Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
For numerous documented stories on primate behavior and how much it
mirrors our own (and we it), see Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, published in 1992.
One interesting story: During the attack of the Spanish Armada on England
in 1588, one of the Spanish ships that were wrecked had a "unusual" individual
wash ashore on the English coast. The native folk captured this Spanish
"crewman", whom they discovered would not or could not talk. They eventually
had him executed. The crewman turned out to be an orangutan, which the
English had never seen before but took to be a rather small and mute human.
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