ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2011) — Recognizing relations between relations is what analogy is all about. What lies behind this ability? Is it uniquely human? A study carried out by Joël Fagot of the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (CNRS/Université de Provence) and Roger Thompson of the Franklin & Marshall College (United States) has shown that monkeys are capable of making analogies.
Their results are just published in the journal Psychological Science.
A cat takes care of a kitten and a bird feeds fledglings: although the context is different, these two situations are similar and we can conclude that both cases involve a mother and its offspring. For a long time researchers believed that this type of analogical reasoning was impossible without language and that it was restricted to humans or, at best, great apes that had been taught a language. However, two scientists, Joël Fagot of the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (CNRS/Université de Provence) and Roger Thompson of the Franklin & Marshall College in the United States, have demonstrated that monkeys are capable of making analogies without language.
The two researchers carried out their experiment on 29 baboons (Papio papio) of variable ages, which could freely perform the proposed exercise (this represents a large number of animals for this type of experiment). First of all, the baboons were shown two geometric shapes on a touch screen, for example two squares. After they touched one of these shapes, two other pairs of shapes appeared on the screen, such as: a triangle and a star for the first pair and two identical ovals for the second pair. To successfully complete the exercise and be rewarded, the animal had to touch the pair representing the same relation (of identity or difference) as the initial pair (here, the two ovals).
In other words, the baboon had to detect relations between relations, which is the definition of analogy. After an intensive learning period covering several thousand tests, 6 baboons correctly performed the task, thus demonstrating an ability to resolve analogy problems. Furthermore, the researchers suspended the task for nearly one year before proposing it again to the baboons. The animals re-learnt the task much faster than during the initial training, which shows that they remembered the situation.
This work therefore proves that language is not necessary to analogy. But how can animals use this skill? This adaptive ability, especially useful to the monkey, could in particular serve in the transfer of knowledge from one field to another.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110923102213.htm
Showing posts with label baboons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baboons. Show all posts
Friday, September 23, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
It's tough at the top for alpha males
If you're feeling envious of your boss's paycheck, a new study confirms that success comes with high stress, possibly as much as faced by those who have to struggle to find a bite to eat.
The results of nine years of research on wild baboons, published in the journal Science, suggest that despite perks like easy access to mates and food, top-ranking males experience similar stress levels as their lowest-rung counterparts.
Those in the middle showed lower stress than either the top or bottom ranking males, according to measurements of testosterone and a stress hormone known as glucocorticoid.
"Alpha males exhibited much higher stress hormone levels than second-ranking (beta) males, suggesting that being at the top may be more costly than previously thought," according to the study led by researchers at Princeton University.
Samples were taken from the faeces of a wild male baboon population in Ambelosi, Kenya.
While the stress levels at the top and bottom were similar, they were likely caused by different problems.
Alpha baboons spent lots of energy fighting to stay on top and trying to mate with as many females as possible, while the low-ranking males expended lots of effort searching for food.
Meanwhile, there may be perks for not reaching quite so high.
The second-rate beta males received about the same amount of attention, in the form of grooming, from females, but did "slightly better than predicted" at reaching their "full reproductive potential," the study's authors write.
The results of nine years of research on wild baboons, published in the journal Science, suggest that despite perks like easy access to mates and food, top-ranking males experience similar stress levels as their lowest-rung counterparts.
Those in the middle showed lower stress than either the top or bottom ranking males, according to measurements of testosterone and a stress hormone known as glucocorticoid.
"Alpha males exhibited much higher stress hormone levels than second-ranking (beta) males, suggesting that being at the top may be more costly than previously thought," according to the study led by researchers at Princeton University.
Samples were taken from the faeces of a wild male baboon population in Ambelosi, Kenya.
While the stress levels at the top and bottom were similar, they were likely caused by different problems.
Alpha baboons spent lots of energy fighting to stay on top and trying to mate with as many females as possible, while the low-ranking males expended lots of effort searching for food.
Meanwhile, there may be perks for not reaching quite so high.
The second-rate beta males received about the same amount of attention, in the form of grooming, from females, but did "slightly better than predicted" at reaching their "full reproductive potential," the study's authors write.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Runaway Baboon Captured In New Jersey
HOWELL TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- A wayward baboon that apparently escaped from an amusement park and became a mini-celebrity – appearing at a golf course and being followed on Twitter – was captured Saturday after spending three days on the lam.
The animal appeared to be unharmed when it was found and tranquilized at a farm in Howell Township, in southern New Jersey. The farm isn't far from Six Flags Great Adventure's Monkey Jungle in Jackson Township, which has about 150 baboons that are part of a drive-through safari.
Park officials confirmed the capture and said they believed the animal was theirs. But they won't know for sure until it's assessed and they can see if it has a microchip that's embedded in all their baboons.
Numerous online followers tracked the baboon's travels after it initially was spotted Thursday. Many posted on a tongue-in-cheek Twitter account created by a person posing as the baboon.
Park spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher said the baboon, which appeared to be an adolescent, would be taken to the park for a physical exam and health assessment. She said all of Great Adventure's baboons are vaccinated, fenced in and implanted with microchips beneath their skin, but they are not counted daily because they sleep outside in the Monkey Jungle preserve.
And if it turns out that it was one of their baboons that escaped, park officials want to know how it got out because they have found no signs that an escape occurred.
Police and park officials had been looking for the baboon since Thursday afternoon, after a driver saw it near Interstate 195, not far from the park in Ocean County. A short time later, a woman reported that the baboon was sitting on her back porch.
Several sightings were then reported in nearby residential areas on Friday, and officials thought they finally had the baboon cornered in a tree at a local golf course on late Friday afternoon. But an attempt to shoot a tranquilizer dart at it failed, and it ran off into the woods.
Officials had said the baboon didn't pose a threat to residents but as a precaution warned them not to approach it if they encountered it. They believed the animal was frightened and was just trying to find its way back home.
http://weirdnews.aol.com/2011/07/02/baboon-captured-in-new-jersey_n_889312.html
The animal appeared to be unharmed when it was found and tranquilized at a farm in Howell Township, in southern New Jersey. The farm isn't far from Six Flags Great Adventure's Monkey Jungle in Jackson Township, which has about 150 baboons that are part of a drive-through safari.
Park officials confirmed the capture and said they believed the animal was theirs. But they won't know for sure until it's assessed and they can see if it has a microchip that's embedded in all their baboons.
Numerous online followers tracked the baboon's travels after it initially was spotted Thursday. Many posted on a tongue-in-cheek Twitter account created by a person posing as the baboon.
