Created and Written by John Bonnett Wexo Scientific Consultants Frederick A. King, Ph.D. Director, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center Harold M. McClure, D.V.M. Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center Richard Tenaza, Ph.D. University of the Pacific ON THE COVER: A Mountain Gorilla A silverback male mountain gorilla races through the forest beating his chest in a ritual charge to show dominance. zoobooks.com Come wander through our Virtual Zoo, finish up your homework with the Animal Directory, and then relax with some Games & Activity Pages. Best of all, visit the at Jungle Secret zoobooks.com for printable activities, online games, live action videos, and drawings and poems done by kids like you! It s a secret online hangout just for kids. Only Zoobooks subscribers like you can get in! Find your password on our Kids Zooworks page. So! You ve just finished reading your Zoobooks, and your head is full of new fun facts. Come on over to www.zoobooks.com/twenty and impress us with what you ve learned and we ll reward you with some laughs. See you there! Courtesy of the FREE Zoobooks esafari. Exp l o r e even more! Q: What is the first thing an orangutan learns in school? A: The Ape-B-C s. Q: Why didn t the banana snore? A: It didn t want to wake up the whole bunch. Q: What do you get when you cross your pet parrot with a gorilla? To find out, sign up for your free esafari at www.zoobooks.com. When you sign up for your FREE esafari at www.zoobooks.com/safari, you ll discover: Best wildlife sites on the web Animal jokes, puzzles, games, activities Wildlife and zoo news Animal cams Green tips, save-the-animals sites and causes See an esafari preview at www.zoobooks.com/safari. esafari is part of your Zoobooks membership, so sign up today FREE! Mailing by January 25th (please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery) tigers At night, when the deer and the antelope play, a tiger becomes a stealthy hunter looking for, perhaps, its first meal in weeks. For a sneak peek of this issue, flip a few pages at www.zoobooks.com/digital-subscription. What Chest- beating Means Page 11 Published by Wildlife Education, Ltd. 2012 Wildlife Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. January 2012 Volume Twenty-Nine Number Three ZOOBOOKS (ISSN 0737-9005) is published ten times a year by Wildlife Education, Ltd., P.O. Box 447, Peru, Illinois 61354. Periodicals postage paid at Peru, Illinois and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Zoobooks PO Box 420234 Palm Coast, Florida 32142-0234. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40032441 REGISTRATION NO. 3905136 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: PO BOX 875, STN A, WINDSOR ON N9A 6P2. Subscription Rates: (U.S. funds only): $29.95 for 10 issues. For Canadian addresses please add $7.00 in U.S. funds per year. Add $15 in U.S. funds per year for other foreign addresses. Single copy: $5.99 plus $2.50 postage/handling. Subscription orders, inquiries and address change requests may be sent to PO Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Address Changes: Please include old and new addresses and ZIP Codes. Enclose address label from last issue and allow six to eight weeks for change to become effective. Internet Customer Service Form: www.zoobooks.com/subscriber_services From time to time, Zoobooks mails to its subscribers advertisements for other Zoobooks products or makes its subscriber list available to other reputable companies for their offering of products and services. If you prefer not to receive such mail, write to us at Zoobooks PO Box 420235 Palm Coast, Florida 32142-0235. 7th printing, printed by M&D Printing in Henry, Illinois, December 2011. Printed in the U.S.A. King Kong Wrong? Page 14 Get the Jungle to Go! TM ZooWho App FREE www.zoobooks.com/fun
White-handed Gibbon Hylobates lar Si a m a n g Hylobates syndactylus The apes are undoubtedly the animals that fascinate people the most and the reason is not hard to see. Of all the world s creatures, the apes are closest to us in form and behavior. They can stand upright, they have fingernails and fingerprints, large brains, and expressive faces. Most of all, they have an obvious intelligence that both amuses us and puzzles us. So great is the resemblance of the apes to humans that they are called anthropoid, or manlike apes. The resemblance seems to be more than superficial. The DNA of humans differs from that of chimpanzees and bonobos (also called pygmy chimpanzees) by less than two percent. bonobos are known as the great apes. The smaller gibbons and siamangs are the lesser apes. Great apes can be very large. On occasion, gorillas have reached a height of 6 feet 2 inches, although the average height for an adult male is 5 feet 8 or 9 inches. Gorillas are massive animals, with corresponding strength. An average male in the wild weighs about 350 pounds. In captivity, they may weigh 200 pounds more. Bonobos and chimpanzees the smallest of the great apes can weigh more than 150 pounds. An adult male is three to four times stronger than a man. Great apes can live for 50 years or more. The larger anthropoids gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and Lowland Gorilla (male and female) Gorilla gorilla gorilla Bornean Orangutan (male and female) Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus Bo n o b o Pan paniscus Ch i m p a n z e e Pan troglodytes
