domesticating chimps. why not

[whitelime]

I seriously wanted a pet monkey for a while. I figured, it's infinitely better than a dog. It has a brain, you don't have to clean up after it, and you can teach it to do some cool things.

I researched it and realized it's basically a lifelong commitment. They live for around 40 years. There are serious psychological issues you have to deal with. At one point, the monkey is basically guaranteed to attack you as a means of asserting control. Almost anyone that has a pet monkey has been bitten several times. There are cases of monkeys scratching or poking peoples eyes out. Disciplining it is very difficult. There are websites with this sort of information...

[Blarg]

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It's commonly believed in Africa that "bush meat" contributed to the spreading of Ebola.

A friend of mine worked on a pilot project training chimps to assist the disabled. It got scrapped mid way because of the animal's agression. Only very young ones were suitable. Once they became adults they were way too agressive.

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By the way, did you hear the news? They finally found the natural reservoir for Ebola -- the animal that harbors it in the wild. Bats.

Sometimes at such incredibly low levels that certain DNA tests couldn't even find it when they were tested before. Confirmed now though.

[Martin]

Interesting since both Chimps and Gorillas are dying from Ebola, scientists figured it had to be coming from somewhere else.
I read that they thought the original source could be a rodent so I guess bats would be it. Any mention of how it's transmitted from the bats?
Flea bites would be my guess or maybe chimps eating bats.

[Blarg]

Ebola can be transmitted through the air or through touching anything that has had a germ contact it, and through bodily fluids. With bats, as the natural host, there won't be massive amounts of bodily fluids leaking or blood droplets etc. being coughed into the air, but of course you can put many millions of germs on the head of a pin. I'm sure just handling an infected bat could get you, or breathing the air it breathes, or eating it. The article I read did say that the amount of virus in many bats was extremely low, so perhaps you could go breathing the air of an ebola infected bat for quite a while without getting infected. I guess it depends what organs and tissues it's stored in, etc., as to its chances of making its way out into the world.

They are trying to ban the eating of bats now, but partially just to encourage people to stay away from them and not handle them.

[MrMon]

If it were simply a matter of aggression, you could breed that out of the chimps. The real problem with domesticating them is they breed too slowly. Take a look at all the animals that are domesticated. Almost all are quick to breeding age, all have young at least every other year. To domesticate, you need a large supply of animals from which to select, as you are literally creating a new species. (Elephants are the exception, but they aren't really domesticated, just trained.)

Once you have a large number of animals from which to select, the animal has to be genetically disposed to domestication, e.g. there has to be something that allows them to become docile. Even if you could get enough animals, sometimes the animal is just going to remain wild. Jared Diamond points out that ideally, Africans should have domesticated the zebra, but genetically, it's missing something found in the horse to allow it to domesticate. No doubt they tried, but ultimately failed, through no fault of their own.

So, great apes simply breed too slowly, plus, they're probably too smart to ever truly domesticate.

[CrazyEyez]

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I was watching animal planet yesterday and there was a piece on chimps being endangered and going extinct. I got to thinking and it seems like chimpanzees would make a great animal to domesticate, perhaps even better than the wolf. They are smart, can be toilet trained and bond with humans. Plus they could be trained to do all sorts of helpful things that dogs can't do while still providing security.

So why haven't humans ever set about domesticating the larger monkies? Putting aside the animal rights concerns doesn't this seem like a worth while endeavor?

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MIA for a month and this is all we get? No "How's it going?" or "I missed you guys" or "Astroglide sucks?" Not much of a triumphant return. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Welcome back, though.

[RunDownHouse]

You should read some of the established great minds in anthropology that mostly say Diamond is a quack with poorly-supported theories.

[Dominic]

I think, mostly because they are incredibly dangerous - ten times more dangerous than any pit bull could be. Any chimp could overpower any human. At any time.

Im sure if people made the effort over the next 1000 years chimps could be domesticated. Dogs weren't immediatly trained and safely living with humans. Domesticated dogs greatly helped humans bak inthe day, chim[ps would be more of a novelty now.

[MonkeeMan]

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Dolphins are supposedly even smarter than chimps.

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FWIW, I saw a show on Animal Planet where they rated the top 10 animals by intelligence. The great apes family (does this includes chimps?) was #1, as it was the only one that demonstrated self-awareness.

And yes, cats were not on the list.