Help Donkey Kong save a real monkey

by Dan Choi { Nov 11th 2005 at 2:36PM }

Nintendo is offering to donate $1 to the Animal Protection Institute for each person who visits their DK-game-related web sites.

It's not as easy as donating to The Hunger Site (or any of its affiliated one-click links), but giving to an animal-protection organization seems a mite more appropriate for Nintendo's monkey mascot.

This may all be yet another marketing ploy to get people interested in Nintendo products (and craving free DK downloads), but at least they'll still donate that dollar even if you get a few of their product questions wrong.

[Thanks, Shenzou]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kunochan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Donkey Kong is not a monkey. He is an ape.

If you think the difference isn't important, remember that humans are apes. Not monkeys.

Dan Choi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Just in case anybody asks (and I did anticipate this to some extent), while a monkey may not technically fit the strictest definition of Donkey Kong's biological or taxonomic classification, the American Heritage Dictionary does allow for the loose use of monkey as a synonym for ape as follows:

"ape n.
1. - a. Any of various large, tailless Old World primates of the family Pongidae, including the chimpanzee, gorilla, gibbon, and orangutan.
- b. A monkey. [<--Emphasis here!]
2. A mimic or imitator.
3. Informal. A clumsy or boorish person."

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ape

Hope that helps!

Kunochan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Okay. Then the American Heritage Dictionary is wrong.

Scythe @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

ummm I think that makes you wrong........

This was a nice effort on Nintendo's part but the game they want you to play is kinda lame.

spike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:37PM

Kunochan is correct and the American Heritage dictionary is incorrect. This from the Oxford English Dictionary, the most definitive source on this issue:

Monkey: 'a small to medium-sized primate typically having a long tail and living in trees in tropical countries.'

Ape:'a large tailless primate of a group including gorillas, chimpanzees, and gibbons'

As you can see monkeys have tails and apes do not.