The current article presents a detailed study of the neurobehavioural integrity of newborn chimpanzees, which was part of a larger project that documented imitative (e.g., Bard, 2007 Custance, Whiten, & Bard, 1995), cognitive (e.g., Bard & Gardner, 1996 Bard, Fragazsy, & Visalberghi, 1995 Bard, Todd, Bernier, Love & Leavens, 2006), and socio-emotional development (e.g., Bard, 2009, 2005, 2003, 1998a, b Russell, Bard, & Adamson, 1996 van IJzendoorn, Bard, Bakermans-Kranenberg, & Ivan, 2009) in a comparative perspective. What are the inborn capacities of chimpanzees? How do chimpanzees compare to humans? These questions typify the long-standing scientific interest in ‘what makes us human’ (e.g., Burghardt, 2009 de Waal, 1982 Fouts & Mills, 1997 Goodall, 1986 Hayes, 1951 Kellogg & Kellogg, 1933 Wrangham, 2009 Wrangham, McGrew, de Waal, & Heltne, 1994 Zlatev, Racine, Sinha, & Itkonen, 2008). The results of this study support the conclusion that the interplay between genes and environment, rather than genes alone or environment alone, accounts for phenotypic expressions of newborn neurobehavioral integrity in hominids. The human group was indistinguishable from at least one of the chimpanzee groups in the remaining 24 of 25 NBAS scores. Surprisingly, the cross-species comparisons revealed that the human group was distinct in only 1 of 25 NBAS scores (the human group had significantly less muscle tone than all the chimpanzee groups).

Among the 4 chimpanzee groups, significant differences were found in 23 of 24 NBAS scores. The cross-group and cross-species comparisons were conducted at 2 and 30 days of age. Thirty-eight chimpanzees were tested every other day from birth, and analyses revealed significant developmental changes in 19 of 27 NBAS scores. Neurobehavioral integrity related to orientation, motor performance, arousal, and state regulation of 55 chimpanzee (raised in four different settings) and 42 human newborns was measured with the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) a semi-structured 25-minute interactive assessment. Shearer says the zoo team isn’t focusing on the name at all yet, as they have more important things to attend to, like, say, the health and well-being of a newly-expanded gorilla family.The aims of this article are to describe the neurobehavioral integrity of chimpanzee newborns, to investigate how early experiences affect the neurobehavioral organization of chimpanzees, and to explore species differences by comparing chimpanzee newborns to a group of typically developing human newborns. It looks like your monstrous dreams of Gorilla McGorillaFace are out the window as well. “What we are having is a voting opportunity for the community once we have better determined the gender of the baby and have worked internally with the team that has cared for the pregnancy and birth.” “We never announced we were having a naming contest,” the zoo’s Chief Marketing Officer Amy Shearer told CNN. They’re not taking open name suggestions and they don’t know why anyone thought that in the first place. The Philadelphia Zoo will be having none of that, please and thank you. I am 100% sure Harambe will win, and 100% sure that the baby won't be named that- Fidel Casstro August 31, 2016

Theres gonna be a gorilla naming contest at the Philly Zoo. Harambe has been reborn! Praise the heavens!- Javi Moreno 🇧🇷🇲🇽 August 31, 2016 Of course, when the Philadelphia Zoo announced the birth of the same type of gorilla, Harambe enthusiasts took the news to be positively messianic. Since then, the silverback gorilla has lived on in dark-humored memes so potent that the zoo had to close down its social media accounts to stop the onslaught of Harambe-related abuse. It’s been months since Harambe shuffled off this mortal coil after an unfortunate and widely discussed incident at the Cincinnati Zoo. The Philadelphia Zoo knows what you’re thinking, and no, they are not letting you name their precious little baby Harambe. Aww, will you look at that? Philadelphia Zoo

Chimpanzee baby name