Park spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher said the baboon, which appeared to be an adolescent, would be taken to the park for a physical exam and health assessment. She said all of Great Adventure's baboons are vaccinated, fenced in and implanted with microchips beneath their skin, but they are not counted daily because they sleep outside in the Monkey Jungle preserve.
And if it turns out that it was one of their baboons that escaped, park officials want to know how it got out because they have found no signs that an escape occurred.
Police and park officials had been looking for the baboon since Thursday afternoon, after a driver saw it near Interstate 195, not far from the park in Ocean County. A short time later, a woman reported that the baboon was sitting on her back porch.
Several sightings were then reported in nearby residential areas on Friday, and officials thought they finally had the baboon cornered in a tree at a local golf course on late Friday afternoon. But an attempt to shoot a tranquilizer dart at it failed, and it ran off into the woods.
Officials had said the baboon didn't pose a threat to residents but as a precaution warned them not to approach it if they encountered it. They believed the animal was frightened and was just trying to find its way back home.
http://weirdnews.aol.com/2011/07/02/baboon-captured-in-new-jersey_n_889312.html
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Baboon seen monkeying around NJ highway, house
July 1, 2011 8:18 AM
(AP)
(AP)
JACKSON, N.J. - A baboon is on the loose in New Jersey.
Police say they received two calls Thursday afternoon from people who saw the monkey.
One came from a driver who said the animal was near Interstate 195. The second came from a woman who said a baboon was sitting on her back porch in Jackson.
The baboon may have escaped from the nearby Six Flags Great Adventure's Monkey Jungle. The park has 150 baboons.
Park officials say they are not positive one of theirs is missing because the animals are not counted daily. The Great Adventure baboons are fenced in and implanted with microchips.
Officials say anyone who spots the roaming baboon should call police — and not approach the animal, even though baboons are not typically aggressive.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/01/national/main20076028.shtml
Monday, August 30, 2010
Drunk baboons plague Cape Town's exclusive suburbs
The sun is setting over South Africa's oldest vineyard and the last of the wine-tasting tourists are climbing onto their buses. But one large family group has no intention of leaving – and there is little the management can do about it.
Groot Constantia, in the heart of Cape Town's wine country, can deal with inebriated holidaymakers – but it is invading baboons which have developed a taste for its grapes that the wine makers are struggling with.
Each day, dozens of Cape Baboons gather to strip the ancient vines – the sauvignon blanc grapes are a particular favourite – before heading into the mountains to sleep. A few, who sample fallen fruit that has fermented in the sun, pass out and don't make it home.
"They are not just eating our grapes, they are raiding our kitchens and ripping the thatch off the roofs. They are becoming increasingly bold and destructive," said Jean Naude, general manager at the vineyard, which is celebrating its 325th birthday this year. Guards banging sticks and waving plastic snakes have been deployed with only limited success, and not even a blast of a vuvuzela, the plastic horn made famous at the World Cup, seems to frighten them.
It is not just the vineyards in South Africa which are under siege, however, but also the exclusive neighbouring suburb of Constantia, home to famous residents including Earl Spencer, Wilbur Smith and Nelson Mandela.
Crisis meetings between animal welfare groups and traumatised locals are struggling to find a workable solution.
"Where there's a mountain, there's a baboon," said Justin O'Riain of the Baboon Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. "As we take up more and more of their land, the conflict increases."
The baboons lived in the mountains of Cape Town long before humans took up residence, but development has forced the unlikely neighbours into increasingly closer contact.
Before laws afforded baboons a protected status a decade ago, troublesome animals were regularly killed or maimed by home owners and farmers. Now around 20 full-time "baboon monitors" are employed to protect them and guide them away from residential areas. It has proved mission impossible. Last week, a 12 year old boy was left traumatised after confronting a troop who had broken into his family home.
Hearing noises from the kitchen, he went to investigate and found the beasts ransacking cupboards. When the child fled upstairs to find his babysitter, three males gave chase and surrounded him as he made a tearful phone call to his mother, while the animals pelted him with fruit.
"When he called me he was terrified. They had him surrounded," said the Constantia housewife, who did not wish to be identified.
Chickens, geese, peacocks and even a Great Dane dog have been killed in recent weeks by the marauding baboons - the males have huge and terrifying canine teeth. Roof tiles, electric fences, orchards and vegetables gardens have been trashed.
"Lunch parties in the garden are now just impossible," a homeowner complained. "It is so unrelaxing. Rather than chatting over our meal, we are looking over our shoulders and bolting the food as quickly as we can before it is stolen. We can't even leave a window open in summer. We are under siege."
In a concession to despairing residents, wildlife authorities have begun collaring baboons identified as "troublesome" and imposed a strict "three strikes" policy whereby animals which repeatedly break into homes are humanely destroyed.
Fourteen year-old William, a large male known officially as GOB03, who had terrorised the coastal suburb of Scarborough for as long as anyone can remember, was the first to fall foul of this controversial rule.
His death last month was greeted with outrage and jubilation in equal measure and dominated the letters pages of the local newspapers for weeks.
Meanwhile, For Sale signs are sprouting up in suburbs with baboon populations. Families which have lived in the same house for generations are giving up, moving away to get away from their animal tormentors.
Groot Constantia, in the heart of Cape Town's wine country, can deal with inebriated holidaymakers – but it is invading baboons which have developed a taste for its grapes that the wine makers are struggling with.
Each day, dozens of Cape Baboons gather to strip the ancient vines – the sauvignon blanc grapes are a particular favourite – before heading into the mountains to sleep. A few, who sample fallen fruit that has fermented in the sun, pass out and don't make it home.
"They are not just eating our grapes, they are raiding our kitchens and ripping the thatch off the roofs. They are becoming increasingly bold and destructive," said Jean Naude, general manager at the vineyard, which is celebrating its 325th birthday this year. Guards banging sticks and waving plastic snakes have been deployed with only limited success, and not even a blast of a vuvuzela, the plastic horn made famous at the World Cup, seems to frighten them.
It is not just the vineyards in South Africa which are under siege, however, but also the exclusive neighbouring suburb of Constantia, home to famous residents including Earl Spencer, Wilbur Smith and Nelson Mandela.
Crisis meetings between animal welfare groups and traumatised locals are struggling to find a workable solution.
"Where there's a mountain, there's a baboon," said Justin O'Riain of the Baboon Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. "As we take up more and more of their land, the conflict increases."
The baboons lived in the mountains of Cape Town long before humans took up residence, but development has forced the unlikely neighbours into increasingly closer contact.
Before laws afforded baboons a protected status a decade ago, troublesome animals were regularly killed or maimed by home owners and farmers. Now around 20 full-time "baboon monitors" are employed to protect them and guide them away from residential areas. It has proved mission impossible. Last week, a 12 year old boy was left traumatised after confronting a troop who had broken into his family home.
