Sad... Appparently Washoe lived in Washington state and passed on her sign language skills to three other chimps. Not a bad life!

Quoted: Washoe, a female chimpanzee believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept. She was around 42 years old.

A great piece on bonobos from The New Yorker. Basically, bonobos are like a more mature, introspective version of chimps - makes sense that they're matriarchal! Ha.

Quoted: Bonobos are celebrated as peace-loving, matriarchal, and sexually liberated. Are they?

That's one big fish... and it's got a face only a mother could love.

Quoted: A commercial fishing boat hauled in what may have been one of the oldest creatures in Alaska -- a giant rockfish estimated to be about a century old.

Guess Aesop was really onto something with those fables...

Quoted: Scrub jays seem able to plan for the future in experiments, hiding today’s pine nuts for tomorrow’s breakfast. Squirrel monkeys also seem to think about future consequences, while hummingbirds seem to recall time and location of visits to flowers, and rats to remember where they encountered food in a maze.

I didn't realize animals were being fitted with prosthetics. Maybe next time Niu Niu will think a little harder before she picks fights with other pandas...

Quoted: A Chinese animal rescue centre appeals for ideas on how to fit one of its ailing pandas with an artificial paw. Niu Niu lost her left front paw along with part of the leg in a fight with three other females in December.