Your morning adorable: Baby gibbon drinks from a bottle in German zoo

At Germany's Schwerin Zoo, keeper Christina Schneider has been enlisted to act as a surrogate mother for Walli, a 3-week-old gibbon.  Walli's mother rejected him shortly after his birth, meaning that zoo staff have needed to step in to raise him themselves. 

Toward that end, the baby receives bottle-feedings every two hours, according to the Daily Mail.  Zoo staff expect to care for him around the clock until he's about 6 months old, at which point they hope he'll be mature enough to live with the zoo's other gibbons.

Gibbons are considered "lesser apes," a name that, despite the way it may sound, isn't a value judgment about them!  They differ in a few main ways from the "great apes" -- gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and the like -- and in some ways more closely resemble monkeys than apes.  For instance, unlike great apes, gibbons don't build nests to sleep in, preferring instead to sleep sitting up with their arms wrapped around their knees!  They're native to forested regions of southeast Asia.

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Jens Buettner / European Pressphoto Agency

Your morning adorable: Monkeys cool off with frozen fruit in Sao Paulo

A white-handed gibbon from the Sao Paulo Zoo Foundation eats monkey-friendly ice cream -- a frozen fruit wedge on a string. Temperatures rose to 86 degrees Fahrenheit this week in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the zoo fed its gibbons and black-faced spider monkeys these frozen treats for sweet relief.

More photos of the fruit-eating primates after the jump!

Charla Nash, the woman mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee, is unveiled on 'Oprah Winfrey'

Charla Nash, the Stamford, Conn., woman mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee on Feb. 16, appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today.

During the interview, Nash willingly removed her veiled hat that normally covers her face to avoid scaring people, revealing her badly disfigured face to the public for the first time, according to the Hartford Courant.

The family of Nash has filed a lawsuit against the chimp's owner, Nash’s longtime friend and employer, Sandra Herold. Her injuries were described in the lawsuit as "catastrophic"; she lost both hands and incurred "traumatic facial injury [including loss of her nose, upper and lower lips, eyelids and the bony structures in her mid-face]."

The attack Feb. 16 occurred outside Herold's Stamford home, when Herold called Nash to help her shepherd the chimpanzee, Travis, back into her house. Police shot and killed the chimpanzee after he attacked Nash.

Your morning adorable: Dog adopts orphaned macaque monkey in Thailand

Monks at the Tung Luang Buddhist temple in Thailand's Chiang Mai province recently began caring for a 3-month-old macaque monkey whose mother was killed by a hunter. 

Helping them with the task of raising the young monkey is Tan, a resident "temple dog" who, Metro U.K. reports, has not only taken the monkey under his wing but even voluntarily shares his food with it!

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-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: European Pressphoto Agency

Your morning adorable: Orangutan snacks on a pumpkin at the National Zoo

The National Zoo in Washington, like many other zoos around the country, is helping its animal residents celebrate Halloween with treats (healthy ones, like pumpkins -- no bite-size Snickers bars here) and special Halloween-themed enrichment activities. 

This orangutan is seated on one of the zoo's newest pieces of equipment, a specially-made cargo net constructed from fire hoses. Zoo staff report that the orangs took quickly to their new "furniture," playing, climbing, or just plain relaxing on it. (Keepers also utilize the net in enrichment activities for the apes, hanging toys and puzzle feeders from it.)

More photos after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Chimps celebrate Halloween at the San Francisco Zoo

As Halloween approaches it's not just humans getting in on the ghoulish fun: Somewhere in Huntington Beach dogs are preparing to be dressed as sushi, geishas and other such nonsense (we say that lovingly). And at the San Francisco Zoo, more exotic animals such as chimpanzees are celebrating with pumpkins and chimp-safe Halloween-themed treats. (No Mallomars for these guys!)

Other California zoos are celebrating Halloween in their own way -- the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park is holding a "Pumpkins in the Park" event on weekends through Nov. 1, and the Santa Barbara Zoo has its Wild West-themed "Boo at the Zoo" event Oct. 23-25.  (What, Halloween isn't a theme in itself anymore?)  Here in L.A., the L.A. Zoo holds its own "Boo at the Zoo" on Oct. 24-25 and Oct. 31-Nov. 1.

More photos of the chimps celebrating Halloween after the jump!

