Vanishing Species

There are four great apes - the gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee, and the bonobo or pygmy chimpanzee - and all are endangered.  There are estimates that they could all be gone from the wild in only twenty years.

 Chimpanzee   Source:  Wikipedia

One organization working to prevent that from happening is GRASP - the Great Apes Survival Partnership.  I borrowed this photo from their Facebook page because it is such an engaging shot and epitomizes why we need to keep great apes on the planet.

Gorilla    Source:  GRASP

There's a reason why gorillas are called gentle giants.  They will defend their family with their life if necessary, but they can also show incredible tenderness and curiosity.  Do you remember when a female gorilla protected a little boy from the other gorillas when he fell into a zoo enclosure and even moved him to an area where keepers could get him out?  There is amazing intelligence behind those big brown eyes.  The gorilla Koko has learned American Sign Language.  (You can click on Koko's name to learn more.)

Orangutans are under threat from the demand for palm oil and the slash and burn practice to clear land and plant more palm trees.  You can read more about that here.  Next time you're in the grocery store, please check package ingredients and don't buy brands that use palm oil.

  Christopher   Source:  Center for Great Apes

(The Center for Great Apes cares for chimpanzees and orangutans most of whom were owned privately or spent their early years in the entertainment industry.  Another great organization, you can click on the link above to learn more.)

I worked with bonobos when I lived in Georgia.  You can meet Kanzi and Panbanisha by clicking on their names.  Their understanding of the world around them was truly amazing.

Bonobo fishing for termites   Source:  Wikipedia

Bonobos are found in just one small area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Conservation efforts there have been complicated by civil unrest and the First and Second Congo wars.  Mountain gorilla conservation has the same problem.

Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives; our DNA differs by only 2.7%.  Because they are so similar, infectious human diseases are an additional threat to this species.

Ofir Drori, Founder of LAGA (The Last Great Ape Organization) was recently honored with the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal for his conservation efforts.  You can read more about it here, along with information about Sean Stone's documentary about illegal wildlife crime.

Habitat loss and using great apes for bush meat are two of the biggest threats to these animals - in other words MAN.  We cannot allow great apes (or any species for that matter) to become extinct.  Humans are the problem and only humans can fix it.  You can click on the links above for both GRASP and the Last Great Ape Organization to learn more about these groups.  Please help if you can.

Dr. Craig Stanford has written a book The World without Primates that will be published next month - a must for anyone's reading list.  A world without primates, and especially the intelligent great apes, would be a very sad world indeed.

For more on bonobos, check out 'Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape' on my Book Recommendations page.