Hearing noises from the kitchen, he went to investigate and found the beasts ransacking cupboards. When the child fled upstairs to find his babysitter, three males gave chase and surrounded him as he made a tearful phone call to his mother, while the animals pelted him with fruit.
"When he called me he was terrified. They had him surrounded," said the Constantia housewife, who did not wish to be identified.
Chickens, geese, peacocks and even a Great Dane dog have been killed in recent weeks by the marauding baboons - the males have huge and terrifying canine teeth. Roof tiles, electric fences, orchards and vegetables gardens have been trashed.
"Lunch parties in the garden are now just impossible," a homeowner complained. "It is so unrelaxing. Rather than chatting over our meal, we are looking over our shoulders and bolting the food as quickly as we can before it is stolen. We can't even leave a window open in summer. We are under siege."
In a concession to despairing residents, wildlife authorities have begun collaring baboons identified as "troublesome" and imposed a strict "three strikes" policy whereby animals which repeatedly break into homes are humanely destroyed.
Fourteen year-old William, a large male known officially as GOB03, who had terrorised the coastal suburb of Scarborough for as long as anyone can remember, was the first to fall foul of this controversial rule.
His death last month was greeted with outrage and jubilation in equal measure and dominated the letters pages of the local newspapers for weeks.
Meanwhile, For Sale signs are sprouting up in suburbs with baboon populations. Families which have lived in the same house for generations are giving up, moving away to get away from their animal tormentors.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Baboon on the loose? Girl starts false frenzy
Aug 21, 4:39 PM EDT
FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) -- Police in the St. Louis suburb of Florissant spent a big part of the day looking for a baboon on the loose. A grade school went into lockdown. A woman scattered potato chips on the ground and made monkey sounds to try and lure the primate. But in the end, a 14-year-old girl admitted it was all a hoax after the picture she claimed to have snapped proved to be one she actually found on the Internet.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the girl set off the frenzy Thursday by claiming she took a picture of the primate in her backyard. It was hours later that she told police she actually found the picture on the Internet and took a photo of it with her cell phone.
Police Chief William Karabas said the girl was sorry but she did not offer any explanation for the stunt.
"She was remorseful," Karabas said. "But the total emotional aspect of all this and the why is: who knows?"
The case will be referred to St. Louis County Family Court for review.
The girl's mother went to city officials and news media with the photo, prompting the search. It was after an identical photo was found in an Internet search that the story began to unravel.
Before that, schools took precautions, including keeping children in during recess. Chaos led to rumors. One woman in the neighborhood being searched said she owned a monkey. She made baboon-like noises and scattered Lays potato chips and Cheetos to try and lure the animal. Yet another woman who claimed to own a monkey walked around with a net.
Karabas said at least six extra officers were called in to help with the search.
Despite the trouble, the chief seemed more relived that no one was hurt than annoyed.
"You don't judge the people that do stuff like this, you just deal with it and move on to the next thing," Karabas said.
Adding to the confusion of the day was a statement released late Thursday by the girl's family, maintaining that such an animal was, in fact, on the loose in Florissant, and that the girl's story was not a hoax.
"While that particular animal was not that one, there is in fact something out in the area," the statement read, in part.
Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_MONKEY_HOAX
FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) -- Police in the St. Louis suburb of Florissant spent a big part of the day looking for a baboon on the loose. A grade school went into lockdown. A woman scattered potato chips on the ground and made monkey sounds to try and lure the primate. But in the end, a 14-year-old girl admitted it was all a hoax after the picture she claimed to have snapped proved to be one she actually found on the Internet.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the girl set off the frenzy Thursday by claiming she took a picture of the primate in her backyard. It was hours later that she told police she actually found the picture on the Internet and took a photo of it with her cell phone.
Police Chief William Karabas said the girl was sorry but she did not offer any explanation for the stunt.
"She was remorseful," Karabas said. "But the total emotional aspect of all this and the why is: who knows?"
The case will be referred to St. Louis County Family Court for review.
The girl's mother went to city officials and news media with the photo, prompting the search. It was after an identical photo was found in an Internet search that the story began to unravel.
Before that, schools took precautions, including keeping children in during recess. Chaos led to rumors. One woman in the neighborhood being searched said she owned a monkey. She made baboon-like noises and scattered Lays potato chips and Cheetos to try and lure the animal. Yet another woman who claimed to own a monkey walked around with a net.
Karabas said at least six extra officers were called in to help with the search.
Despite the trouble, the chief seemed more relived that no one was hurt than annoyed.
"You don't judge the people that do stuff like this, you just deal with it and move on to the next thing," Karabas said.
Adding to the confusion of the day was a statement released late Thursday by the girl's family, maintaining that such an animal was, in fact, on the loose in Florissant, and that the girl's story was not a hoax.
"While that particular animal was not that one, there is in fact something out in the area," the statement read, in part.
Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_MONKEY_HOAX
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Female Baboons Find a Secret to Longevity: Close Girlfriends
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/07/02/female-baboons-find-a-secret-to-longevity-close-girlfriends/
Female Baboons Find a Secret to Longevity: Close Girlfriends
Posted: 02 Jul 2010 02:19 PM PDT
Apparently, in the animal kingdom, it's better to be a girl. We have seen that women macaques are superior conversationalists. We learned that lady humpbacks enjoy long-lasting friendships. Now research published in Current Biology shows that baboon ladies with good friends around them may live longer.
At Botswana's Moremi Game Reserve, Joan Silk of the University of California, Los Angeles and her team spied on 44 female chacma baboons over the course of six years. Among other things, Silk looked at which girls had the most visitors and how often the women picked junk out of each other's hair. In other words, true friendship. She also tracked each baboon's circle of friends, seeing how each lady's top three buddies changed over time.
Silk saw a correlation between sociability and longevity. She divided the baboons into three groups, and found that the least friendly lived 7 to 18 years, while the friendliest group lived from 10 years on (they were still kicking when the study ended). They also found that those baboons who formed stable, enduring bonds were more likely to have long lives than those with flightier friendship habits. It's tempting to look for parallels between baboons and humans, and indeed, the researchers engage in a little speculation.
Such findings in a nonhuman primate, the authors write, "suggest that the human motivation to form close and enduring bonds has a long evolutionary history." ... They note that previous research in humans has shown that socially isolated people suffer more from high blood pressure and sleep disorders and have longer wound-healing times.
But back in the animal world, it's still not clear how these stable friendships could make baboons live longer. It's possible, they say, that more friendly grooming could mean fewer parasites, or more social interactions could mean more eyes to watch for predators.