The anatomy of apes is obviously like human anatomy in many ways. Like us, apes have two legs and two arms, five fingers and five toes, large heads with two forward-looking eyes, 32 teeth, and ears that have the same kinds of wrinkles and lobes. Sometimes the way that apes move their bodies, the postures and gestures they use, can seem very human indeed. These are all important similarities but there are important differences as well. As a group, apes are made for life in the trees, while we are suited to life on the ground. Even the gorilla, which has become so heavy that it must spend most of its time on the ground, has a body that is really shaped for climbing and swinging. (Young gorillas still do these things.) All apes are covered with thick hair that insulates their bodies and protects them from rain. But certain spots on the body are without hair. A typical chimpanzee has little or no hair on its face, upper chest, fingers, or ears. The palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are also bare. Gorillas have similar bare spots, while orangutans and gibbons are usually more fully covered. With the hair removed, various skin colors are revealed for the different apes. Chimpanzee skin can range from black-brown to almost white on the body. Gorillas, gibbons, and siamangs have black or gray skin. The gray skin of orangutans is often tinged with blue. The arms of apes are always longer than their legs. Orangutans and gibbons have longer arms (in relation to the sizes of their bodies) than gorillas and chimpanzees. And this is only fitting since orangs and gibbons spend more time swinging than the others, and longer arms make swinging easier. Apes are very strong. In the wild, they take on very little fat as a rule, and the energetic lifestyle of orangs, gibbons, and chimpanzees keeps them in very good shape. A massive gorilla, of course, walks around all day lifting the tremendous weight of its own body. In general, apes are many times stronger than human beings of similar size. Although the bodies of all apes are similar in general pattern, each type of ape exhibits modifications to the pattern. A comparison of the hands and teeth of the lightest and the heaviest apes shows how each is adapted to its specific life requirements. Fruit is the main food of gibbons. Their teeth follow a basic ape pattern but are rather small. The jaw is not overly muscular, because soft foods don t need much chewing power. Gibbons let their fingers do the walking. As this trapeze artist swings from tree to tree, or brachiates, the ends of its long fingers lightly grasp each branch just enough to keep the animal from falling, but not enough to slow its movement through the forest. The gibbon s thumbs are extremely short and don t get in the way when the fingers grasp a branch. This ape s bones are thin and light in weight, aiding its travels above the ground. Gorillas are very heavy and must move carefully. Strong bones are required throughout their bodies. Because they often use their knuckles to support them as they walk, the hand bones are large and sturdy. Tough and stringy plants are the major part of a gorilla s diet. Large muscles, running from the crest on the gorilla s skull to the lower jaw, supply plenty of power for chewing and grinding. The teeth are massive. 2 3
Chimpanzees are the most social of the great apes. They like company, and temporary groups may include 45 or more chimps. Females and their young tend to wander from group to group, so the composition of groups is always changing. But males usually stay with a single group. When chimps arrive at a new place and meet old friends, they sometimes hug and kiss in greeting. Eastern Chimpanzees Western Chimpanzees Bon o b o s There are three different populations of chimpanzees living in three separate areas of Africa. Eastern and western chimps look much alike, but the smaller bonobos are darker in color. The bonobos live in an isolated area that is cut off from the other two groups by a wide river. For a long time, humans were thought to be the only tool users on earth. Now we know that many animals use tools. The chimpanzee is probably the best tool user of them all. By human standards, bonobos and chimpanzees are probably the most intelligent of all animals after man. Scientific tests (DNA) show that all chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to gorillas and orangutans. As they grow older, chimpanzees often start to lose their hair. Females usually become balder than males. All great apes build nests for sleeping. Chimpanzees build theirs high in the trees sometimes 80 feet above the ground. Chimpanzee nests are made of leaves and twisted branches. It takes a chimp only 5 or 10 minutes to make a nest. How long does it take you to make your bed? Play is important to chimpanzees of all ages. As with human children, young chimps learn behavior and skills through play. Mothers often spend hours playing with their babies. One favorite game is tickling. When they want to carry something with two hands, chimps can walk upright. But they don t really feel comfortable in this position and cannot move very fast. Because chimps spend as much as 1/3 of their day on the ground, they do quite a bit of walking. They prefer to walk on their feet and the knuckles of their hands. Babies commonly ride from place to place by clinging to their mother s hair. Most chimps eat only plants, but some hunt animals and eat meat. No other apes are hunters. No two chimps look alike every face is different. Chimps also have a wide range of facial expressions. Among the tools that chimps have invented is a leaf sponge, which they use to absorb drinking water from narrow spaces. Chimps in search of a meal use blades of grass to pull tasty termites from their nests. They also get honey out of beehives with sticks. Exc i t e m e n t Fea r Sad n e s s 4 5
