Golden monkey of China |
Did you watch the premiere of Clever Monkeys last night? Share your comments and favorite moments with other NATURE fans using the comment form below.
Do you have a favorite monkey from the show?
Surprised by something you learned?
Clever Monkeys premiered Sunday, November 9 at 8pm (check local listings).
Don’t miss another new episode of NATURE, American Eagle, coming this weekend — Sunday, November 16.
(27 votes)
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Congratulations to the team who made this wonderful program. There are so many programs about chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, but so little is known about monkeys. The intelligence of the capuchins and their use of tools is not widely known. I found this segment fascinating.
The huge troop size (up to 800) of the faraway gelada baboons of the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia was well explained.
As for favorite monkeys, all were incredible. The douc langurs and red colobus were utterly beautiful and the family life of the marmosets, with two father-figures caring for twins while the mom sucked sap from trees was a delight to see!
Try to catch a replay this program if you missed it or get the DVD which costs less than $20.
A most informative monkey show. Loved it from start to finish. This was far from the usual script. Thank you PBS!!!
Amazing and beautiful program! Can’t wait to buy the video for all my Grandkids. Thank you for presenting monkeys in such an incredible and respectful way.
What incredible camera work! From beginning to end!
The segment on colobus monkey was absolutely priceless. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard at anything I’ve watched on television. Want proof that monkeys and humans are related? Just watch the posture and expressions of a black-and-white colobus monkey as it digests its cyanide-laced meal. I was howling! Pun intended.
Such a beautiful program!
What an INCREDIBLE show! It made me more humbler than ever!
I’m a Nature series junkie. This is the most fascinating show yet! Who knew? Definitely “Required Viewing” category. Thank you.
The segment on “language” among eight different species — each learning the others’ alarm calls for “snake,” “leopard,” etc. — left me stunned. And, I admit, a bit ashamed of what humans have done to such wonderful and intelligent creatures.
Incredible! Funny! Like looking into our own faces. Did anyone else recognize people they know in these beautiful, sometimes scary and a few times ugly monkey faces?
I sat there with my mouth open! I thought apes were smart, but I had no idea monkeys were that clever I remember saying over 40 years ago that we were a more involved animal, and the reception I received!!!! Total horror that I should think it let alone say it. My favorite monkey was the one that harvested the seed, let it dry, then pounded it open over several days. Oh yes, and 8 different “languages” between 8 species and they all understood each other. I have always thought that “man” underestimated animals but this was far more than I would have believed. It was a wonderful program. Thank you.
This is an extremely well-done film. Five stars all the way around! Thank you for such a fine, informative, fascinating and needed film. I would like to share it with everyone I know.
Monkeys are NOT related to humans,people! God created man in his own image and Adam named ALL the animals. Not one, not five, but ALL animals. And he didn’t name the monkey because we were ‘related’ to it, because, we’re not! People need to learn that God knew what he was doing. Yes, monkeys can flirt, be angry, and they can agree. But, all animals can do that too! Ya listening, everyone? People did NOT evolve from an animal! I’m sorry, but, it’s the truth. And everyone needs to know it is.
okay, I’m so sorry that there were so many exclamation points in my last message. i got a little overwhelmed that people believed monkeys are related to humans. Thank you, Pbs for teaching people about these creatures and how they live. And thank the Lord for creating everyone. No matter what they are.
Thank you PBS for always staying true to science. What a beautiful show highlighting how all primates are so alike! I had no idea some monkeys have grammatical rules!! How anyone could deny our relationship with these creatures is beyond me.
This episode was the best “Nature” I’ve seen in a while!
It was fascinating and well worth the time spent watching it. Loved it!
WOW!
I seen a lot of nature shows in my day. This one topped them ALL! Educational, strange, funny, exciting! It’s important to know about our long lost cousins.
Cheers! Excellent program. Looking forward to more!
