Breaking the species barrier.

For the past two years, scientists, environmentalists and animal rights activists have been collaboratively working toward a common goal: recognizing the legal rights of the great apes, whose genetic makeup and social structure are unarguably like our own. The collaboration resulted in the Great Ape Project - an idea which seeks to extend "the community of equals" beyond human beings to those most similar to us - chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.

According to Australian philosophy professor Peter Singer, president of the project and co-editor of the book, The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Humanity, "The community of equals is the moral community within which the most basic ethical and legal principles apply to members. The right to life, the right not to be tortured and the right not to be imprisoned without due process are concepts that now only apply to human beings."

Singer, along with scientists from Australia and New Zealand, want to reclassify the great apes to the same species group as humans because of DNA similarities. Scientists now believe that classifications should be based on genetic make-up rather than outward appearance, and in the case of the great apes, the DNA similarities are too strong to ignore. Singer believes that "acknowledging that other animals are members of the same genus as ourselves will help remind people that we are animals, and will shrink the gulf that we imagine divides us from animals."

Great ape species also share many of our emotional traits, says Singer: "They form close and lasting attachments with others, they show grief, they play. When taught sign language they tell lies, they solve complex problems, they plan for the future. They form political coalitions in order to ascend in the group's hierarchy, they reciprocate favors and they become angry." They also make tools, tie knots and recognize themselves in mirrors, traits which also distinguish humans from other species.

According to Australian scientist Simon Easteal of the John Curtin School of Medical Research, human DNA differs a mere 1.6 percent from that of chimpanzees; 1.7 percent from gorillas; and about two percent from orangutans.

Since the famous chimpanzee Washoe was first taught sign language in the 1970s by Dr. Roger Fouts, studies have shown that not only are chimpanzees capable of complex language skills using sign language, but they are also capable of actively teaching human-designed communication to their young. According to Dr. Fouts, "In terms of biochemical similarities based on blood research and genetic similarities, chimpanzees are actually closer to humans than they are to gorillas, even though all three primates are within one percent of each other."

Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, and contributor to the project's book, says that while humans admit that we are like apes, "We seldom realize that we are apes."

CONTACT: The Great Ape Project, P.O. Box 82366, Portland, OR 97282-0366/email: [e-mail]/World Wide Web homepage: www.envirolink.org/orgs/gap/gaphone.html.