Please don't feed the humans
2001-09-06 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
archershipsAn excerpt from Mean Genes by Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan.
Chantek is a smart, lovable orangutan who
lives at the Atlanta zoo. Trained in sign language, he has a
vocabulary of more than 150 words, and he is considered a decent
artist. Now in his twenties, he was born at the Yerkes Primate
Center in Atlanta and then spent nine years being raised like a
human-complete with diapers and infant formula.
Growing up in this human setting, Chantek became really fat,
weighing in at five hundred pounds, roughly three times his ideal
size. Afraid that the massive bulk would collapse his lungs,
scientists placed him on a strict diet. Formerly five hundred
pounds of fun, he became four hundred pounds of anger. During the
diet, his favorite sign language symbol became "candy." He refused
to draw and instead ate the crayons given for his artistic use.
While on his diet, Chantek even pulled off an escape. He
threatened and could have easily killed a janitor, but chose
instead to attack a 55-gallon drum of food. He was eventually
found sitting next to the up-ended food barrel, using all four
limbs to stuff monkey chow into his mouth.
Chantek is unique, not only for his human contact and his
linguistic and artistic abilities but also for his weight. You
see, there are no fat orangutans outside zoos and research
centers. Wild orangutans, despite sharing Chantek's genetic zest
for a fine meal, maintain a svelte 160 pounds or so because food
is relatively scarce and difficult to obtain in the jungles of
Borneo.
Like Chantek, many of us have trouble staying skinny and
healthy. As we'll see, easy living with plentiful food is the
source of weight control problems for humans and captive
orangutans alike. ...
Chantek is a smart, lovable orangutan who
lives at the Atlanta zoo. Trained in sign language, he has a
vocabulary of more than 150 words, and he is considered a decent
artist. Now in his twenties, he was born at the Yerkes Primate
Center in Atlanta and then spent nine years being raised like a
human-complete with diapers and infant formula.
Growing up in this human setting, Chantek became really fat,
weighing in at five hundred pounds, roughly three times his ideal
size. Afraid that the massive bulk would collapse his lungs,
scientists placed him on a strict diet. Formerly five hundred
pounds of fun, he became four hundred pounds of anger. During the
diet, his favorite sign language symbol became "candy." He refused
to draw and instead ate the crayons given for his artistic use.
While on his diet, Chantek even pulled off an escape. He
threatened and could have easily killed a janitor, but chose
instead to attack a 55-gallon drum of food. He was eventually
found sitting next to the up-ended food barrel, using all four
limbs to stuff monkey chow into his mouth.
Chantek is unique, not only for his human contact and his
linguistic and artistic abilities but also for his weight. You
see, there are no fat orangutans outside zoos and research
centers. Wild orangutans, despite sharing Chantek's genetic zest
for a fine meal, maintain a svelte 160 pounds or so because food
is relatively scarce and difficult to obtain in the jungles of
Borneo.
Like Chantek, many of us have trouble staying skinny and
healthy. As we'll see, easy living with plentiful food is the
source of weight control problems for humans and captive
orangutans alike. ...
no subject
Date: 2001-09-06 03:28 pm (UTC)But more of my disappointment came from the feeling that I didn't really learn anything by reading it. It had a couple of stories about the authors' bad habits, but no real insights into me or my behavior.
Re:
Date: 2001-09-06 03:35 pm (UTC)No need to be jealous though. Look at it this way--they may have done it first, but you can do it right.
no subject
Date: 2001-09-06 03:47 pm (UTC)My real complaint, I guess, was that after finishing the book, I felt like I'd read a magazine article. The content was great, but they took a lot of pages to say not very much.