Don't Feed Humans

By Hayley Birch

- 10/01/07 - Visitors to Adelaide Zoo are in for a real shock. In a bizarre media stunt, the old orangutan enclosure has been transformed into a different kind of primate pen, “The Human Zoo”, which will house a new group of humans each week until the end of January.

Exhibits will compete for the title of “Superhuman”, as onlookers select their favourite ape by text message.

With Celebrity Big Brother in full swing in the UK, some may see this as a fitting caricature of our species’ voyeuristic nature; and just like the reality TV show, psychologists will be invited to comment on the humans’ behaviour. Cue more observations of the completely useless variety:

“Dan has not spoken to any of the other pen mates for three days now. This may mean that he is upset with them." Thankfully there will be no diary room or unintelligible Geordie commentary to contend with.

Unlike their Big Brother counterparts, participants have been banned from stripping off and splashing around in the spa. This 'no monkeying around' rule is bad news for at least one of this week’s contestants, Lucas Griffin, who stated his chief reason for applying as: “My girlfriend Joanne is in Europe until February, so this should keep me occupied.”

The project has been designed to draw attention to the similarities between humans and their evolutionary cousins and raise funds for a new monkey enclosure. Check out this link to find out more.

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And how about trying one of these wild stories?