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Books

Going ape with boredom in captivity

Chris Herzfeld’s account of the orangutan Wattana, in need of constant mental stimulation, suggests that primates are really just like us

28 May 2016

9:00 AM

28 May 2016

9:00 AM

Wattana: An Orangutan in Paris Chris Herzfeld, translated by Oliver Martin and Robert D. Martin

University of Chicago Press, pp.185, £18, ISBN: 9780226168593

King Kong, the story of a violently amorous gorilla, Me Cheeta, the autobiography of a slanderous Hollywood chimpanzee, and now this, a benign biological, psychological and cultural survey, comes in further recognition of the versatility of our primate cousins. Both collateral branches of our family seem doomed (too many humans, too few apes), unless.

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