Even before the study was started, it was known that some species are not male dominated. Above is a family of Bonobos, and these great apes live in a female dominated society.
Given our assumption that on male dominance, it is perhaps surprising, that only 58% of primate species have dominant males. Perhaps not surprising, as a result, every major primate group had at least one species which was female (or co-dominant) structures.
Indeed, with the gibbons (or lesser apes on this website, to check them out, click here to visit the home page, and then expand the species database, and click on lesser apes) all 5 species examined (there are a total of 20) have been classed as non-male dominant.
Amongst primates, this likelihood is (according to Lewis, the head of the study) relatively easily predicted, as tends to occur in the species, where there is little difference between the size of male and female members.
An example here, is clear: while a male gorilla can weigh twice that of a female, siamang gibbons only have males a couple of kg heavier than females – not surprisingly, while male gorillas are dominant, this is not the case with siamang gibbons.
It should be noted, therefore, that while 4 out the 5 species of great apes are male dominated (we assume this in humans as well, though, in the modern day, it would be hard to argue that we are not more of a co dominant species. Given that likely all the lesser apes (the gibbons) are more or less co-dominant, it follows, that even just looking at the apes, more are female dominant or co-dominant.
Cattle in a newly deforested area on the edge of more Amazon rainforest – threatened in the future? photo credit Alice Mitchel
The problem with stopping deforestation, is that for the majority of the world we are far removed from rainforests (from where I sit in the UK, I would have to travel 3250km (over 2000 miles) to the nearest rainforest, which is an area on mainland India). Indeed, rainforest is generally something that only survives in developing countries.
This means that, for most people, they either live far removed from the rainforest, and so cant see it impacting them, or they live near a rainforest, but are struggling to provide for their family and those around them. It is quite true that many people in both the first and third world would like the rainforest to survive – indeed, should you talk to people in the west, many are very worried about the survival of the great apes, who are rapidly loosing land.
The problem is simple. Those living in the third world are living hand to mouth, so unless they work in tourism, the rainforest is often an inconvenience that makes life harder.
In 2023 a total of 6.4 hectares of forest were destroyed – more than 25,000 square miles. However, more concerning is the fact that 62.6 million hectares of forest (almost quarter of a million square miles) was degraded – for road building, logging, and forest fires. Degraded land is often less good for carbon storage, as well as conservation of the worlds wild species. It is often, then not long, before someone comes along a removes the rest of the plants so that the land can be used for something else.
And what was this deforestation for (other than logs)? Beef, soy, palm oil paper and nickel.
The Brazilian Amazon is one of the bright spots, where since the election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, deforestation has fallen 62%. Unfortunately, in the same time period, Indonesia’s deforestation is up 57%
It seems hard to see how the world will meet its goal of cutting deforestation to zero by 2030 as most countries have pledged. Also, despite reductions in deforestation, the Amazon has had one of the hardest years in terms of forest fires – something that only gets more likely as rainforests are lost, and climate change increases the temperature in many parts of the world. It is a sad fact, that there is often not a great deal of temperature difference between a rainforest which is functioning, and one that dries out and becomes a fire hazard.
Having said all this… a study in Indonesia has found that controlled low-intensity logging doesn’t have to negatively impact a forest in terms of carbon storage or food availability – this in turn means that much wildlife can survive.
The problem often is that if the land is in private hands, then low- intensity logging is not going to happen. If the landowner has decided to deforest, they will raze the land. In national parks, in theory low intensive logging would be possible, but this would require people to control the logging, and this is the issue that we have in the first place. Unfortunately, despite the pledge by 140 countries, deforestation is coming back.
In a related subject, the Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto has stated that palm oil expansion won’t deforest because palm oil has leaves. There are many issues with this, but perhaps primarily amongst them, when forests are cut down, they are usually replaced with grass lands for grazing cattle – these are also covered in leaves. This is obviously stupid – it may well be a better thing, that the rainforest is going to be replaced with plantations, but it has been shown that palm oil plantations take up a tiny proportion of the carbon that rainforests take up.
In another article, there was a finding that macaques living in palm oil plantations have an alarming infant mortality. Unfortunately, these macaques are not unique in being threatened by palm oil, but others include orangutans, elephants, tigers, pangolins, bonobos, and Irrawaddy dolphins.