Your morning adorable: Oklahoma City Zoo's baby chimp celebrates her first birthday -- with cake

The Oklahoma City Zoo's baby chimpanzee, Zoe, isn't such a baby anymore -- she celebrated her first birthday Wednesday, and the zoo is hosting a two-day party in her honor. 

Thursday, Zoe and her chimpanzee family received a specially made birthday cake, which the birthday girl seems to be enjoying tremendously in the photo above!  (Don't worry; the zoo's gorilla and orangutan residents weren't left out of the fun -- they received gifts of their own.) Today, the chimpanzee family will receive presents and even have the chance to play with piñatas!

Zoe's birth last year was the Oklahoma City Zoo's first chimp birth since 1949 -- but what should have been simply a happy event was tinged with sadness when Zoe's mother, Chloe, died as a result of birth complications. (Zoe was given a name that rhymed with her mother's as a tribute.) For the first months of her life Zoe was raised by keepers, who even donned a vest that mimicked the texture of chimp fur to help her learn the important skill of clinging to an adult chimp's back. In April, surrogate chimp mother Abby took over parenting duties.

Despite her setback early in life, Zoe is "rambunctious, curious and loves to explore," according to the zoo's curator of mammals, Laura Bottaro. "We're all taken by her." We are, too!

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Zoe has a face full of birthday cake during her birthday party Thursday. Credit: Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press

Chimp owner: Conn. woman was mauled on the job

An attorney representing the owner of a chimpanzee that mauled and blinded a woman is calling the attack a work-related incident and said her family's case should be treated like a workers' compensation claim.

The strategy, if successful, would severely limit potential damages in the case and insulate the chimp owner from personal liability.

The 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis went berserk in February when his owner, Sandra Herold, asked her friend and employee Charla Nash to help lure him back into her house in Stamford. The animal ripped off Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids, and she remains in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic.

Nash's family filed a $50 million lawsuit against Herold, saying she was negligent and reckless for lacking the ability to control "a wild animal with violent propensities."

But Herold's attorney, Robert Golger, says in recent court papers that Nash was working as an employee of Herold's tow truck company, Desire Me Motors, at the time of the attack. He argues that Travis was an integral part of the business, saying his picture was on the wrecker, he appeared at the garage daily and he attended numerous promotional events.

The house where the attack occurred is a business office of the company, Golger said. Nash fed Travis, cleaned his play area and purchased his supplies as an employee, Golger contends.

"It's an unfortunate and tragic accident that happened in the workplace and should be subject to the provisions of the Connecticut workers' compensation statutes," Golger said Wednesday.

Teen arrested in zoo theft of 3 squirrel monkeys, a Goeldi's monkey, and an Amazon parrot

West Palm Beach police arrested a 17-year-old boy late Friday in the theft of three squirrel monkeys, a Goeldi's monkey and a Green-cheeked Amazon parrot from the Palm Beach Zoo, according to police spokesman Chase Scott.

The suspect faces burglary and grand theft charges. Animal cruelty charges are pending in the case.

"We are investigating two other young adults in connection with the crime," Scott said.

Primate keeper Nancy Nill's worry lines were gone, replaced by a broad grin.

She was still in mom mode, closely monitoring the recovery of four monkeys and a parrot that had been stolen from the Palm Beach Zoo after Wednesday's closing time. But with their return Thursday afternoon, relief tempered her concern.

"Awesome. I feel awesome," Nill said. "I can sleep tonight."

Acting on a tip, police tracked the animals to an abandoned house on the 2532 Palmarita Road in Lake Clarke Shores, according to Scott.

Metallica: Not just for metalheads anymore, monkeys are fans too, a new study says

Animals prefer silence or sounds of their own species to human-made music, according to a new study published in the Royal Society Biology Letters and reported by the Discovery Channel. For some reason, that incites images of gorillas shaking their fists, screaming, "Will you kids turn down that goshdarn racket!"

What's even more interesting is that researchers found monkeys reacted calmly to Metallica's music, an apparently surprising discovery.

There appeared to be little explanation as to why the primates enjoyed the heavy-metal music. We're tempted to offer some guesses pertaining to the comparative intelligence of metalheads, but we don't want to insult any of our valued readers (or, for that matter, monkeys).

The research still doesn't explain why members of two different species can appreciate Metallica and why we cringe every time someone plays "One" on "Guitar Hero."

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-- Mark Milian

Photo: Metallica performing at the Forum on Dec. 17, 2008. Credit: Lawrence Ho / Los Angeles Times