The Great Apes

 Bonobos-Chimpanzees-Orangutans-Gorillas

Bonobos,Chimpanzees, Orangutans and Gorillas are our not so distant cousins in the animal world. They are intelligent and exhibit feelings and emotions like we do. All of these great apes are being threatened by deforestation and poaching. We must take action to save this part of our "family" now. We are similar in many ways, but for two, they can not "speak" and they do not destroy the environment like we do.

Self-Recognition in Apes National Geographic 

 Bonobos

Picture From The San Diego Zoo

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-bonobo.html

Order: Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Pongidae
Genus: Pan
Species: paniscus
Length: 2.3 to 3 feet (70 to 90 centimeters) from head to rump
Weight: 55 to 110 pounds (25 to 50 kilograms) in the wild; 66 to 135 pounds (30 to 61 kilograms) in zoos
Life span: unknown in the wild; over 50 years in zoos
Gestation: about 8 months
Number of young at birth: usually 1, rarely 2
Size at birth: 2.8 pounds (1.3 kilograms)
Age of maturity: 8 to 9 years

The Bonobo (Pan paniscus), sometimes called the Pygmy Chimpanzee, is one of the two species comprising the genus Pan; both members of that genus are technically "chimpanzees", though the term is frequently used to refer only to the other member of the genus, Pan troglodytes, the Common Chimpanzee.

Bonobos diverged from Common Chimpanzees after the last Common Chimpanzee ancestor diverged from its last common ancestor with humans. Since no species other than ourselves have survived from the human line of that branching, Bonobos and Common Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing approximately 98.4% of their DNA with us. They communicate through primarily vocal means, in a language that has not yet been deciphered; however, we do understand some of their natural hand gestures, such as their invitation to play. Bonobos are found only in the Congo River basin  of central Africa.

http://www.worldatlas.com

Bonobos Versus Chimpanzees

Size— Chimps and bonobos are about the same size, but bonobos are more slender and have smaller heads and smaller ears.
Food— Chimpanzees eat plant material as well as monkeys and other mammals when they have the chance. Bonobos eat leaves, stems, fruits, worms,insects, and sometimes small fish.
Location— Bonobos are found only in a small part of one country in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). The four subspecies of “common” chimps range from western to central Africa.
Getting Along— When trouble comes between common chimps, they often fight it out. They are also very protective of their territory and will kill chimps from another group, called a troop, if they try to move in. Bonobos don’t seem to have established territories, and they tend to handle any squabbles or tension by using different sexual behaviors instead of aggression.
Looks— Bonobos can walk upright more easily than common chimps can. They also keep their white rump patch for life, while the patch darkens with age in chimps. And bonobos have hair on their head that parts right down the middle

Chimpanzees just don't understand how humans can be so careless

Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are found in 21 African countries- from the west coast of the continent to as far east as western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania. 

Chimps live in the greatest concentrations in the rain forest areas on the equatorial forest "belt."  

Chimpanzees live in social groups called communities. Chimps communicate with a wide range of calls, postures and gestures.

There are four subspecies of chimpanzees:

Deforestation and commercial hunting for bushmeat are taking a terrible toll on most chimpanzee populations.

Orangutans

Orangutan is pronounced orang-u-tan, as in suntan, not -tang. Orangutans are beautiful red-haired mammals who live in the rain forests of Borneo and Sumatra in the countries of Indonesia and Malaysia.In Malay orang means "person" and utan is derived from hutan which means "forest". Thus orangutan literally means, "Person of the forest". 

 One species with two subspecies, one from SUMATRA (Pongo pygmaeus abelii) and the other from BORNEO (P. pygmaeus pygmaeus). The Borean male has large cheek pads, a tremendous laryngeal sac and a square shaped face. The Sumatran male has small pads and sac, a ginger colored mustache and a diamond shaped face. Individuals can also be distinguished genetically (DNA sequencing) or chromosomally (karyotyping).

The world’s population of wild orangutans is to be found exclusively concentrated in the lush tropical rainforests of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

 The orangutan habitat has decreased by more than 80% in the last twenty years. The areas most appealing to humans are often also those that are prime orangutan habitat - lowland forests. Commercial ventures from timber and oil to rubber and rice plantations destroy such vast tracts of land that orangutans are deprived of even the minimum use of resources they need to survive.

Orangutans are classified as critically endangered; in the wild they are estimated to number between 20-30,000. Unless drastic measures are taken, orangutans will be extinct in the wild within 20 years.

Gorillas

Gorillas, previously considered a single species, were recently divided into two species and five subspecies. The eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) includes the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) of the Virunga Volcanoes area of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the yet unnamed, but distinct, population of Uganda's Bwindi (Impenetrable) Forest, and the eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri). Western Africa is home to at least two additional taxa, the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli). The mountain, Bwindi and Cross River gorilla populations all number only in the hundreds and are considered critically endangered.

Ruhondeza. In Rukiga it means "one who sleeps a lot"

Photograph by Debbie Bloom

POPULATION/DISTRIBUTION

Gorillas are primarily vegetarians, and large quantities of food are needed to sustain their massive bulk. The gorilla has 48 chromosomes, like the chimpanzee, bonobo, and orangutan, with a very similar banding pattern to the 46 chromosomes of humans

Koko signing "Help"

Koko , a gorilla, has a working vocabulary of over 500 signs and has emitted over 400 more. Koko understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English. Koko initiates the majority of conversations with her human companions and typically constructs statements averaging three to six words. Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale, where 100 is considered "normal."

The world's 25 "most endangered primates"

from The World Conservation Union-IUCN

Brazil: the golden lion tamarin, the black lion tamarin, the black-faced lion tamarin, the buff-headed capuchin and the northern muriqui
Peru: yellow-tailed woolly monkey
Madagascar: the golden bamboo lemur, the Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur, Perrier's sifaka, the silky sifaka and the golden-crowned sifaka
Ivory Coast and Ghana: Miss Waldron's red colobus, white-naped mangabey
Nigeria: Sclater's guenon
Tanzania: Sanje mangabey
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria: the drill
Nigeria and Cameroon: Cross River gorilla
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda: the mountain gorilla
Vietnam: Delacour's langur, Cat Ba Island golden-headed langur, gray-shanked douc langur, the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey
Indonesia: Javan gibbon, Sumatran orangutan
China: Hainan gibbon

• The Great Apes

  • Bonobos

  • Chimpanzees

  • Gorillas

  • Orangutans

To learn more about Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Orangutans and Gorillas visit and join the following organizations by clicking on their logo.