"It all depends on what causes the death of female baboons, which is hard to determine because there's seldom a single cause," comments New York University anthropologist Clifford Jolly. In this baboon species, males miss out on friendship and its possible benefits. It seems that chacma males never groom each other, and only
groom women before sex.
Female Baboons Find a Secret to Longevity: Close Girlfriends
Posted: 02 Jul 2010 02:19 PM PDT
Apparently, in the animal kingdom, it's better to be a girl. We have seen that women macaques are superior conversationalists. We learned that lady humpbacks enjoy long-lasting friendships. Now research published in Current Biology shows that baboon ladies with good friends around them may live longer.
At Botswana's Moremi Game Reserve, Joan Silk of the University of California, Los Angeles and her team spied on 44 female chacma baboons over the course of six years. Among other things, Silk looked at which girls had the most visitors and how often the women picked junk out of each other's hair. In other words, true friendship. She also tracked each baboon's circle of friends, seeing how each lady's top three buddies changed over time.
Silk saw a correlation between sociability and longevity. She divided the baboons into three groups, and found that the least friendly lived 7 to 18 years, while the friendliest group lived from 10 years on (they were still kicking when the study ended). They also found that those baboons who formed stable, enduring bonds were more likely to have long lives than those with flightier friendship habits. It's tempting to look for parallels between baboons and humans, and indeed, the researchers engage in a little speculation.
Such findings in a nonhuman primate, the authors write, "suggest that the human motivation to form close and enduring bonds has a long evolutionary history." ... They note that previous research in humans has shown that socially isolated people suffer more from high blood pressure and sleep disorders and have longer wound-healing times.
But back in the animal world, it's still not clear how these stable friendships could make baboons live longer. It's possible, they say, that more friendly grooming could mean fewer parasites, or more social interactions could mean more eyes to watch for predators.
"It all depends on what causes the death of female baboons, which is hard to determine because there's seldom a single cause," comments New York University anthropologist Clifford Jolly. In this baboon species, males miss out on friendship and its possible benefits. It seems that chacma males never groom each other, and only
groom women before sex.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Baboon or monkey? Either way, deputies looking for this simian
By HOWARD ALTMAN The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 18, 2009
TAMPA - Eric Gonzalez and his wife Tiffany were driving on Linebaugh Avenue this afternoon when an animal darted in front of their 2007 Dodge Caravan.
"Look out for that dog," Eric said his wife told him.
"But when it crossed in front of us, it was running at an alarming speed," Gonzalez said. "As soon as it stood up on its back legs, I knew it wasn't a dog."
It was, he said, a baboon.
"It had a bald butt, the body was beige, the butt was pinkish," Gonzalez said.
Just as quickly as the couple saw the creature, it was gone.
"As soon as it jumped up, it jumped right off to Williams Road," he said. "It cleared a 6-foot fence."
After the shock wore off, the couple called authorities – Eric called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Tiffany called 911.
It was the second call about the baboon deputies had received, according to HCSO spokesman Larry McKinnon.
The first call came in about 1:30 p.m., he said. Because the animal was spotted near Canella Elementary School, deputies contacted school officials, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Lowry Park Zoo, said McKinnon.
Gonzalez said he called in the baboon sighting because of concern for the neighborhood.
"We live in the area," said Gonzalez. "My main concern was that this is a wild animal. We have a lot of kids in the area. There is a school right there and we do not want the kids to be curious and approach it. The animal, being wild, might turn around and attack one of the kids."
McKinnon said the animal probably escaped from captivity.
"We suspect it was a large monkey or baboon that escaped from a house in the area," McKinnon said. "We have had reports of this for a week."
McKinnon said because the animal was near a school, the sheriff's office sent a helicopter and patrol cars to investigate.
So far, deputies have not been able to find the animal, which was last seen shortly before 2 p.m. running behind a Hindu temple on Nixon Road.
It is possible this may be the same simian seen in Tampa last week, McKinnon said.
Last week, a resident reported seeing a monkey in East Tampa, hunkered down in a tree on Elm Street just south of Sligh Avenue, west of the Hillsborough River.
Initially, residents called to say there was a monkey on the loose. Then spectators said it appeared to be a big raccoon. Fish & Wildlife officers arrived and determined it was a macaque monkey.
"An officer went up into the tree to get a better look at it," commission spokesman Gary Morse said at the time.
The animal spotted Wednesday was most likely not a baboon, he said, but a macaque.
"A lot of people might mistake a macaque for a baboon," he said.
At this point, Fish & Wildlife officers are not searching for the animal because they are waiting to hear back from HCSO, Morse said.
Officers have no idea where the macaque came from. A breeding population of rhesus macaques lives in the woods of the Silver Springs area, near Ocala, but officers here don't know whether there is a connection.
It's possible the monkey is a pet that escaped, Morse said. So far, no one has filed a missing monkey report. A permit is required in order to have a monkey.
Lowry Park Zoo officials said the animal isn't from their facility.
"All of ours are accounted for," zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said.
Morse said officers have given up the active hunt.
"We're just telling people if they see it to just let us know," Morse said. "Don't feed it and don't approach it."
The macaques generally are not aggressive, but they can be "if you corner them or get in their personal space," he said. "They are very strong and capable of hurting somebody, but only if they feel threatened. They are not going to go out there and hunt somebody down."
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/18/181723/baboon-or-monkey-either-way-deputies-looking-simia/news-breaking/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Published: November 18, 2009
TAMPA - Eric Gonzalez and his wife Tiffany were driving on Linebaugh Avenue this afternoon when an animal darted in front of their 2007 Dodge Caravan.
"Look out for that dog," Eric said his wife told him.
"But when it crossed in front of us, it was running at an alarming speed," Gonzalez said. "As soon as it stood up on its back legs, I knew it wasn't a dog."
It was, he said, a baboon.
"It had a bald butt, the body was beige, the butt was pinkish," Gonzalez said.
Just as quickly as the couple saw the creature, it was gone.
"As soon as it jumped up, it jumped right off to Williams Road," he said. "It cleared a 6-foot fence."
After the shock wore off, the couple called authorities – Eric called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Tiffany called 911.
It was the second call about the baboon deputies had received, according to HCSO spokesman Larry McKinnon.
The first call came in about 1:30 p.m., he said. Because the animal was spotted near Canella Elementary School, deputies contacted school officials, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Lowry Park Zoo, said McKinnon.
Gonzalez said he called in the baboon sighting because of concern for the neighborhood.
"We live in the area," said Gonzalez. "My main concern was that this is a wild animal. We have a lot of kids in the area. There is a school right there and we do not want the kids to be curious and approach it. The animal, being wild, might turn around and attack one of the kids."