Orangutans are only found in Southeast Asia, on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Unlike other apes, they live alone most of the time, with the exception of mothers and their young. This solitary lifestyle is probably related to the orangutan s need for large quantities of fruit. Orangs are the largest animals in the world that survive mainly on fruit. In their lowland forest habitat, trees with ripe fruit are few and far between. There may not be enough fruit on each tree to feed more than one or two orangs. Most of an orang s time is spent moving slowly through the trees from one food source to another. Orangutan mothers may keep their young with them for 6 to 10 years until a new baby arrives. A baby is carried almost all the time, clinging to the hair on its mother s back as she swings from place to place. Males only stay with females during courtship and mating. Past Range Mal a y Pen i n s u l a Present Range Southeast Asia Sum a t r a Bor n e o The range of orangutans was once much larger than it is today. As humans have destroyed forests to make room for farms and to harvest valuable timber, the orangs have been forced into smaller and smaller pockets. The younger an orangutan is, the higher he is likely to swing in the trees. Young orangs are light in weight and active, so they are able to move on the highest levels of the forest canopy. Older and heavier animals need sturdier branches to support their weight. They must be more careful about falling, so they are usually found on lower branches or on the ground. Although they are closely related, orangutans from Borneo and Sumatra can look quite different. This is often easiest to see in the faces of mature males. Bornean males usually have large forward-curving flaps on their faces. They are also likely to have balding, rather pointed heads. Sumatran males usually have flatter flaps, a flatter head, and a long, flowing mustache. Bornean Or a n g u t a n Pongo pygmaeus Su m a t r a n Or a n g u t a n Pongo abelii Sumatran orangutans are taller and more slender than their relatives in Borneo. Their hair may be longer and finer and is sometimes lighter in color. Their human appearance makes them the most likely representative for their name: orangutan means man of the forest. To zoo keepers around the world, orangutans are known as escape artists. They are very clever with their hands and often open cages just for the fun of it. As male orangutans grow older, the shapes of their faces can change a great deal. Babies have As impressive rather flattened, human-like faces. as their cheek Older males start to develop a pads can make larger snout. Fully grown males them look, male grow large flaps on the sides of Bornean orangutans do not usually grow to be their faces, and pouches of extremely large in the wild. Their average weight is pebbly skin on their chests. only 160 pounds. The heavy individuals sometimes As the orang s appearance seen in zoos are well fed and overweight. changes, so does his behavior. The once-active baby becomes a slow-moving adult. 6 7
Adult female orangutans tend to forage only with their most recent offspring.
Gorillas are the largest of the great apes, but despite their great size they are generally shy and peace loving. These gentle giants live together in rather small groups, with one mature, or dominant, male as the leader. There may be from 5 to 30 members in a group, but the average is 11. Young gorillas are small enough to swing in trees like the other apes, but heavier adults rarely leave the ground. In the wild, gorillas eat only plants. They spend about half of each day looking for food and eating it. Their diet can include leaves, bark, vines, bamboo shoots, and other tough and chewy materials. There are three basic types of gorillas western and eastern lowland gorillas and mountain gorillas. In the shapes of their bodies, all three types look much alike, but the heads of lowland and mountain gorillas are quite different from each other. The hair on the head of a lowland type is short and may be brown-orange in color. On a mountain gorilla, it is long and is as black as the rest of the body. Males of all types have crests on their heads, but mountain gorillas have higher crests. Lowland Gorilla Gorilla gorilla gorilla Mountain Gorilla Gorilla beringei When they are not looking for food or eating, gorillas take it easy. They get up late and often go to bed early. In between, they love to sunbathe and lie around. Gorillas yawn like people, and they can shed tears. They are usually silent, but sometimes they will huff, cough, burp, and hiccup. Eastern Lowland Gorillas Gorillas rarely stand up in the wild. They prefer to move about on all fours. When they do stand up, males often beat their chests. Interestingly, when mature males beat their chests, it is either a threat or a sign