ABSTRACT
Today, the principal threats to the survival of wild primates including non-human apes are habitat destruction and hunting. However, historically, the animals themselves were viewed as valuable and desirable items – a fate shared by the future Rubondo founders. Numerous apparently secure nations in Europe, Asia and Africa have descended into civil wars since the Rubondo releases took place. The Rubondo residents are one of a kind: apes that are, from their genetic make-up to the place they inhabit, synthetic creatures and thus a true product of the Anthropocene. And yet, they behave in such ways that a primatologist, not knowing anything about their history, would be bound to think they had been inhabiting that island for millennia. Nothing seems to be missing from the dazzling portfolio of behaviours that communities of chimpanzees are famous for and display at other sites.
