It’s a Madhouse: Winner Declared in Chimpanzee Art Contest

How much more like humans can chimpanzees be? They share what is believed to be more than 90 percent of our DNA, they seek to express themselves creatively and when they win prestigious art contests they can’t be bothered to get on the phone to express their gratitude.
Brent, a 37-year-old chimpanzee from a sanctuary in Louisiana, was named the winner of an online art contest organized by the Humane Society of the United States, The Associated Press reported.
The contest, for which paintings created by chimpanzees were submitted by their sanctuaries and custodians from around the country, was opened to online voting and drew more than 27,000 votes, the Humane Society said.
Brent, a one-time laboratory animal who now lives in the Chimp Haven sanctuary in Keithville, La., won first place and a $10,000 prize for a work in which he applied the paints with his tongue rather than a brush. The canvases that chimps paint on are generally held up to their cages while they work because, as Cathy Willis Spraetz, the president and chief executive of Chimp Haven, explained to The A.P.: “If we handed the canvas to them where it was on the inside, they might not want to hand it back. They might throw it around and step on it.”
But when Brent was sought for comment after his victory, a Chimp Haven spokeswoman told The A.P. he was unavailable. “I think he’s asleep,” she said.
Cheetah, a chimpanzee in Fort Pierce, Fla., won a $5,000 prize for placing second in the online voting, and a further $5,000 for having his work chosen as a favorite by Jane Goodall, the noted primatologist.