McKinnon said the animal probably escaped from captivity.
"We suspect it was a large monkey or baboon that escaped from a house in the area," McKinnon said. "We have had reports of this for a week."
McKinnon said because the animal was near a school, the sheriff's office sent a helicopter and patrol cars to investigate.
So far, deputies have not been able to find the animal, which was last seen shortly before 2 p.m. running behind a Hindu temple on Nixon Road.
It is possible this may be the same simian seen in Tampa last week, McKinnon said.
Last week, a resident reported seeing a monkey in East Tampa, hunkered down in a tree on Elm Street just south of Sligh Avenue, west of the Hillsborough River.
Initially, residents called to say there was a monkey on the loose. Then spectators said it appeared to be a big raccoon. Fish & Wildlife officers arrived and determined it was a macaque monkey.
"An officer went up into the tree to get a better look at it," commission spokesman Gary Morse said at the time.
The animal spotted Wednesday was most likely not a baboon, he said, but a macaque.
"A lot of people might mistake a macaque for a baboon," he said.
At this point, Fish & Wildlife officers are not searching for the animal because they are waiting to hear back from HCSO, Morse said.
Officers have no idea where the macaque came from. A breeding population of rhesus macaques lives in the woods of the Silver Springs area, near Ocala, but officers here don't know whether there is a connection.
It's possible the monkey is a pet that escaped, Morse said. So far, no one has filed a missing monkey report. A permit is required in order to have a monkey.
Lowry Park Zoo officials said the animal isn't from their facility.
"All of ours are accounted for," zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said.
Morse said officers have given up the active hunt.
"We're just telling people if they see it to just let us know," Morse said. "Don't feed it and don't approach it."
The macaques generally are not aggressive, but they can be "if you corner them or get in their personal space," he said. "They are very strong and capable of hurting somebody, but only if they feel threatened. They are not going to go out there and hunt somebody down."
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/18/181723/baboon-or-monkey-either-way-deputies-looking-simia/news-breaking/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Baboon or monkey? Either way, deputies looking for this simian
By HOWARD ALTMAN The Tampa Tribune
Published: November 18, 2009
TAMPA - Eric Gonzalez and his wife Tiffany were driving on Linebaugh Avenue this afternoon when an animal darted in front of their 2007 Dodge Caravan.
"Look out for that dog," Eric said his wife told him.
"But when it crossed in front of us, it was running at an alarming speed," Gonzalez said. "As soon as it stood up on its back legs, I knew it wasn't a dog."
It was, he said, a baboon.
"It had a bald butt, the body was beige, the butt was pinkish," Gonzalez said.
Just as quickly as the couple saw the creature, it was gone.
"As soon as it jumped up, it jumped right off to Williams Road," he said. "It cleared a 6-foot fence."
After the shock wore off, the couple called authorities – Eric called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Tiffany called 911.
It was the second call about the baboon deputies had received, according to HCSO spokesman Larry McKinnon.
The first call came in about 1:30 p.m., he said. Because the animal was spotted near Canella Elementary School, deputies contacted school officials, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Lowry Park Zoo, said McKinnon.
Gonzalez said he called in the baboon sighting because of concern for the neighborhood.
"We live in the area," said Gonzalez. "My main concern was that this is a wild animal. We have a lot of kids in the area. There is a school right there and we do not want the kids to be curious and approach it. The animal, being wild, might turn around and attack one of the kids."
McKinnon said the animal probably escaped from captivity.
"We suspect it was a large monkey or baboon that escaped from a house in the area," McKinnon said. "We have had reports of this for a week."
McKinnon said because the animal was near a school, the sheriff's office sent a helicopter and patrol cars to investigate.
So far, deputies have not been able to find the animal, which was last seen shortly before 2 p.m. running behind a Hindu temple on Nixon Road.
It is possible this may be the same simian seen in Tampa last week, McKinnon said.
Last week, a resident reported seeing a monkey in East Tampa, hunkered down in a tree on Elm Street just south of Sligh Avenue, west of the Hillsborough River.
Initially, residents called to say there was a monkey on the loose. Then spectators said it appeared to be a big raccoon. Fish & Wildlife officers arrived and determined it was a macaque monkey.
"An officer went up into the tree to get a better look at it," commission spokesman Gary Morse said at the time.
The animal spotted Wednesday was most likely not a baboon, he said, but a macaque.
"A lot of people might mistake a macaque for a baboon," he said.
At this point, Fish & Wildlife officers are not searching for the animal because they are waiting to hear back from HCSO, Morse said.
Officers have no idea where the macaque came from. A breeding population of rhesus macaques lives in the woods of the Silver Springs area, near Ocala, but officers here don't know whether there is a connection.
It's possible the monkey is a pet that escaped, Morse said. So far, no one has filed a missing monkey report. A permit is required in order to have a monkey.
Lowry Park Zoo officials said the animal isn't from their facility.
"All of ours are accounted for," zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said.
Morse said officers have given up the active hunt.
"We're just telling people if they see it to just let us know," Morse said. "Don't feed it and don't approach it."
The macaques generally are not aggressive, but they can be "if you corner them or get in their personal space," he said. "They are very strong and capable of hurting somebody, but only if they feel threatened. They are not going to go out there and hunt somebody down."
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/18/181723/baboon-or-monkey-either-way-deputies-looking-simia/news-breaking/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Published: November 18, 2009
TAMPA - Eric Gonzalez and his wife Tiffany were driving on Linebaugh Avenue this afternoon when an animal darted in front of their 2007 Dodge Caravan.
"Look out for that dog," Eric said his wife told him.
"But when it crossed in front of us, it was running at an alarming speed," Gonzalez said. "As soon as it stood up on its back legs, I knew it wasn't a dog."
It was, he said, a baboon.
"It had a bald butt, the body was beige, the butt was pinkish," Gonzalez said.
Just as quickly as the couple saw the creature, it was gone.
"As soon as it jumped up, it jumped right off to Williams Road," he said. "It cleared a 6-foot fence."
After the shock wore off, the couple called authorities – Eric called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Tiffany called 911.
It was the second call about the baboon deputies had received, according to HCSO spokesman Larry McKinnon.
The first call came in about 1:30 p.m., he said. Because the animal was spotted near Canella Elementary School, deputies contacted school officials, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Lowry Park Zoo, said McKinnon.
Gonzalez said he called in the baboon sighting because of concern for the neighborhood.
"We live in the area," said Gonzalez. "My main concern was that this is a wild animal. We have a lot of kids in the area. There is a school right there and we do not want the kids to be curious and approach it. The animal, being wild, might turn around and attack one of the kids."
McKinnon said the animal probably escaped from captivity.
