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International Monkey Day
14 December 2021
News

The International Monkey Day is celebrated annually on December 14 and is unofficial. The holiday in 2000 was jokingly created and popularized by art students at University of Michigan. This holiday is dedicated to anthropoid and non-human apes and, of course, to all other primates. As befits our relatives, these mammals are amazing and interesting due to their higher level of intelligence development compared to many other animals.

Anthropoids (great apes) are easy to learn. They can be taught sign language for the deaf and dumb. There are cases when capable primates memorized a lot of gestures, and then used them in a dialogue with each other. Only now it is impossible to teach them to talk, since they have a different structure of the tongue, pharynx and vocal cords, despite the presence of Broca's speech center in the brain.

Orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas are considered the smartest among all primates, in addition to humans. According to the researchers, they are the ones who are able to perfectly recognize human speech, correctly evaluate people's actions and enter into friendly contact with them.