety- warts and all 🦧❤️

#again pls dont take this personally ive been waiting for an opportunity to address this #chimpanzees #ape #mod E #pls be nice to chimpies theyre just little guys.. #violence mention #animal attack mention #mod J