While palm oil may be a better vegetable oil than other crops, it still looks like it will lead to us loosing most of our rainforests, unless a grip on this is found.
A female orangutan, who had failed to bond with either of her first two offspring (and as a result had both died), found 30 volunteer human mothers, to come in to breastfeed their babies in front of the orangutan.
The exhibit was shut, so that the mothers could breastfeed topless – allowing Mujur the 19 year old mother to be, to see what was happening. As can be seen from the image, the orangutan showed a great deal of interest in the breastfeeding – and as well, Mujur was shown videos of orangutans feeding their babies.
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 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
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.
The mountain gorilla and the fin whale have been reassessed and their conservation status had been found to not accurately show their position. In the case of mountain gorillas, this …
China is in the process of creating a huge panda reserve covering 10,476 square miles. This reserve is three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in …
There are few bits of positive news in the world of conservation so those that come up must be celebrated. At world conservation day recently, they were celebrating the recovery …
Recent census of the Mountain gorillas between the two remaining areas of habitat counted 1063, a number that has risen from perhaps only 350 in the 1980s. The idea of …
Mountain gorillas live in a small patch of montane, rainforest in Central Africa. Being a mountainous region there are naturally dangers and unfortunately 3 mountain gorillas, succumbed to one of …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least …
The Grauers gorilla, also known as the Eastern lowland gorilla (confusingly often found in the mountains, just not exclusively as the mountain gorilla is) is a …
Sky islands are found across much of Africa. Our experience of sky islands, occurred within the Udzungwa national park in Tanzania. This national park protects a large …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
Ugandan authorities are considering two roads that will pass through Bwindi. These roads are likely to have two devastating impacts. Firstly, these roads are likely to splinter the park from …
I do not know how many of my readers follow current affairs closely, though I follow them. Are wars good for wildlife, or are they bad? Unfortunately, it completely depends. …
For the last 3 years there has been a significant baby boom in the forests of the Virungas. This is highly encouraging for the long term survival of the mountain …
There are many threats facing the great apes of Africa, from habitat destruction and fragmentation, to hunting for bush meat. Unfortunately, it is now thought that Chimpanzees gorillas and Bonobos …
Home to one of the two remaining populations of mountain gorillas as well as eastern lowland gorillas and chimpanzees. It is one of the best protected central African rainforest, yet …
6 more rangers have been killed in the Virunga national park on the border between the DRCUganda and <a href="https://seeanimalswild.com/rwanda/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="306" …
In recent years the BBC has stopped trying to cover over the threat to the natural world in their world famous documentaries. This once as you can see, deals with …
It would appear that corvid 19 has had a phenomenal good impact on the Worlds atmosphere. The fact that significant portions of of China have been under …
The mountain gorilla and the fin whale have been reassessed and their conservation status had been found to not accurately show their position. In the case of mountain gorillas, this …
China is in the process of creating a huge panda reserve covering 10,476 square miles. This reserve is three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in …
There are few bits of positive news in the world of conservation so those that come up must be celebrated. At world conservation day recently, they were celebrating the recovery …
Recent census of the Mountain gorillas between the two remaining areas of habitat counted 1063, a number that has risen from perhaps only 350 in the 1980s. The idea of …
Mountain gorillas live in a small patch of montane, rainforest in Central Africa. Being a mountainous region there are naturally dangers and unfortunately 3 mountain gorillas, succumbed to one of …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least …
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.
