Your post discouraged me fom joking that the new find might justify a gorilla hunting safari.

Seriously, I agree that they should be protected as a species that is similar enough to humans to justify looking at them in a different way. No doubt they have as much intelligence as some mentally retarded humans minus the ability to communicate at any appreciable level.

My own definition of sentience is awarenes of mortality. I know that primates react to death and exhibit mourning behavior (as do dogs) but I have never seen anything that convinces me they can connect the dots and understand that their own death is inevitable. I imagine this might be more about the inability to communicate between generations than intelligence.

The downside of granting special treatment is the slippery slope that could conceivably wind up as a new entitlement morass. Make no mistake, some would insist that they be included in social security and on the fringe some would insist that they deserve to vote. As ridiculous as it sounds, it would happen.

Ironically, a movement like that would, of itself, prove we are not that far ahead of the apes.

Another discussion: Future genetic inhancement of certain primate species to allow them to develop speech. Then we would really be in a quandry. Epsilons anyone?