Tag: Gorilla

Posted on

Orangutans climb incredibly high – no space for acrophobia

Borneon orangutan mother with her offspring – photo credit stockcake (Photo by <a href=”https://stockcake.com/i/orangutan-treetop-rest_758559_866654″>Stockcake</a>)

Life is hard in the Indonesian rainforest – compared to Africa and South America, there is very little to be found to eat (except in specific areas. As a result, orangutans become solitary, with the only time they are seen together is a mother with young, or a courting couple. Another problem, is demonstrated here – there is so little food to be had, that every food opportunity has to be realized. This has meant that orangutans have become the best climbers (followed by Chimpanzee and then Gorilla), as where ever the food is, it needs to be accessed.

It is true, that with tools, humans can become even better climbers (as can be seen from the image), which is taken from further up the tree than the orangutans have even climbed.

Continue reading “Orangutans climb incredibly high – no space for acrophobia”
Posted on

On the founding of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, locals were pushed out -they now have the right to return, what will happen

Kahuzi-Biega National Park was established in 1937 by the Belgium colonial rulers and then expanded in 1975. It now covers 6000 square km or 2300 square miles. Roughly 13000 Batwa were cleared out of the area to make way for the park (along with other people who had settled more recently).

Continue reading “On the founding of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, locals were pushed out -they now have the right to return, what will happen”
Posted on

Panda bear behaving like a meat eater/scavenger?

This bear was filmed, gnawing on a bone from a takin, a species of wild cattle.

For a species which is thought to survive exclusively on bamboo, this would be strange behaviour.

However, pandas do not survive exclusively on bamboo as roughly 1% of their diet comes from other foods. In fact, their digestive system is typical of a carnivore, so the remaining 1% of their diet can include eggs, small animals and carrion – like this bone. Pandas are also known to forage in farmland for pumpkin, kidney beans, wheat and domestic pig food.

The thing is, pandas eat up to 38kg a day, which means that during the week, they eat around 3kg of food that is not bamboo. This is significant, and while much of this may well be other vegetation, if the time spent on other food sources was around 1% of the time, it would suggest at least 1 hour a week spent eating other things.

One must remember that their intelligence is on a par with Chimpanzee and gorilla -like other bears, so they are capable of working things out.

Primate family tree main and great and lesser apes

Primate family tree

Great apes
Lesser apes
Old world monkeys
Lemurs
New world monkeys
Lorisidae & allies
Tarsiaforms

The primates are in some ways one of the most successful families. It is true that many are now endangered, however, unfortunately, that is as a result of the run-away success of the most successful member of the primate family us! Having left the rainforests behind, we have been reducing their coverage dramatically over the last few centuries. 

The sad thing, is that while we have pushed many of our closest cousins towards extinction, the loss of forests may well cost us dearly in the future as well. As a species, we need to pull together to meet this challenge. in order to jump to the various families, click on the family of interest above – though all can also be reached by scrolling down.

Great Apes

Chimpanzee
Boonobo
Sumatran Orangutan
Borneon Orangutan
Tapunali Orangutan
Humans on the beach
Eastern Lowland gorilla
Mountain Gorilla
Western lowland gorilla
Cross river gorilla

Great ape Family split is thought to have split from its nearest relative – the gibbon family, around 17 million years ago.

4 million years later the Orangutan family split from the gorilla line and the human/chimp line.

3 million years after this (so around 10 million years ago) the gorilla family split from the Homo (humans) and Pan

Finally the human line (homo) split from the Pan line 5-6 million years ago.

It should be noted, that chimpanzees and Bonobos split from a common ancestor just 1.8 million years ago. This occurred as the two populations ceased to be able to have contact with each other – the Congo rive formed between 1.5 and 2 million years ago.

For more information on each species, click on their photo and this will take you to their page

It should be noted that while I have grouped eastern western and skywalker gibbon together, there is some contention that the skywalker gibbon should be in its own genus, having diverged around half a million years aog

Gibbons

siamang gibbon genus Symphalangus
hookock gibbon (Eastern, Western and Skywalker) Genus Hoolock
genus Normascus (crested gibbon)
Genus Hylobates (dward gibbons) Agile gibbon

Genus Nomascus

This family is the Genus: Nomascus or crested gibbon.

The last Genus of gibbons is Hylobates: dwarf gibbons.

