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Last Updated: Tuesday October 10 2006 16:00 GMT

The chimps that act like people

Chimps and presenter Danny Wallace

A group of chimps who behave just like people have been showing off their skills to a TV crew.

Normally when we see chimps, it's in a zoo - but this lot live in a house in America. They can cook and open doors and show each other what to do. Their fascinating behaviour has been recorded for a TV documentary.

One scientist, Sue Savage Rumbaugh, has been living with chimps for 26 years. She reckons if they're brought up like people, they behave like people.

She wonders if children would grow up more like chimps if they were brought up in cages like some animals are.

Experts have proved that humans and chimps are made up of lots of the same type of very, very small bits and pieces called DNA.


The DNA in humans and chimps is very similar, with only small differences between the two.

Obviously this doesn't mean chimps are human, but scientists hope it does prove chimps are lot more like people than we thought.


Is this experiment a good idea?





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