I was astonished and amazed by some of the things that I saw in this program, including:
1. The intelligence of monkeys
2. Their capacity for learning–including learning a procedure to open nuts involving a series of steps over a period of days
3. Their use of language
4. Their use of tools
5. The use of a medicinal herb by at least one species, which uses it topically
6. Similarities between their behavior and ours
7. The courage, ferocity, and lethality of baboons (if I am not mistaken, it was a leopard that one of them was shown chasing away)
I cannot say I have a favorite monkey–at least in part because I don’t remember the names of most of the ones that were shown.
I also found the camera work amazing–something that I think may be typical of *NATURE*. I think the script may be superior to all of the ones that I heard in the previous season (I didn’t hear them all).
That was spectacular television even by PBS standards. Thank you.
Wonderful! I was particularly glad to get more information along with gorgeous images. I would really like to see an entire show just on what we have learned about their use of language. The brief segment about 8 species with different calls being able to communicate, and the mention that they have a clear sense of syntax left me wanting much more! Thank you! And now, more please!!
This was an amazing program and was a much needed showcase for the monkeys of the world. I hope this program is televised in the countries in which the monkeys were filmed and that this will inspire and advocate new and ongoing conservation efforts.
Thank you PBS!! Simply brilliant!
Wow, such an impressive piece. I learned so much about other species living on our “shared” planet. Your program’s insights pull me out of my own world into a new one, and ultimately helped me form a new connection to some wonderous beings. Thank you all!
Well even for an old anthropologist this program was an eye opener…. the parallels in these monkeys behaviors goes far beyond any previous evidence I have seen, and just shows how similar their minds and abilities are to the rest of us primates…. evolved or created take your pick, either way the roots are there….. our ancestors certainly not, but our kin no doubt, and certainly deserved of their place in this environment.
Excellent programming with immeasurable significance….. world class!!!
My boyfriend and I watched this program and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were both completely shocked when the monkey pushed the rocks off of the side of the cliff. I’m an anthropology student, and I’m madly in love with primates. My boyfreind knows that the only guy who can woo me away from him is our handsome silverback at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Your program was, as all your programs are, top notch in every way. Thank you so much!
Incredible, fascinating, insightful! A true masterpiece.
My fiance is a 9th grade science teacher and just bought the video to show to his classes!
Amazing and beautiful! my heart goes out to the millions of clever monkeys stuck in a cold metal cage with only neon lights to confort their horrible fates. Please buy products NOT TESTED on animals. For a complete list go to http://www.caringconsumer.com/
Thank you on behalf of the animals you will spare by not buying products cruelly tested on them. Diana S
IT WAS BEYOND WORDS. HELLO DARWIN FORGET ADAM AND EVE. WILL IT APPEAR AGAIN ON WNED?? IF NOT HOW DO I GET A COPY. TRUST ME THIS SHOW WAS A KEEPER. I COULD WATCH IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. ITS NOT THE HUMANS THAT ARE SUPERIOR ITS THESE GUYS WE CAN LEARN SO SO MUCH. FINAL COMMENTS AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU CLEVER MONKEYS FOR COMING INTO MY LIFE. YOU HAVE CHANGED ME DRAMATICALLY.
Loved the show. Recorded it and watched it 3 times once on my own once with my wife and once with my grown daughter. Wonderful analogies to us humans.
Much of philosophy has to be reconsidered in light of these monkey facts on the ground.
Probably the most interesting Nature show EVER.
Another layer of human supremacism bites the dust.
What was the species that died from its own kind more than anything else? If anyone recalls please post it here.
Appears that many problems we are facing as a human species arise because we are still following the monkey king and not listening to “ourselves.” The intuitive mind has been enslaved by the logical mind (even Einstein saw this)and the material world and man made constructs distract us from our “knowing” thus we are still monkeying around and with 2012 so close its wakey shakey time! paradigm shift or devolution days.
I caught this show on accident and watched it all the way through to the end! Completely captivating and totally interesting! I loved it! :)
They look like the family of a guy I used to date