https://animalpetitions.org/educational-series-apes-our-intelligent-endangered-relative/

They’re our closest living relatives of the animal world, some sharing almost 99% of our DNA. They are far more intelligent than scientists once realized, with elaborate social structures and family networks. They make sophisticated use of tools. And they are among the most endangered mammals on the planet. These are the apes, a group of animals about whom we still have much to learn despite decades of scientific research.

The ape most famous for close genetic ties to humans is the chimpanzee, one of the “great apes.” Chimpanzees live only in tropical forests of Central Africa, the continent where modern humans first evolved some 100,000 years ago. Despite this long history of chimps and humans living in close proximity, the scientific community knew little about their behavior in the wild until the 1960s, when primatologist Jane Goodall began studying chimps at Gombe Stream in Tanzania. By carefully and patiently observing them in their natural habitat, Goodall became the first scientist to witness chimpanzees making tools, hunting and eating meat, and displaying complex social behaviors, among many other discoveries.

Today we know chimpanzees live in loosely connected social groups of as many as a few hundred individuals, divided into more closely knit subgroups. Mother chimps spend years caring for their offspring and family ties can remain important even once chimps reach maturity. Chimpanzees use a wide array of vocalizations and facial expressions to communicate. Scientists have even observed cultural differences between chimpanzees over different parts of their range, with groups in some areas practicing behaviours that are never seen in other chimpanzee communities.

It is now widely known among even the general public that chimpanzees share almost 99% of humans’ DNA. However, in the last few years evidence has emerged that another ape species may be as or even more closely related to us. This is the bonobo, formerly known as the “pygmy chimpanzee.” Genetic studies suggest it’s a toss-up whether chimpanzees or bonobos actually deserve the title of closest living human relative. But studies of human, chimpanzee, and bonobo muscular systems show bonobos appear to be more physically similar to us.

Whereas as chimpanzee societies are male-dominated, bonobos are matriarchal. They are also known for being less prone to social conflict than chimpanzees, and for using sex to maintain social bonds. Bonobos eat mainly fruit, other vegetation, and insects, and unlike chimpanzees they hunt meat only occasionally. From a conservation standpoint, another important fact about bonobos is they are restricted to only a single country: the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Only slightly less closely related to us than chimpanzees and bonobos are gorillas. There are actually two species, the eastern and western gorillas. Eastern gorillas are divided into two subspecies: the eastern lowland gorilla and mountain gorilla. The western species is likewise divided into the western lowland and Cross River gorillas. Like other African great apes gorillas are social, but their networks are smaller than those of chimpanzees. Gorillas travel in groups related by family ties, consisting of as few as five or as many fifty individuals. Groups are dominated by an older male known as the silverback.

The only great apes found outside of Africa are orangutans. They differ from African great apes in several important respects, including their habits. While gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos are all social, orangutans are solitary with adults normally coming together only to mate. They are also the only great apes to spend most of their time in the trees. This makes orangutans the largest truly arboreal, or tree-dwelling animals in the world.

Orangutans are found only on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and for many years scientists recognized two species, each confined to one of the islands. However, in 2017 a third species was announced. Known as the Tapanuli orangutan, this species lives in northern Sumatra and was previously thought to be simply a population of the Sumatran orangutan. Tapanuli orangutans are the most recently-described great ape species–and with only 800 individuals are also the most endangered.

More than a dozen additional ape species live in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. These are the gibbons, or “lesser apes.” They get this name not because they are somehow less important than great apes, but simply because they are much smaller. Like orangutans, gibbons are mainly arboreal. They are famed for swinging hand-over-hand through the tree branches at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour,

Sadly, all or most apes are at risk of extinction due to factors like deforestation and hunting for the meat and pet trades. Although Tapanuli orangutans have the smallest population of any great ape, all the others are classified as endangered or critically endangered. In Africa threats like logging, poaching, and armed human conflict threaten great apes. Gorillas have also been seriously affected by the spread of the Ebola virus, which is deadly to them just as it is to humans. While the outlook for Africa’s great apes is grim, there are rays of hope. For example, thanks to conservation efforts mountain gorillas has seen a modest population increase recently.

In Borneo and Sumatra the single largest threat to orangutans–and gibbons found on the islands–is the conversion of rainforests into palm oil plantations. Used both as biofuel and an ingredient in everything from peanut butter to shampoo, palm oil production has skyrocketed as demand for these products increases worldwide. Limiting this industry’s expansion represents the best hope for Borneo and Sumatra’s apes. Fortunately, consumer-driven campaigns led by groups like Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network have had success pressuring some U.S. food companies–including Kellogg’s, Mars, and General Mills–to adopt policies limiting their use of palm oil that is not sustainably grown. More public pressure is needed to persuade additional companies to cut ties with palm oil deforestation.

