Gorilla wall flair educates zoo visitors

Scotland’s chief scientific adviser was up to some monkey business at Edinburgh Zoo yesterday.

Professor Anne Glover launched a new initiative when she took her place in a representation of the primate family tree, designed by artist Russell Dempster.

The Living Links to Human Evolution mural is located at the primate research centre run by scientists at the University of St Andrews and installed with the help of the Wellcome Trust to engage the public with science.

Professor Andrew Whiten, who is scientific director of Living Links explained, “The mural is a wonderful artistic portrayal that shows a few representative monkeys and apes, with a space where visitors can pose in the correct evolutionary place for a human, next to our closest relative, the chimpanzee.

“We hope this image will become well known in Scotland and beyond and take away the message that these are our closest living relatives.”