monkey walks on hind legs after recovering from illness

[vniow]

JERUSALEM - A five-year-old monkey at an Israeli zoo started walking exclusively on her hind legs after recovering from a serious illness.

Natasha, a black macaque, almost died of a severe stomach flu about two weeks ago, say officials at the Safari Park zoo near Tel Aviv. She had difficulty breathing and her heart wasn't functioning properly.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2004/07/21/monkey_israel040721.html

 

[MoparShaha]

I found this very interesting. I've taken Anthropology classes and have heard many speculations on the transition of early hominids to bipedalism. It would be funny if it was all just a side effect of an illness.

 

[jefhatfield]

very strange indeed

 

[etoiles]

"take your hands off me, you filthy humans"

 

[Apple Hobo]

Has anyone ever heard of a humanzee? I saw a documentary on Oliver the humanzee. That was VERY strange. Do a Google search if you've never heard of Oliver.

 

[belair]

Must be very impressive to actually see it.
What is that human doing in a cage? Oh wait its a monkey.

If it starts to talk in a few weeks I am on a plane to go and have a chat with her.

 

[MongoTheGeek]

could simply be because of the extended illness spending extra time around people

 

[stevehaslip]

have you seen that old simpsons where the guys at nasa are discussing whether they should tell everyone about what happened to the monkey that they sent to space?

"No i don't think we will be doing that" - the monkey says

erm...back on topic. the monkey is weird but amazing!

 

[Abstract]

Poseur!

 

[wdlove]

I'm very happy to hear that the five year old monkey is OK. A major illness can make changes. Now to see if the monkey will continue to walk on her hind legs long term.

 

[strider42]

I found this very interesting. I've taken Anthropology classes and have heard many speculations on the transition of early hominids to bipedalism. It would be funny if it was all just a side effect of an illness.

Would be interesting, though i'm not sure how an effect caused by an illness would be passed through the genetic code. Seems like it would be a dead end at that animal.

 

[rueyeet]

Maybe something about the illness or the way she recovered made it more comfortable for her to be upright most of the time.

 

[obeygiant]

the future....

 

[themadchemist]

I found this very interesting. I've taken Anthropology classes and have heard many speculations on the transition of early hominids to bipedalism. It would be funny if it was all just a side effect of an illness.

Well, the change would need to be something genetic so that bipedalism could be heritable.

It might be that brain damage caused by this illness had a similar effect as neuroanatomical modifications that conditioned hominids for bipedalism. Who knows!

 

[Earendil]

How is this odd? There are illnesses in humans that make them walk exclusivly on all fours