Most people know iconic great apes like the mountain gorilla are endangered. However, the apes at greatest risk of imminent extinction are gibbons. With only about two dozen individuals in existence, the Hainan crested gibbon has the smallest population of any primate species. They live only in a single forest on the island of Hainan in the South-China Sea and have lost 99% of their habitat. Only slightly better off is the world’s second-rarest primate, the Cao-Vit gibbon. Only 100 members of this species survive in a forest in Northeast Vietnam. Though not quite as rare as these two, most other gibbon species are also at severe risk. Habitat loss is the most serious threat, but gibbons are also hunted for meat, with babies sometimes being sold into a life of captivity in the pet trade.

If our ape relatives survive into the latter part of the twenty-first century, it will be because of the caring actions of people all over the world. Whether by writing to major food brands and encouraging them to adopt sustainable palm oil policies, or supporting conservation groups working to protect great apes and gibbons from poaching and habitat loss, you can take action wherever you live. If you travel to Central Africa or Southeast Asia, consider patronizing eco-tourist organizations that help local communities profit from conservation.

With their intelligence, complex societies, and human-like expressions, apes are a reminder that humans are not as separated from our animal ancestry as we sometimes like to think.

By saving these remarkable primates from extinction, we are also preserving links to our own rich evolutionary heritage.

Regards Mark.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47608949

Dead Philippines whale had 40kg of plastic in stomach

A dead whale that washed up in the Philippines had 40kg (88lbs) of plastic bags inside its stomach, researchers have said.

Workers at D’Bone Collector Museum recovered the Cuvier’s beaked whale east of Davao City earlier in March.

In a Facebook post, the museum said the animal was filled with “the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale”.

There were 16 rice sacks in its stomach, as well as “multiple shopping bags”.

• Ocean plastic a ‘planetary crisis’ – UN
• Plastic pollution: Images of a global problem
• Seven charts that explain the plastic pollution problem

The museum will post a full list of the items found in the whale over the next few days.

“I was not prepared for the amount of plastic,” the museum’s founder and president, Darrell Blatchley, told broadcaster CNN. “It was so big, the plastic was beginning calcification.”

The use of throwaway plastic is a particular problem in some South East Asian countries, including the Philippines.

Five Asian nations – China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand – accounted for up to 60% of the plastic waste that ends up in oceans, according to a 2015 report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment.

In June last year, a pilot whale died in Thailand after swallowing 80 plastic bags.

Its death came shortly after a report for the UK government revealed the level of plastic in the ocean could triple in a decade unless steps are taken to curb litter.

The following pictures are NOT associated with this article – including the Whale – WAV.

Mark,

Pepsi has nowhere to hide now: its business partner Indofood has been kicked out of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the world’s largest sustainable palm oil authority, for mistreating workers on its environment-wrecking plantations.

Over 100,000 SumOfUs members like you have already told PepsiCo to cut ties with this palm oil villain, but the snack food giant has resisted so far, hiding behind those RSPO certificates. Nowthough, Pepsi’s surely going to drop Indofood like a hot Cheeto… right?

Wrong. Pepsi’s still cashing obscene profits from its partnership with Indofood, and reacted to the RSPO decision only with “We are very disappointed”.

“Disappointed”, Pepsi?! Indofood isn’t a misbehaving toddler — it’s a corporation that destroys rainforests, mistreats female staff, uses illegal child labour, and exposes its workers to hazardous pesticides.

Tell Pepsi: Stop disappointing us and cut ALL your ties with toxic palm oil company Indofood!

Indofood’s abuses were always an open secret. But in 2016, our partners at Rainforest Action Network exposed Indofood and filed an official complaint with the RSPO. Together, SumOfUs members used our collective power to drive up pressure last summer and get the RSPO to first sanction — and now kick out entirely — the palm oil giant.

Now it’s official: Indofood’s palm oil cannot be called sustainable, even by the subpar RSPO standards. Meaning that if Pepsi’s ‘sustainable’ palm oil policy is to retain any scrap of credibility, it must end its joint venture partnership with the corporation — NOW.

Please sign the petition and help force Pepsi to terminate its business partnership with Indofood once and for all!

We know our people-powered campaigning can push big brands into action. After sustained pressure from SumOfUs members, Nestlé ended its own 13-year business partnership with Indofood. Showing that if PepsiCo really wanted to, it could too.

And after 150,000 SumOfUs members put pressure on Pepsi’s departing CEO, Pepsi responded and stopped sourcing palm oil from Indofood — but failed to cut ties completely, keeping its business partnership in Indonesia.

Unless we use this moment to double down on our campaign, with the threats of reputation damage, negative media coverage, and lost customers, Pepsi may hope to weather out the storm. So we need to act fast.

Let’s tell Pepsi’s CEO there’s no excuse for inaction on exploitation and rainforest destruction — it’s time to drop Indofood.

 Sign the petition 

Thanks for all that you do,
Fatah, Rebecca and the team at SumOfUs