Introduction to Ape Culture and Conservation
I'm sitting on a grassy hillside, surrounded by 20 close relatives. No, it's not a family picnic. I'm in the East African nation of Tanzania, and I am watching an extended family of wild chimpanzees. As I sit quietly taking notes and shooting video, the chimpanzees go about their day. Three males sit side by side grooming one another, their long fingers combing through one another's black hair. A mother lies on her back, using her legs to dangle her infant above her. A few yards away, several females groom the alpha (top-ranking) male, whom researchers have named Frodo. Frodo has ruled this family group for three years. He has successfully fought off several challenges to his leadership, although some day another male chimpanzee will likely overthrow him.
Suddenly we hear a pant-hoot—a loud, wailing call—from the next valley. Everyone in the group leaps up and replies with the same call. Another group of chimpanzees is announcing its approach. When the newcomers arrive, they exchange excited greetings with members of the first group before settling down to more grooming.
Among the arrivals is Freud, Frodo's older brother, a lifelong ally and occasional rival. Freud is as different from Frodo as night is from day. Frodo is aggressive and macho. Freud is laid back, easygoing, and good-natured. I have nearly stepped on Freud a few times as I walked through thickets where he lay dozing in the shade. Getting that close to Frodo would be a mistake that he would punish with a hard slap on my leg. This difference in personalities is one reason chimpanzees are so fascinating to study. Their personalities influence the way they live their life, just as ours do.
I have spent about one-fourth of my adult life in remote forests of Africa and Asia studying primates (the group of mammals including apes, monkeys, and human beings). On my 35 research trips into the wild, I have usually focused on chimpanzees, which are, to me, the most fascinating of all the apes.
According to the theory of evolution, apes are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. I think of them as my evolutionary cousins. Most scientists, including me, believe that human beings and apes developed from a common ancestor. We believe that if you went back in time 7 million to 10 million years ago, you would find this so-called missing link. Studies beginning in the 1960's have found that human and chimpanzee DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that directs the development of all living things) is nearly identical.
This close genetic relationship alone makes apes intriguing to scientists. We have learned a great deal about our early apelike human ancestors from the many fossils we have found. For clues to how these early ancestors probably lived, however, we often study the behavior of modern apes. My own special area of research, for example, is the meat-eating habits of chimpanzees. This subject is of great interest to primatologists (scientists who study primates) because it helps us understand the origins of the modern human diet.
Another vitally important reason we study apes is their uncertain future. Without stepped-up local and international efforts to protect them, the apes will disappear from the wild within the next 50 years. Destruction of their forest habitat, poaching (illegal hunting), and disease are all taking a terrible toll on these creatures.
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