of curiosity. When young gorillas do it, it is an invitation to play. Western Lowland Gorillas Mountain Gorillas The undisputed boss of each gorilla group is a mature male with silver hair on his back. Silverbacks may be more than 6 feet tall and may weigh between 300 and 400 pounds. They have an arm span of at least eight feet and are incredibly strong. It has been estimated that a All known gorillas in the world have been silverback has the strength dark in color, except one. Discovered in of four to eight strong men. 1966 in West Africa, Snowflake grew Yet, with all their brute up in the Barcelona Zoo. The rarity of his strength, they are remarkably white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes put docile and gentle most of the him on the cover of National Geographic time. They will patiently Magazine, gave him worldwide fame, and endure all kinds of playful made him the mascot of Barcelona. His torment from baby gorillas fair coloring also may have contributed for hours at a time without to his death. In 2003, at the age of 40, losing their tempers. Snowflake died of skin cancer. None of his many offspring shared his coloration. 10 11
Gibbons and siamangs are known as the lesser apes, and scientists have placed them in a separate category from great apes. They are much smaller, weighing less than 17½ pounds as a rule. Unlike great apes, both sexes of each species are about the same size. These graceful little apes spend almost all of their time high up in the forest canopy, as much as 180 feet above the ground. Gibbons swing so rapidly that they sometimes appear to be flying. They can leap as far as 50 feet in a downward direction, and they are so well coordinated and quick that they can even catch flying birds! Gibbons are born with an urge to move. They are by far the best acrobats of the apes. Southeast Asia Not long ago, gibbons were found in a larger area than they now occupy. There were gibbons in much of China 1,000 years ago but now they are mostly confined to Southeast Asia, as shown here. Gibbons and siamangs don t like water and usually will not cross a water barrier. For this reason, zoos often keep them in displays that are surrounded by water. Bor n e o Sum a t r a Hoolock Gibbon Hoolock hoolock Gray Gibbon Hylobates muelleri (not shown) Jav a Scientists disagree about the number of types of gibbons. Some say there are six species, but others say there are nine, or more. The basic gibbon social group is the family, made up of one male and one female, and up to four of their young. Within each family, food is generously shared and fighting rarely occurs. Members of the same family will unite to drive off strangers. Silvery Gibbon Hylobates moloch Si a m a n g Hylobates syndactylus Black-crested Gibbon Hylobates concolor All of the lesser apes have loud voices and can make quite a racket. Usually, they call at dawn and at several other times during the day probably to tell other apes to stay away from their territory. Siamangs are larger than gibbons and have a large throat sac that gibbons lack. The throat sac inflates to magnify their hooting call, which can be White-handed Gibbon Hylobates lar Gibbons wear coats of many colors. Some come in several different colors across their range. Males and females in some species are colored and patterned differently. And colors sometimes change with age. Gibbons may start life with a light color, turn dark as they reach adolescence, and become light again as they mature. The fur of a gibbon is very thick. A gibbon has more than 2,035 hairs per square inch, compared to a gorilla s 307 per square inch but who s counting! heard throughout the forest. 12 13 Kloss s Gibbon Hylobates klossi Agile Gibbon Hylobates agilis
The great apes have not benefited from their resemblance to man. They often have been exploited as fearsome creatures because of their size and strength. But in the last half of the 20 th century, scientists and the public learned more about these interesting animals. Field biologists studied their habits and behaviors in the wild, while anthropologists and behaviorists charted their abilities in captivity. And zoo scientists learned more about breeding them and keeping them contented in captivity. Increased knowledge has swept away the myths. We know apes are intelligent, that they can master communication skills, and that they may think creatively. The more we get to know them, the more we like them and want to assure their continued survival. When gorillas raised in captivity first began to reproduce, they didn t know how to care for their young because they hadn t seen an infant fed and cared for by its mother. Now, captive female gorillas learn to mother because they live in large groups and see other gorillas taking care of their young. To find out how a young gorilla s parenting skills helped a human child, go to www.zoobooks.com/learnmore. Rumors about large, manlike creatures spread from Africa to Europe centuries before any European finally saw a real gorilla in the 19 th century. Without actual specimens to use for reference, artists during the 17 th and 18 th centuries drew apes as large and hairy people. Chimpanzees have shown great enthusiasm for painting. When given paints and brushes, they produce paintings that are filled with bright color and seem to express the joy of life. One scientist claims that chimps follow