"We suspect it was a large monkey or baboon that escaped from a house in the area," McKinnon said. "We have had reports of this for a week."
McKinnon said because the animal was near a school, the sheriff's office sent a helicopter and patrol cars to investigate.
So far, deputies have not been able to find the animal, which was last seen shortly before 2 p.m. running behind a Hindu temple on Nixon Road.
It is possible this may be the same simian seen in Tampa last week, McKinnon said.
Last week, a resident reported seeing a monkey in East Tampa, hunkered down in a tree on Elm Street just south of Sligh Avenue, west of the Hillsborough River.
Initially, residents called to say there was a monkey on the loose. Then spectators said it appeared to be a big raccoon. Fish & Wildlife officers arrived and determined it was a macaque monkey.
"An officer went up into the tree to get a better look at it," commission spokesman Gary Morse said at the time.
The animal spotted Wednesday was most likely not a baboon, he said, but a macaque.
"A lot of people might mistake a macaque for a baboon," he said.
At this point, Fish & Wildlife officers are not searching for the animal because they are waiting to hear back from HCSO, Morse said.
Officers have no idea where the macaque came from. A breeding population of rhesus macaques lives in the woods of the Silver Springs area, near Ocala, but officers here don't know whether there is a connection.
It's possible the monkey is a pet that escaped, Morse said. So far, no one has filed a missing monkey report. A permit is required in order to have a monkey.
Lowry Park Zoo officials said the animal isn't from their facility.
"All of ours are accounted for," zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said.
Morse said officers have given up the active hunt.
"We're just telling people if they see it to just let us know," Morse said. "Don't feed it and don't approach it."
The macaques generally are not aggressive, but they can be "if you corner them or get in their personal space," he said. "They are very strong and capable of hurting somebody, but only if they feel threatened. They are not going to go out there and hunt somebody down."
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/18/181723/baboon-or-monkey-either-way-deputies-looking-simia/news-breaking/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Restaurant critic Gill delights in killing a baboon
By Kunal Dutta
Monday, 26 October 2009
His hunting credentials include pheasant-seeking missions to Wiltshire with Jeremy Clarkson, and trigger-happy deliberations with the chef Marco Pierre White moments before they despatched a deer.
But now AA Gill, the outspoken restaurant critic and self-appointed arbiter of British culinary standards, might have just taken a pop too far with a column revelling in the demise of his latest gunshot victim – an entirely inedible African baboon.
Writing in yesterday's Sunday Times Style Magazine, Gill described a trip to Tanzania where, driven by the urge to embody a "recreational primate killer", he shot the ape during a safari.
"I know perfectly well there is absolutely no excuse for this," he said. "Baboon isn't good to eat, unless you're a leopard. The feeble argument for cull and control is much the same as for foxes: a veil of naughty fun."
The comments, which to his critics will smack of Oscar Wilde's famous quotation about fox-hunters ("the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable"), have angered animal welfare charities, which yesterday brandished the act "utterly morally reprehensible".
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "There is no excuse for taking potshots at such endangered species. The vast majority of people in this country find trophy-shootings of this sort absolutely despicable."
In Gill's column, written as a set-up to preview The Luxe restaurant in London, he described baboons as "no stupider than Piers Morgan".
"They see you, they sod off, in great gambolling gangs, babies riding mums like little jockeys," he wrote. "And they stand around on rocks and bark like Alsatians."
But a spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the incident highlighted the growing perception of Africa's baboons as vermin or problem animals. "We are working to shift this perception and are completely opposed to the act of cold killing, which is especially rife among farmers in Africa," he added.
Mr Batchelor went even further, saying: "Baboons might not be in the same league as endangered elephants but that's not the point. Even if the world was overrun with such animals, it is not for a journalist to make the call of culling them.
"Management of animal populations should be left to people with specialist skill and knowledge, and not to restaurants critics with nothing better to do with their time."
Gill has often used hunting as the theme for his columns. In an article last year, he described an incident with Marco Pierre White in which both he and the French chef deliberated about shooting a deer, an act he described as "Ray Mears directed by Quentin Tarantino". "So I kill him and gut him, and sling the cadaver into the back of the Land Rover," Gill wrote.
"But because Marco's going on a bit, I forget to puncture the diaphragm and six pints of gelatinous gore empty into the back. Mr Ishi has to hose it out. He drives me back to London in silence, occasionally muttering: The blood. The blood."
In a column in 2003, Gill wrote: "Somebody asked me what I was going to do in Scotland. Stalking, I said. 'Oh, how exciting. Who?' 'Who? No, I'm shooting.' 'Ooh, with a long lens? I suppose it's Balmoral. You journalists are real scum.' 'No, no, I'm stalking deer and shooting them with bullets. 'Oh God, not Bambi's mother? 'No, no, of course not – Bambi's absentee father.'"
Since the Government criminalised fox-hunting in 2004, hunt groups have reported higher attendances than ever. More than 100,000 people are estimated to have taken part since the ban was implemented.
A spokesman for the RSPCA also condemned Gill's actions but said it could not act against him because the shooting took place beyond its UK jurisdiction .
Gill could not be reached for comment yesterday. But the last word could be left to Clarkson, who once wrote: "Morally reprehensible? Oh yes – but when you're out there on a chilly day with a bellyful of sloe gin and you blow a high bird clean out of the sky with a single shot, it awakens the hunter-gatherer that lurks in all men."
AA Gill: Collected wisdom
"In the range of things you can be good at, being a food or TV critic is not way up there. But it's a talent and I'm quite good at it. Can anyone do it? Is everyone's opinion worth the same? No. My opinion is worth more than other people's."
"[Gordon] Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being."
On an overly-attentive waiter in a French restaurant: "I wouldn't have been at all surprised if he'd added that the salt had been shaved from the pudendum of Lot's wife."
"We all know the Welsh are loquacious dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls."
On the Isle of Man: "The weather's foul, the food's medieval, it's covered in suicidal motorists and folk who believe in fairies."
"I don't like the English. One at a time, I don't mind them. I've loved some of them. It's their collective persona I can't warm to: the lumpen and louty, coarse, unsubtle, beady-eyed, beefy-bummed herd of England."
On TV show Countdown: "A displacement activity for lives circling the plughole."
"The Albanians are short and ferret-faced, with the unisex stumpy, slightly bowed legs of Shetland ponies."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/restaurant-critic-gill-delights-in-killing-a-baboon-1809413.html
(Submitted by Ray D.)
Monday, 26 October 2009
His hunting credentials include pheasant-seeking missions to Wiltshire with Jeremy Clarkson, and trigger-happy deliberations with the chef Marco Pierre White moments before they despatched a deer.
