These compelling stories and photographs take us to places like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, Ivindo National Park in Gabon, and the Taï National Park in Côte d’Ivoire for an intimate and revealing look at the lives of African wild apes—and at the lives of the humans who study them. In tales of adventure, research, and conservation, veteran field researchers and conservationists describe exciting discoveries made over the past few decades about chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. The book features vivid descriptions of interactions among these highly intelligent creatures as they hunt, socialize, and play. More difficult themes emerge as well, including the threats apes face from poaching, disease, and deforestation. In stories that are often moving and highly personal, this book takes measure of how special the great apes are and discusses positive conservation efforts, including ecotourism, that can help bring these magnificent animals back from the brink of extinction.
Cuprins
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Who, What, Where, and Why
Martha M. Robbins
1. Discovering Apes
Martha M. Robbins
2. Life and Death in the Forest
Christophe Boesch
3. Encounters with Bili Chimpanzees in the Undisturbed Gangu Forest
Cleve Hicks
4. Is Blood Thicker Than Water?
Gottfried Hohmann and Barbara Fruth
5. Our Cousins in the Forest—or Bushmeat?
Christophe Boesch
6. Discovering Chimpanzee Traditions
Crickette Sanz and David Morgan
7. Keeping it in the Family: Tribal Warfare between Chimpanzee Communities
Josephine Head
8. Winona’s Search for the Right Silverback: Insights into Female Strategies at a Natural Rain Forest Clearing in Northern Congo
Thomas Breuer
9. The Long Road to Habituation: A Window into the Lives of Gorillas
Chloé Cipolletta
10. Among Silverbacks
Martha M. Robbins
11. The Diversity of the Apes: What Is the Future?
Christophe Boesch
Contributors
Index
Despre autor
Martha M. Robbins is Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. She is coeditor of Mountain Gorillas: Three Decades of Research at Karisoke and Feeding Ecology of Apes and Other Primates. Christophe Boesch is Director of the Department of Primatology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. He is the author of The Real Chimpanzee: Sex Strategies in the Forest, among other books.