chimpanzees andru235 =================================== Chimpanzees are humankind's closest living cousins, sharing more than 98 percent of our genetic code. They are highly intelligent and social beings who have language and distinct cultures. They use tools, teach their young, plan for the future and make moral choices. Chimpanzees in captivity have been taught American Sign Language and their proficiency shows that they can understand and use abstract symbols in their communication. Chimpanzees can even pass these acquired language skills onto their children. Scientists like Jane Goodall and Roger Fouts have taught us that chimpanzees are capable of skills and behaviors once thought uniquely human. They have demonstrated that the line separating humans from the rest of the animal kingdom has been arbitrarily drawn. =================================== from: http://worldanimalfoundation.homestead.com/FactSheetChimpanzeeResearch.html =================================== i'm not trying to perpetuate hyperlink madness; but it is high time that humans act on the realization that we are not alone on this planet, and we are not so superior! the level of sentience in other creatures is no less than in humans, it is merely different, depending on factors such as the brain, or whatever "but you don't know they are sentient!" are you a creationist?!? anyone who believes in evolution must concede that either animals have sentience, for otherwise sentience showed up out of nowhere at some random point in humans: the latter is a ridiculous notion, and not condusive to evolutionary thinking in the least. wings didn't show up out of nowhere, they gradually morphed from something else. the same is true of every other feature of any species. mutation can only move so fast. anyway, here's to our brothers and sisters, the chimps! 050702 what's it to you? who go blather from