Home to one of the two remaining populations of mountain gorillas as well as eastern lowland gorillas and chimpanzees. It is one of the best protected central African rainforest, yet …
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 …
China is in the process of creating a huge panda reserve covering 10,476 square miles. This reserve is three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in …
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 …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least …
The Grauers gorilla, also known as the Eastern lowland gorilla (confusingly often found in the mountains, just not exclusively as the mountain gorilla is) is a …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
Home to one of the two remaining populations of mountain gorillas as well as eastern lowland gorillas and chimpanzees. It is one of the best protected central African rainforest, yet …
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 …
China is in the process of creating a huge panda reserve covering 10,476 square miles. This reserve is three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in …
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 …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least …
The Grauers gorilla, also known as the Eastern lowland gorilla (confusingly often found in the mountains, just not exclusively as the mountain gorilla is) is a …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
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
Nigeria was once a wildlife rich country. Unfortunately as a country whose population has soared over the last few decades much of the wilderness has been lost. Afi River forest …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least …
There are only thought to be around 300 cross rver gorillas left in the wild. It’s population is space between the far Western ocean of Nigeria and the portion of …
Nigeria was once a wildlife rich country. Unfortunately as a country whose population has soared over the last few decades much of the wilderness has been lost. Afi River forest …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least …
There are only thought to be around 300 cross rver gorillas left in the wild. It’s population is space between the far Western ocean of Nigeria and the portion of …
Nigeria was once a wildlife rich country. Unfortunately as a country whose population has soared over the last few decades much of the wilderness has been lost. Afi River forest …
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.
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least 11 groups across the …
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 …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least 11 groups across the …
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 …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
The cross River gorilla (picture above) is a critically endangered subspecies of the Western lowland gorilla species. The cross River gorilla are scattered in at least 11 groups across the …
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 …
I am intending to make this into a new set of articles that will appear on this website. Obviously, these species will not be the only ones that are covered …
Human beings are part of this family tree. Whatever your position on creation/evolution it is undeniable that our genetics are closely related to the great apes. I am a Christina, however the genetics are clear – This should not cause a problem with a belief in creationism, but it is a fact, either way.
We are a fascinating species, but it is beyond the scope of this website.
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.
Only a few years after the Tapunali orangutan was recognised as the 8th great ape species, a dam was planned for the area which would functionally wipe out this great ...
A recent analysis has shown that the the Dam that would cover 90% of the Tapanuli orangutan population has had the prospects of positive outcomes hugely hyped by it’s backers, ...
Owl in Christmas tree A Georgia family cut down a tree and took it home, decorated it and left it in their house. Only a week after they had bought ...
The Tapanuli Orangutan, was only described in 2017 and makes the eighth species of great ape. Unfortunately, it only numbers 800 in the wild, and a dam threatens its future ...
With an estimated historical habitat of this species 95% destroyed already, only leaving a small patch of rainforest with an estimated 800 Tapanuli orangutan, it would seem obvious that this ...
In most countries, if a dam was to cause so much destruction to the last habitat of a species, the dam would likely not get permission to be built. It ...
It is just 5 years since the Tapanuli orangutan was described. Despite this Orangutan being restricted to an area of Northern Sumatra, it is more closely related ...
The Tapanuli Orangutan lives on Sumatra but are thought to be more closely related to Bornean Orangutans. Numbering around 800 members, they had a far wider ranging ...
A study has been examining the range of the Tapanuli orangutan and has concluded that they are currently found in only 2.5% of their historic range, having lost the rest ...
I personally couldn’t see how an environmental check could make it through if the building of the dam, would completely eradicate one of the eight great apes on earth. However ...
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, ...
At first glance, you could look at this headline as good news – in most instances, wild animals do not start looking outside their habitat for places to live, unless ...
Only a few years after the Tapunali orangutan was recognised as the 8th great ape species, a dam was planned for the area which would functionally wipe out this great ...
A recent analysis has shown that the the Dam that would cover 90% of the Tapanuli orangutan population has had the prospects of positive outcomes hugely hyped by it’s backers, ...
Owl in Christmas tree A Georgia family cut down a tree and took it home, decorated it and left it in their house. Only a week after they had bought ...
The Tapanuli Orangutan, was only described in 2017 and makes the eighth species of great ape. Unfortunately, it only numbers 800 in the wild, and a dam threatens its future ...
With an estimated historical habitat of this species 95% destroyed already, only leaving a small patch of rainforest with an estimated 800 Tapanuli orangutan, it would seem obvious that this ...
In most countries, if a dam was to cause so much destruction to the last habitat of a species, the dam would likely not get permission to be built. It ...
It is just 5 years since the Tapanuli orangutan was described. Despite this Orangutan being restricted to an area of Northern Sumatra, it is more closely related ...