Lots of Ways to Help Endangered Great Apes
Great apes are of course our closest relatives.. But as with most species, they are now endangered due to loss of habitat, climate change, disease and poaching.
Thankfully we have gone beyond dressing up chimpanzees to ‘take tea’ for TV adverts. But they are stilled used within the American entertainment industry.
Primates are a much larger order of mammals which includes all other apes (like those pink-faced Japanese macaque monkeys in hot springs, that look eerily like us). Along with other monkeys and lemurs.
Nearly all primates live in forests (apart from us) and like us, are one of the few species that can see in colours, and have hands with five fingers and flat fingernails (rather than claws or hooves).
There are only a few great apes, of which we are one. The others are:
Huge Wild Gorillas (yet quite gentle!)
Wild gorillas live in central Africa (eastern and western gorillas don’t see each other, as there is a big rainforest between them).
They move in ‘troops’ of up to 30 gorillas, which is led by the dominant silverback male, a few females and the children. They are critically endangered, due to loss of habitat and poaching.
Gorilla Spirits uses a portion of profits from its Silverback gin and vodka, to help gorilla charities.
Mostly herbivores (they will sometimes eat insects and snails), the silverback is around 10 times stronger than a human man, but mostly is gentle. He will only attack if he feels at risk, or is trying to protect his family.
One of the most clever of all animals, gorillas can make bamboo ladders to help babies reach trees. And even make cutlery from twigs, to eat insects!
Cheeky Chimpanzees!
Chimpanzees share most of our DNA, the only main difference is that they are covered in hair all over their bodies. All monkeys have tails, while true great apes don’t. Get your animal classification in order!
Native to African rainforests, they can learn sign language, make and use tools, walk on two legs, form deep family bonds and can live into their 80s.
Fauna Brewing’s Cheeky Chimp low-alcohol pale ale, donates a portion from each tin to chimp rescue charities.
Bonobos look similar to chimps, and again share most of our DNA.
But they are smaller and more peaceful – that’s because the groups are female-led!
Avoid Palm Oil to Help Orangutans
Orangutans are known for their bright orange fur. Native to Borneo and Sumatra in Asia, their name means ‘old man of the forest’. They are able to make umbrellas from leaves, when it rains!
These are the heaviest tree-dwelling creatures on earth. Due to their arms being longer than their legs, they can easily swing between trees in the forest.
Orangutans build nests to sleep in, and young orangutans sleep in the nests with their mothers, staying with parents until they are around 7 years old. This is why the palm oil industry is causing such tragedy and havoc, all in the name of profit.
They love eating lots of fruits that we love: figs, mangoes and lychees are favourites. One fruit however that only die-hard raw foodists love is durian. This is their favourite, although it’s banned in some towns, as it’s so smelly!
Some have likened it to a combination of smelly socks, custard, sewage and rotting flesh! Some weird descriptions online are ‘consuming carrion in custard or eating raspberry blancmange in a public toilet!’ A more generous description is ‘garlic-tasting custard’.
Of course, wild animals eat what’s good for them to survive. And this fruit is packed with vitamins and minerals for energy, and full of hydration. Plus gives good immunity to survive in the forest. So although we share most things with orangutans, perhaps not taste buds!
Of course, orangutans are most at risk from the palm oil industry, where their forests are torn down to plant quick-growing trees to supply a saturated oil (flown thousands of miles) to put in our junk food and bars of soap. Many orangutans have been shot or burned, protecting their forests and babies.
Greenpeace says the term ‘sustainable palm oil’ is as useful as a chocolate teapot. It has no legal backing, and some RSPO-certified farms have been found to be just as bad at not protecting these critically endangered creatures (near extinction already).
The easiest way to avoid palm oil is simply to cook homemade meals, and search health shops for soaps without palm oil (sodium palmate). Also read our post on alternatives to palm oil.
Don’t Visit Great Apes in Zoos
- Great apes need to live in strong social networks, in environments akin to their own natural habitats. Zoos don’t conserve endangered species (the average child spends 20 seconds looking at each animal – this is entertainment, not education).
- As very intelligent beings, most great apes are bored out of their brains, and some gorillas are castrated, to make them ‘easier to handle’. There has even been talk of killing some, due to ‘zoo overcrowding’
- Instead, Born Free supports Limbe Wildlife Centre, which conserves gorillas and chimps in natural habitats in Cameroon, Africa, rescued from the wildlife trade.
- Dorset’s MonkeyWorld rescues apes from terrible cruelty, and have better ideas on how monkeys should live, if they can’t return to the wild. You likely enjoyed the TV series years ago, before the sad death of Jim Cronin (his widow Alison continues their important work today).
- Support Born Free which investigates to stop the bushmeat trade to help African animals, placing rescued apes in sanctuaries.
Choose Monkey-Friendly Coconut Milk
Some brands of coconut milk send terrified monkeys up tall trees to retrieve coconuts, and they don’t even get to enjoy it. So always choose brands of monkey-friendly coconut milk in stores (Biona is one good brand, sold in tins).
Don’t Have Photos Taken with Monkeys
Some welfare campaigners say that apes are so similar to us that they should be given human rights, which would stop such horrors occurring. You wouldn’t rip a human child from its mother, take out its teeth and have it chained for photos.
Welfare campaigners also urge tourists not to take ‘selfies’ with wild monkeys, as it just encourages the illegal pet trade, with many wrongly believing they are not wild animals.
Donate to Humane Medical Research
A main welfare issue is that great apes carry zoonotic diseases, so can transmit disease to us and vice versa. Alas for this reason, they are often used in horrible animal experiments.
But they are still very different, which is why cures for AIDs in vivisection have never been found (so switch donations to humane medical research donations instead).
29 countries worldwide (including Austria and New Zealand) have now banned medical research on primates, but not yet the UK.
In the US, there is a campaign to release Wenka, the oldest chimp in a lab who is now in her 50s. Born in the lab, a third of all labs in the USA are elderly and have never known trees or love.
A Book to Learn More on Primates
A Book of Monkeys (and other primates) is a charming book to teach about our closest relatives, from lemurs and tarsiers, to gorillas and chimpanzees.
Can you tell a slow loris from a slender loris? Did you know that when it rains, orangutans make umbrellas using leaves? What’s the difference between a monkey and an ape?
Learn about their social and grooming habits(and how male gorillas impress female gorillas). Also learn the difference between a chimp and bonobo, which monkey swims and what a macaque likes to eat for lunch!
