It is a natural state in everything that is alive, including hominids.

Jane Goodall on what separates us from the apes

But the only European biomedical research that has used great apes recently is the Biomedical Primate Research Centre at Rijswijk, in the Netherlands.

The Great Ape Project does not reject the idea of basic rights for other animals.

This is a very old video from the Yerkes Primate Center where they train chimpanzees to cooperate.

A final group of opponents recognizes the strength of the case for extending rights to great apes, but worries that this may pave the way for the extension of rights to all primates, or all mammals, or all animals.

Recently it was pronounced extinct the first documented extinction of a primate since the 1700s.

Humans evolved from primates who formed communities that worked together to survive.

It merely asserts that the case for such rights is strongest in respect to great apes.

Just as some humans are unable to fend for themselves and need others to act as their guardians, so, too, will great apes living in the midst of human communities.

Nor does it rule out euthanasia if that is in the interest of individual apes whose suffering cannot be relieved.

But authority in humans is not so closely based on power and brutality, as it is in other primates.

Color blindness, or color vision deficiency, is the inability or decreased ability to see color, or perceive color differences, under normal lighting conditions.

Japanese primate researchers assumed that each individual animal had a distinct personality, and they did not hesitate to give their subjects names.

Japanese primate researchers assumed that each individual animal had a distinct personality, and they did not hesitate to give their subjects names. They plotted kinship relationships over multiple generations, believing that primates must have a complex family life, just like us.

They plotted kinship relationships over multiple generations, believing that primates must have a complex family life, just like us.

With the exception of humans, which inhabit every continent, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia.

What extending basic rights to great apes does mean is that they will cease to be mere things that can be owned and used for our amusement or entertainment.

Recognizing the rights of great apes does not mean that they all must be set free, even those born and bred in zoos, who would be unable to survive in the wild. Nor does it rule out euthanasia if that is in the interest of individual apes whose suffering cannot be relieved.

Recognizing the rights of great apes does not mean that they all must be set free, even those born and bred in zoos, who would be unable to survive in the wild.

In 1933 primatologists discovered a red and black colored monkey living in the canopy of West Africa's forests, which they named Miss Waldron's Red Colobus.

Imanishi's influence is now pervasive all primate scientists have adopted the technique of following individuals over time, and animal culture is the hottest topic in our field.

The resolution would not have the force of law, but its approval would mark the first time that a national legislature has recognized the special status of great apes and the need to protect them, not only from extinction, but also from individual abuse.

I founded the Great Ape Project together with Paola Cavalieri, an Italian philosopher and animal advocate, in 1993. Our aim was to grant some basic rights to the nonhuman great apes life, liberty, and the prohibition of torture.