From BBC Earth's "Spy in the Wild" series. Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty robot! Read the rest

At UC San Diego, a group of experts came together to try and preserve the eyesight of 3-year-old gorilla who lives at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Read the rest

In this difficult economy, it's worth doing everything you can to keep from having to visit a doctor or dentist. This gorilla gets it: Instead of booking an appointment, which would cost its troop a boatload of money, it goes on ahead and extracts its own tooth, like a furry boss. Read the rest

A couple of days ago, the Dallas Zoo posted a video of Zolo the "breakdancing" gorilla spinning around in a kiddie pool. That was pretty great on its own. But then, video producer Bob Hagh added the song from Flashdance "Maniac" to it and broke the Internet. Read the rest

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea visited Koko at her home in Woodside, CA and let her play his bass. Said Flea,"This is the greatest thing that ever happened. I will never forget."

[via] Read the rest

A man showed photos of gorillas to a gorilla at a zoo, and the gorilla was interested. Read the rest

HEADLINE CORRECTED BASED ON NEW INFORMATION, SEE UPDATE BELOW:

A man dressed as a gorilla at a Tenerife, Spain zoo who was participating in a drill was mistakenly shot with a dart containing a massive dose of tranquilizer. Apparently, the vet who fired the shot wasn't aware that it was a drill. From the zoo's statement:

“Loro Parque simulated the escape of an animal from its enclosure in the gorilla park.

“As part of the simulation, which took place in the security zone of the area and was attended only by authorised personnel, they set off the emergency alarm.

“Once they had carried out the various procedures, one keeper in the wild mammals team was accidentally struck by the medical tranquiliser that vets use in these instances.

“As a result, emergency services were called and he was taken to hospital.”

"Zoo employee shot in error while dressed as a gorilla" (Irish Examiner)

UPDATE: The Zoo tells the The Telegraph that the employee shot with the tranquilizer was not wearing a gorilla suit. Read the rest

Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine.

As mentioned earlier, I collect books by people who have raised apes or monkeys in their homes, so, as a service to Boing Boing readers, I thought I'd review them for you.

Toto and I: A Gorilla in the Family, by A Maria Hoyt (1941)

A charming memoir by an eccentric heiress who brought Toto home after her husband, working for the Museum of Natural History in New York, shot Toto's mother on the hunt for a specimen. Despite marrying a mommy killer, Hoyt goes to the wall to help young Toto, even moving to Cuba to accommodate her charge. There are lots of choice anecdotes in this book but my favorite involve sleep training the gorilla. Like many children, Toto insisted on sleeping with her parents. Caregiver Thomas and Toto slept in separate beds in Toto's room; each night over the course of month, Tomas moved his bed farther and farther away from Toto until he was actually out of her room. (Incidentally, this is essentially the same method recommended by the Sleep Lady.) Before Toto was weaned from cosleeping, however, she "punished" Tomas by locking him in her bedroom:

[Toto] slammed the door after him, deftly locking it from the playroom side. Since the windows were heavily barred, Tomas was now securely confined with Toto, his jailer, dancing in triumphant joy in the other room....