Whether it's for a school trip or a leisure activity, most of us have been to the zoo and have almost certainly seen monkeys. It seems that we humans are drawn to the primate section of the zoo, but why? Is it because they don't exist everywhere in the world, or is it just that we like to see some swinging through trees while others beat their chests? While both of these can play a role, it is important to understand that species tend to gravitate toward other similar species. When it comes to humans, we interact with each other far more than any other species, and we do so for many reasons, which begs the question of how and why? To answer these questions about human behavior, our closest relatives, non-human primates, are often scrutinized. Since humans are primates, studying other primates is perhaps the most effective way to gain insight into our own subspecies on biological, social, and behavioral levels. When it comes to learning and understanding the human species, one cannot simply study any species. animal and assume that its behaviors coincide, therefore our closest relative must take priority over any other species. To determine which parent it is, biology plays an important role. Primates, especially chimpanzees, have shown the most similar characteristics to modern humans in terms of biology, anatomy, and physiology. In terms of biology, it has been tested and shown that chimpanzees and humans share approximately 95-99% of DNA sequences, the most important link to humans (Ebersberger et al). Other non-human primates also share significant amounts of DNA and are closely related to humans, as can be seen on a phylogenetic tree, but chimpanzees are the closest biologically... middle of paper .... .. as we do, we can get a pretty good understanding by observing our closest relatives. Non-human primates such as chimpanzees have many similarities with us humans; biologically, socially and physically, which is why we study them. Looking at our earliest ancestors, we can see similar behavior from today's perspective; Homo erectus making stone tools used for hunting for food to survive, domestication of fire and many others. Even though these actions are not really necessary these days, they still help us understand why we continue to expose them. Millions of years have passed, and millions more may still lie ahead, but it is important to note that we have not changed and we will not change. On the contrary, we have evolved and will continue to do so. As WS Gilbert astutely puts it: “Darwinian man, although well educated, is at best a shaved ape..”