But now AA Gill, the outspoken restaurant critic and self-appointed arbiter of British culinary standards, might have just taken a pop too far with a column revelling in the demise of his latest gunshot victim – an entirely inedible African baboon.
Writing in yesterday's Sunday Times Style Magazine, Gill described a trip to Tanzania where, driven by the urge to embody a "recreational primate killer", he shot the ape during a safari.
"I know perfectly well there is absolutely no excuse for this," he said. "Baboon isn't good to eat, unless you're a leopard. The feeble argument for cull and control is much the same as for foxes: a veil of naughty fun."
The comments, which to his critics will smack of Oscar Wilde's famous quotation about fox-hunters ("the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable"), have angered animal welfare charities, which yesterday brandished the act "utterly morally reprehensible".
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "There is no excuse for taking potshots at such endangered species. The vast majority of people in this country find trophy-shootings of this sort absolutely despicable."
In Gill's column, written as a set-up to preview The Luxe restaurant in London, he described baboons as "no stupider than Piers Morgan".
"They see you, they sod off, in great gambolling gangs, babies riding mums like little jockeys," he wrote. "And they stand around on rocks and bark like Alsatians."
But a spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the incident highlighted the growing perception of Africa's baboons as vermin or problem animals. "We are working to shift this perception and are completely opposed to the act of cold killing, which is especially rife among farmers in Africa," he added.
Mr Batchelor went even further, saying: "Baboons might not be in the same league as endangered elephants but that's not the point. Even if the world was overrun with such animals, it is not for a journalist to make the call of culling them.
"Management of animal populations should be left to people with specialist skill and knowledge, and not to restaurants critics with nothing better to do with their time."
Gill has often used hunting as the theme for his columns. In an article last year, he described an incident with Marco Pierre White in which both he and the French chef deliberated about shooting a deer, an act he described as "Ray Mears directed by Quentin Tarantino". "So I kill him and gut him, and sling the cadaver into the back of the Land Rover," Gill wrote.
"But because Marco's going on a bit, I forget to puncture the diaphragm and six pints of gelatinous gore empty into the back. Mr Ishi has to hose it out. He drives me back to London in silence, occasionally muttering: The blood. The blood."
In a column in 2003, Gill wrote: "Somebody asked me what I was going to do in Scotland. Stalking, I said. 'Oh, how exciting. Who?' 'Who? No, I'm shooting.' 'Ooh, with a long lens? I suppose it's Balmoral. You journalists are real scum.' 'No, no, I'm stalking deer and shooting them with bullets. 'Oh God, not Bambi's mother? 'No, no, of course not – Bambi's absentee father.'"
Since the Government criminalised fox-hunting in 2004, hunt groups have reported higher attendances than ever. More than 100,000 people are estimated to have taken part since the ban was implemented.
A spokesman for the RSPCA also condemned Gill's actions but said it could not act against him because the shooting took place beyond its UK jurisdiction .
Gill could not be reached for comment yesterday. But the last word could be left to Clarkson, who once wrote: "Morally reprehensible? Oh yes – but when you're out there on a chilly day with a bellyful of sloe gin and you blow a high bird clean out of the sky with a single shot, it awakens the hunter-gatherer that lurks in all men."
AA Gill: Collected wisdom
"In the range of things you can be good at, being a food or TV critic is not way up there. But it's a talent and I'm quite good at it. Can anyone do it? Is everyone's opinion worth the same? No. My opinion is worth more than other people's."
"[Gordon] Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being."
On an overly-attentive waiter in a French restaurant: "I wouldn't have been at all surprised if he'd added that the salt had been shaved from the pudendum of Lot's wife."
"We all know the Welsh are loquacious dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls."
On the Isle of Man: "The weather's foul, the food's medieval, it's covered in suicidal motorists and folk who believe in fairies."
"I don't like the English. One at a time, I don't mind them. I've loved some of them. It's their collective persona I can't warm to: the lumpen and louty, coarse, unsubtle, beady-eyed, beefy-bummed herd of England."
On TV show Countdown: "A displacement activity for lives circling the plughole."
"The Albanians are short and ferret-faced, with the unisex stumpy, slightly bowed legs of Shetland ponies."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/restaurant-critic-gill-delights-in-killing-a-baboon-1809413.html
(Submitted by Ray D.)
Restaurant critic Gill delights in killing a baboon
By Kunal Dutta
Monday, 26 October 2009
His hunting credentials include pheasant-seeking missions to Wiltshire with Jeremy Clarkson, and trigger-happy deliberations with the chef Marco Pierre White moments before they despatched a deer.
But now AA Gill, the outspoken restaurant critic and self-appointed arbiter of British culinary standards, might have just taken a pop too far with a column revelling in the demise of his latest gunshot victim – an entirely inedible African baboon.
Writing in yesterday's Sunday Times Style Magazine, Gill described a trip to Tanzania where, driven by the urge to embody a "recreational primate killer", he shot the ape during a safari.
"I know perfectly well there is absolutely no excuse for this," he said. "Baboon isn't good to eat, unless you're a leopard. The feeble argument for cull and control is much the same as for foxes: a veil of naughty fun."
The comments, which to his critics will smack of Oscar Wilde's famous quotation about fox-hunters ("the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable"), have angered animal welfare charities, which yesterday brandished the act "utterly morally reprehensible".
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "There is no excuse for taking potshots at such endangered species. The vast majority of people in this country find trophy-shootings of this sort absolutely despicable."
In Gill's column, written as a set-up to preview The Luxe restaurant in London, he described baboons as "no stupider than Piers Morgan".
"They see you, they sod off, in great gambolling gangs, babies riding mums like little jockeys," he wrote. "And they stand around on rocks and bark like Alsatians."
But a spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the incident highlighted the growing perception of Africa's baboons as vermin or problem animals. "We are working to shift this perception and are completely opposed to the act of cold killing, which is especially rife among farmers in Africa," he added.
Mr Batchelor went even further, saying: "Baboons might not be in the same league as endangered elephants but that's not the point. Even if the world was overrun with such animals, it is not for a journalist to make the call of culling them.
"Management of animal populations should be left to people with specialist skill and knowledge, and not to restaurants critics with nothing better to do with their time."
Gill has often used hunting as the theme for his columns. In an article last year, he described an incident with Marco Pierre White in which both he and the French chef deliberated about shooting a deer, an act he described as "Ray Mears directed by Quentin Tarantino". "So I kill him and gut him, and sling the cadaver into the back of the Land Rover," Gill wrote.
"But because Marco's going on a bit, I forget to puncture the diaphragm and six pints of gelatinous gore empty into the back. Mr Ishi has to hose it out. He drives me back to London in silence, occasionally muttering: The blood. The blood."
