i’ve decided that i want a monkey.

today in my anthropology discussion we were watching this video about evolution, and one of the segments was about how smart chimpanzees are. there was a chimp in a little cage/room with a glass wall, and inside was a screen with numbers on it. the scientist woman would put two pieces of candy on a little shelf on the outside of the glass wall, and then ask the chimp how many there were, and the chimp touched the number two on the screen (out of the five or so choices). then the chimp would get the candy. it was funnier though the next time through, demonstrating that they’re smart enough to even understand the concept of zero. the scientist would put no candy on the shelf, and then say something like, “how many are there here now?”, and the chimp touched the zero (very smart creature), but then the scientist just said, “yeah, that’s right! there’s no candy! too bad huh?” i thought that was pretty funny.

the clincher though was them showing a little child chimp climbing on a rocking chair in the play room for chimps, dressed in shorts and a university of ohio baseball shirt (that’s the university where the lab was located). i think it was cuter than a lot of human children.

so since they’re so smart and heartwarming, i’m going to see about getting a monkey. if you have any monkey-getting leads, let me know.