Mountain Gorilla

Mountain Gorilla

The mountain gorilla is a sub-species of the Eastern Lowland gorilla. It is isolated on two sets of mountains, they are only a few hundred miles apart, but given the space between their populations is one of the most dense human habitation in Africa, reconnecting these habitats will not be possible in the near future.

Mountain gorillas are very similar to eastern lowland gorillas, though as they have 8 inch hair all over their body, they look far larger.

Currently, there are 1063 mountain gorillas in the wild, split between their two reserves. This does not sound high, but has doubled since the 1980s when each reserve only had around 250 individuals. They are nowhere close to fully recovering, but it is questionable whether their two homes can support more gorillas than currently live there.

Eastern Gorilla

The Eastern gorilla (lowland)

The Eastern Gorilla, or Eastern lowland gorilla (as the Eastern gorilla subspecies is the mountain gorilla) is a species which makes its home only in lowland tropical rainforests in the eastern DRC. In the last 50 years, its range has almost halved, from 8,100 square miles—about the size of the state of Massachusetts— to about 4,600 square miles today. This subspecies may now occupy only 13% of its historical range.

There are only about 5000 Eastern lowland gorillas left in the wild. While much of their numbers decrease over the last 50 years, has been as a result of a loss of habitat, their most immediate threat is currently, is that of the bushmeat trade. The area around their range is home to people with very little money. Tourism to this area, would likely greatly improve this issue and reduce the demand for Gorilla bush meat. Apart from the threat for the continued survival of this giant (alongside the mountain gorilla, this species is the largest great ape still living.

Any news articles will appear below, and links to allow travel to this region will be added below.

Cross-river gorilla

Cross-river Gorilla

Cross river gorilla

As can be expected, its range is very small, though it is hard to know if it ever had a far larger range. Its range is the small dot of light brown found on the map above the pink area.

As we make connections, these will be added below – to help you arrange your travel to see this rare animal

Western Gorillas

Western lowland gorilla

The western gorilla is thought to number around 316,000 in the wild. However, this species is actually made up of two subspecies.

Most are simply known as the western lowland gorilla.

The other subspecies is the cross river gorilla, this only has around 200-300 members remaining in the wild. Click here to view the cross river gorilla page. You can see that their population only inhabits a small area.

Any links we get that will allow you to watch lowland gorillas will appear below the news section.

Tapunali Orangutan

Tapanuli Orangutan

Tapanuli orangutan

Orangutans are often animals high on the list that people wish to see one day. Orangutans are the only great ape that lives outside Africa. While fossils show that at one time, it was found on the mainland of Asia, the Orangutan is now restricted to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. There are 3 species of Orangutan and their conservation status varies dramatically. The Orangutan was first scientifically described in 1779 by Dutch anatomist Petrus Camper. 

The Tapanuli orangutan, was discovered in 2017, It lives in the Tapanuli forest in Sumatra, but is thought to be more closely related to the Borneo Orangutan. It is thought that just 800 remain, in an area covering around 1000 square miles. This is around 9.75% less than the area they would have historically roamed. It is scary when we are only discovering species of this importance when they are this close to extinction. One would think that they Indonesian government would be working as hard as possible to save what habitat remains, but there is a dam being built, which will split this population into 3, and it is quite plausible that they will not survive.

You will find all the articles we have written on the Tapanuli Orangutans below (there will be a video between)

As always, we hope to add many destinations for Orangutans in the near future, do get in touch if you wish to list somewhere in their range. These links will be added below the news sections as we make links.

Posted on

Chimpanzees and gorillas search each other out – “friends with benefits”

Recent studies have shown that it his highly beneficial to both species when these cross species friendships are made. Indeed, it is not merely a question of chance encounters, instead each species will actively search out the other.

Benefits include protection from predators, increased social skills and finding fruiting trees.

While chimpanzees and gorillas can occasionally be seen feeding together, and captive animals can often have close relationships, recent research suggests that at least in some forests this is a common behaviour, and both species recognize its benefits

Continue reading “Chimpanzees and gorillas search each other out – “friends with benefits””

See Animals Wild

Read more news

Join as a wild member
to list your wild place & log in

Join as an ambassador supporter to
support this site, help save wildlife
and make friends & log in

Join as an Associate member
to assist as a writer, creator, lister etc & to log in

List a wild destination

List a destination in
the shadow of man

List a hide for animals more easily seen this way

Highlight some news
missed, or submit a
one-off article

Browse destinations for fun or future travel

Temporary membership
start here if in a hurry

Casual readers and watchers