In a column in 2003, Gill wrote: "Somebody asked me what I was going to do in Scotland. Stalking, I said. 'Oh, how exciting. Who?' 'Who? No, I'm shooting.' 'Ooh, with a long lens? I suppose it's Balmoral. You journalists are real scum.' 'No, no, I'm stalking deer and shooting them with bullets. 'Oh God, not Bambi's mother? 'No, no, of course not – Bambi's absentee father.'"
Since the Government criminalised fox-hunting in 2004, hunt groups have reported higher attendances than ever. More than 100,000 people are estimated to have taken part since the ban was implemented.
A spokesman for the RSPCA also condemned Gill's actions but said it could not act against him because the shooting took place beyond its UK jurisdiction .
Gill could not be reached for comment yesterday. But the last word could be left to Clarkson, who once wrote: "Morally reprehensible? Oh yes – but when you're out there on a chilly day with a bellyful of sloe gin and you blow a high bird clean out of the sky with a single shot, it awakens the hunter-gatherer that lurks in all men."
AA Gill: Collected wisdom
"In the range of things you can be good at, being a food or TV critic is not way up there. But it's a talent and I'm quite good at it. Can anyone do it? Is everyone's opinion worth the same? No. My opinion is worth more than other people's."
"[Gordon] Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being."
On an overly-attentive waiter in a French restaurant: "I wouldn't have been at all surprised if he'd added that the salt had been shaved from the pudendum of Lot's wife."
"We all know the Welsh are loquacious dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls."
On the Isle of Man: "The weather's foul, the food's medieval, it's covered in suicidal motorists and folk who believe in fairies."
"I don't like the English. One at a time, I don't mind them. I've loved some of them. It's their collective persona I can't warm to: the lumpen and louty, coarse, unsubtle, beady-eyed, beefy-bummed herd of England."
On TV show Countdown: "A displacement activity for lives circling the plughole."
"The Albanians are short and ferret-faced, with the unisex stumpy, slightly bowed legs of Shetland ponies."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/restaurant-critic-gill-delights-in-killing-a-baboon-1809413.html
(Submitted by Ray D.)
Monday, 26 October 2009
His hunting credentials include pheasant-seeking missions to Wiltshire with Jeremy Clarkson, and trigger-happy deliberations with the chef Marco Pierre White moments before they despatched a deer.
But now AA Gill, the outspoken restaurant critic and self-appointed arbiter of British culinary standards, might have just taken a pop too far with a column revelling in the demise of his latest gunshot victim – an entirely inedible African baboon.
Writing in yesterday's Sunday Times Style Magazine, Gill described a trip to Tanzania where, driven by the urge to embody a "recreational primate killer", he shot the ape during a safari.
"I know perfectly well there is absolutely no excuse for this," he said. "Baboon isn't good to eat, unless you're a leopard. The feeble argument for cull and control is much the same as for foxes: a veil of naughty fun."
The comments, which to his critics will smack of Oscar Wilde's famous quotation about fox-hunters ("the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable"), have angered animal welfare charities, which yesterday brandished the act "utterly morally reprehensible".
Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "There is no excuse for taking potshots at such endangered species. The vast majority of people in this country find trophy-shootings of this sort absolutely despicable."
In Gill's column, written as a set-up to preview The Luxe restaurant in London, he described baboons as "no stupider than Piers Morgan".
"They see you, they sod off, in great gambolling gangs, babies riding mums like little jockeys," he wrote. "And they stand around on rocks and bark like Alsatians."
But a spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the incident highlighted the growing perception of Africa's baboons as vermin or problem animals. "We are working to shift this perception and are completely opposed to the act of cold killing, which is especially rife among farmers in Africa," he added.
Mr Batchelor went even further, saying: "Baboons might not be in the same league as endangered elephants but that's not the point. Even if the world was overrun with such animals, it is not for a journalist to make the call of culling them.
"Management of animal populations should be left to people with specialist skill and knowledge, and not to restaurants critics with nothing better to do with their time."
Gill has often used hunting as the theme for his columns. In an article last year, he described an incident with Marco Pierre White in which both he and the French chef deliberated about shooting a deer, an act he described as "Ray Mears directed by Quentin Tarantino". "So I kill him and gut him, and sling the cadaver into the back of the Land Rover," Gill wrote.
"But because Marco's going on a bit, I forget to puncture the diaphragm and six pints of gelatinous gore empty into the back. Mr Ishi has to hose it out. He drives me back to London in silence, occasionally muttering: The blood. The blood."
In a column in 2003, Gill wrote: "Somebody asked me what I was going to do in Scotland. Stalking, I said. 'Oh, how exciting. Who?' 'Who? No, I'm shooting.' 'Ooh, with a long lens? I suppose it's Balmoral. You journalists are real scum.' 'No, no, I'm stalking deer and shooting them with bullets. 'Oh God, not Bambi's mother? 'No, no, of course not – Bambi's absentee father.'"
Since the Government criminalised fox-hunting in 2004, hunt groups have reported higher attendances than ever. More than 100,000 people are estimated to have taken part since the ban was implemented.
A spokesman for the RSPCA also condemned Gill's actions but said it could not act against him because the shooting took place beyond its UK jurisdiction .
Gill could not be reached for comment yesterday. But the last word could be left to Clarkson, who once wrote: "Morally reprehensible? Oh yes – but when you're out there on a chilly day with a bellyful of sloe gin and you blow a high bird clean out of the sky with a single shot, it awakens the hunter-gatherer that lurks in all men."
AA Gill: Collected wisdom
"In the range of things you can be good at, being a food or TV critic is not way up there. But it's a talent and I'm quite good at it. Can anyone do it? Is everyone's opinion worth the same? No. My opinion is worth more than other people's."
"[Gordon] Ramsay is a wonderful chef, just a really second-rate human being."
On an overly-attentive waiter in a French restaurant: "I wouldn't have been at all surprised if he'd added that the salt had been shaved from the pudendum of Lot's wife."
"We all know the Welsh are loquacious dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls."
On the Isle of Man: "The weather's foul, the food's medieval, it's covered in suicidal motorists and folk who believe in fairies."
"I don't like the English. One at a time, I don't mind them. I've loved some of them. It's their collective persona I can't warm to: the lumpen and louty, coarse, unsubtle, beady-eyed, beefy-bummed herd of England."
On TV show Countdown: "A displacement activity for lives circling the plughole."
"The Albanians are short and ferret-faced, with the unisex stumpy, slightly bowed legs of Shetland ponies."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/restaurant-critic-gill-delights-in-killing-a-baboon-1809413.html
(Submitted by Ray D.)
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