the same patterns in art that young humans do. Some scientists have been able to teach chimpanzees and gorillas to express themselves to humans in a shared language. Penny Patterson of the Gorilla Foundation signs to Koko: How do you feel? Koko signs back: Fine. Many of the exchanges between humans and apes in both sign language and computerbased language have been complex. A gorilla that had been taught to use appropriate signs at one zoo was later transferred to another zoo, where she was seen signing to another gorilla. In the original (1933) horror film, King Kong, all of man s ignorance about apes was wrapped up in one colossal and destructive image. In the 2005 remake, Kong is viewed with some sympathy and compassion. Is this because people today have a more positive image of gorillas? Great apes are so closely related to man that they easily catch many of our diseases. Because they do not have the same resistance to these diseases that we have, they can even die from the complications of a common cold. To avoid stomach upsets and disease, it is important to keep human food, which might contain harmful germs, away from gorillas, chimps, and orangutans. 14 15
Threats to apes and efforts to save them continue to grow. Forty-eight percent of primate species are in danger of extinction in the next ten years. As with many other animals, the lesser apes suffer mostly from habitat destruction. Clearing Southeast Asian rain forests for timber is deadly for the gibbons and siamangs that forage and swing through the high forest canopy. The great apes also live in the disappearing forest, but they are plagued with additional problems. Despite laws, guards, and dedicated wildlife observers, poaching continues to be a problem. Logging roads provide poachers with easier access to the forest. Photographic Credits Front Cover: Andy Rouse (Getty Images); Page Four: Upper Right, Charles Van Valkenburgh (Wildlife Education, Ltd.); Lower Left, Tom McHugh (Photo Researchers); Page Five: Lower Right, all by Tom McHugh (Photo Researchers); Page Six: Left, Royalty Free (Getty Images); Right, Royalty Free (Getty Images); Page Seven: Royalty Free (Alamy Images); Pages Eight and Nine: Royalty Free (Alamy Images); Page Ten: Top Right, Science Picture Library (Photo Researchers); Left and Middle Right, Charles Van Valkenburgh (Wildlife Education, Ltd.); Page Eleven: Middle Right, Joe McDonald (Photoshot Holdings Ltd.); Lower Left, Tom McHugh (Photo Researchers); Page Twelve: Lower Right, R. Van Nostrand (Photo Researchers); Page Thirteen: Middle, Royalty Free (Getty Images); Right, Royalty Free (Alamy Images); Page Fourteen: Middle, Ron Cohn (Gorilla Foundation/koko.org); Bottom, Courtesy of Forest Ackerman; Page Fifteen: Left, Ron Austing; Top Right, K&K Ammann (Photoshot Holdings, Ltd.); Page Sixteen and Inside Back Cover: Royalty Free (Alamy Images); Back Cover: Royalty Free (Alamy Images). Art Credits Inside Front Cover and Page One: Barbara Hoopes; Pages Two and Three: Barbara Hoopes; Pages Four and Five: James Teason and Mark Hallett; Pages Six and Seven: James Teason; Drawing by Mark Hallett; Page Ten: Barbara Hoopes; Page Eleven: Lisa French and Barbara Hoopes; Page Twelve: Middle, Lisa French; Lower Left, Karl Edwards and Mark Hallett; Page Thirteen: Top, Drawing by Walter Stuart; Bottom, Lisa French; Page Fourteen: Upper Left, Drawing by Walter Stuart; Page Fifteen: Karl Edwards and Mark Hallett; All Maps by Andy Lucas. Now is a critical time for orangutans. At the same time that wildlife biologists work to extend orang habitat in national parks and push to have existing laws enforced, adult orangs are killed so their infants can be smuggled to neighboring countries for the pet trade. The Bornean orangutan population has declined more than 50 percent in the last 60 years. For the Sumatran orangutans, the decline has been 80 percent over the last 75 years. The decline in chimpanzee populations in the last 30 years is expected to continue at the same rate for the next 30 to 40 years. Because they are genetically close to humans, young chimps are sought after for biomedical research. It s estimated that for every chimp successfully traded from poacher to final destination, 10 other chimps die. Increasingly, chimps are killed for food, as well as for trade. As if poaching, logging, and bushmeat hunting weren t enough, the Ebola virus also decreases chimpanzee populations. Lowland gorillas are also poached for trade and for bushmeat. They, too, suffer from Ebola. There is some cause for hope for western lowland gorillas, with the recent discovery of about 125,000 individuals in a largely unexplored region of northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. During Rwanda s civil war, fighting factions kept the war away from the mountain gorillas, and none were killed in the fighting. Unfortunately, in 1995, poachers began to kill mountain gorillas again for the first time in 10 years, and the population is in decline. But the Africans who live near mountain gorillas are proud of them and welcome the visitors who come to see the gorillas. The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo also encourages tourists to visit the gorillas. Local children love the gentle gorillas in their midst and grow up knowing that gorillas are special. People all over the world need to learn that all animals are special. A chimpanzee