ABOUTAPES WHO ARE THE APES? Apes are a group of primates that includes bonobos, Why are they special to us? chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas, orangutans, and All species are important, regardless of their sentience, their relatedness to humans. All are long-lived social primates without tails. humans, or their emotional appeal. Yet Due to their behavioural and physiological similarity to some species are more able than others to draw attention and focus to the humans, non-human apes often have been used as a conservation effort. These so-called proxy for humans in medical, psychological, language, ‘charismatic mega-fauna’—including the great apes, elephants, pandas, canids and other research studies. For simplicity and clarity we (wolves, foxes, and wild dogs), big cats, distinguish between humans and apes, although it is cetaceans (whales and dolphins), and other intelligent, emotionally appealing important to remember that humans are also apes. We animals—have frequently been used to also refer to apes other than gibbons as ‘great apes’. foster conservation efforts, funding, and public attention. Conservation programmes Apes are found in much of the tropical belts of Africa for these species benefit entire ecosystems and local communities. and Asia, including southern China, eastern India, and Apes are an excellent focal point for Southeast Asia. Today, all non-human apes are at risk of species-based conservation and for extinction, largely due to threats from humans, including conservation of critical tropical forest ecosystems. Humans have a unique rela- habitat loss, hunting, and disease. Conservation efforts tionship with apes that is different from to protect apes and their habitat date back to the 1920s. that with any other species. Due to our similarity to them, their intelligence, and Even so, agricultural expansion, logging, mining, and our ability to empathise with them, apes infrastructure development (such as urban centres, roads, have always stimulated our curiosity and drawn our attention. Indeed, studies of bridges, and dams) continue to put pressure on tropical chimpanzees in Africa have been able to forests and the many vulnerable species that make their contribute significantly to our understand- homes there. ing of human evolution and behaviour. Threats apes increasingly encounter humans, and Ape habitat overlaps extensively with Apes are threatened, like most species, both poaching and the spread of disease that of many other species and of inter- first and foremost by the loss and increases. Furthermore, fragmentation nationally recognised priority areas, fragmentation of their habitats—forests of habitat results in isolation of small such as Key Biodiversity Areas, Import- that are also home to a diversity of other groups of apes, reducing the gene pool ant Biodiversity Areas, and Alliance species. These forests protect our climate, and making them yet more susceptible to for Zero Extinction areas. Great apes ensure adequate rainfall, conserve disease outbreaks and other threats to are sometimes described as keystone soil, and form the lungs of the world. their numbers. species, meaning they play a key role in maintaining the health and diver- According to the Food and Agriculture Apes mature late and have few offspring sity of the ecosystems in which they Organisation of the United Nations, by relative to other species. These factors live. They play important roles as seed far the greatest driver of deforestation make them a priority for conservation, dispersers, and many ape species have is agriculture, followed by urban growth, because even a slight decrease in popu- a role in structuring forests as they infrastructure expansion, and mining. The lation size can have catastrophic impacts trample, break, and bend vegetation rate of loss exceeds 15.4 million hectares on the species. of forest each year. while travelling, foraging, and building Why conserve apes? nests. Their activity also produces This loss is highest within the range of light gaps that facilitate germination the great apes—in Southeast Asia and There are numerous compelling reasons of sun-seeking plants, contributing to sub-Saharan Africa. Large-scale indus- to ensure the survival of apes. Some of forest regeneration. Apes are also often trial agriculture, such as palm oil, cocoa, these include: thought of as flagship species, because and rubber plantations, requires the n They are our closest relatives: they can be used to bring attention and clearing of enormous tracts of land and Humans have a unique relationship action to areas of high biodiversity and is thus highly destructive, as are logging with great apes that is different from need. For example, orangutans have practices. Slash-and-burn agriculture that with any other species. We share been used to publicise the damaging by itinerant farmers exacerbates forest 98.4 percent of our DNA with chim- impacts of industrial-scale oil palm fragmentation and is particularly dam- panzees, 97.5 percent with gorillas, plantations, causing the world to aging because poor forest soils quickly and 96.5 percent with orangutans. reconsider its consumption and its become exhausted, leading to more forest With that genetic similarity come regulations governing the production clearance for new land. In areas with many parallels between our social of palm oil. more productive land, human population structures (which most closely n Helping local economies: Ape con- density is typically higher. Along agri- resemble chimps’ and bonobos’). servation can contribute significantly cultural margins, there are also frequent Other similarities include creation and to employment, local income, and human-wildlife interactions and crop passing down of cultures, the ability projects benefiting vulnerable people, raiding, which can lead to conflict. to innovate (such as making and using as has been the case with mountain tools to obtain food), and the care of Another threat to apes is hunting for gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda. It has our loved ones. What often resonates food, the pet trade, and medicinal or with people observing wild apes is the other purposes. Capture of young apes for way in which they care for their young, the illegal pet trade involves the killing of keeping them close for many years. at least one, and more often three to five, (Chimpanzees do not reach puberty adults from the same group. Once cap- until around 13 years of age and are tured, many young apes die en route to weaned only at 3 or 4). Their playful market. All hunting, capture, and killing young often mimic games like peeka- of apes is illegal throughout their ranges; boo and chase, which we would expect however, enforcement is inadequate, and to see only in our own offspring. compliance is lacking. n Protecting apes protects many The spread of disease from species to other species: Great apes and species and sometimes from humans gibbons currently inhabit 33 countries, to apes has also led to dramatic losses. ranging from West to East Africa to Because of their relatedness to us, they India, China, and Southeast Asia. are highly susceptible to many of the Global tropical forests contain 90 same diseases that humans contract; percent of the world’s terrestrial yet, due to their relatively infrequent biodiversity, and the forests in which contact with these diseases, they have apes live are among the richest in not built up resistance to these diseases. biodiversity in the world. As habitats become more fragmented, been estimated that gorilla tourism bonobo are both listed as Endangered. bonobos are co-dominant with males and generates more than US$30 million per For the gibbon, the only small ape, the can form alliances against certain males year in local income. These benefits, picture is no better. Of the 20 recognised within the community. The mother-son in turn, provide motivation to commu- species of gibbon, 4 are listed as Critically bond is the strongest, which enhances the nities to protect their wider habitat, Endangered, 14 as Endangered, and one social status of the son. which protects numerous other species as Vulnerable. CHIMPANZEE (Pan troglodytes) and local resources, such as plants The following data on species are sourced from used for medicine or building materials. Rainer, H., White, A., Lanjouw, A., Eds. (2018). State Status: All four subspecies are Endan- Protecting apes and gibbons helps of the Apes: The Impact of Infrastructure on Ape Conservation. Cambridge University Press. gered (IUCN Red List) conserve the entire habitat, as well as Population: Four subspecies each face local communities. BONOBO (Pan paniscus) varying levels of threat and decline: Species under Status: Endangered (IUCN Red List) there are approximately 140,000 central chimpanzees (Pan t. troglodytes); 18,000 threat of extinction Population: Only 30 percent of its his- to 65,000 western chimpanzees (Pan toric range has been surveyed; however, Four of the six great ape species, the t. verus); 181,000 to 256,000 eastern estimates from the four geographically eastern gorilla, western gorilla, Bornean chimpanzees (Pan t. schweinfurthii); and distinct Bonobo strongholds suggest a orangutan, and Sumatran orangutan, are probably fewer than 6,000 to 9,000 minimum population of 15,000 to 20,000 listed as Critically Endangered on the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees. International Union for Conservation of individuals. Their numbers are decreasing. Geographic Distribution: Chimpanzees Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Geographic Distribution: