Great apes are the closest monkeys in development to humans. Compared to humans, they have very long arms and rather short legs. The great apes’ brains are very well developed. The great ape family consists of three different species, the chimpanzee, the orangutan and the gorilla.
Orang-utan
Appearance
The orangutan can grow to be about 150 centimeters long and weigh 80 kilos. In terms of size they come closest to humans from the apes. It is a jungle inhabitant that lives in Borneo and North Sumatra. Borneo belongs partly to Malaysia and partly to Indonesia. The orangutan has a very wild coat and reddish brown hair. The hands and feet of this monkey are shaped approximately equally. Male orangutans have fat lobes on the cheeks and a large throat pouch. This throat pouch is present in the females, but clearly a lot smaller. Often you will see that the fat lobes on the cheeks in these monkeys get bigger and bigger as they get older, the male with the largest cheek plates will in most cases be the leader of the group.
Comparison with humans
The name orangutan is Malay for forest people. This monkey is indeed similar in character to a human, this is especially the case with young animals. The noise that orangutans make is absolutely nothing like human talk. They communicate with a kind of loud roar that is amplified in the throat pouches.
Life
Orangutans live most of the time upstairs in trees where they also build their roosts. These monkeys cannot jump between different trees, but they pull branches towards them with their powerful arms, in this way they swing from tree to tree. An orangutan has a very varied menu. It eats: seeds, fruits, twigs, leaves, insects and bird eggs. In most cases, the orangutan is not dangerous to humans as long as humans remain at a safe distance. The monkey will only react angrily when it feels threatened or when it is in severe pain.
The clearing of the rainforest and other human activities have made the orangutan an endangered species. The little ones are sometimes taken away from the mothers to perform and to have their picture taken with tourists. Fortunately, people are increasingly doing their best to save this species. For example, whole programs are set up to save orangutan baby orphans, they are then cared for by humans and foster orangutans in a large enclosure until they are old enough to survive on their own in nature.
Chimpanzee
Appearance
A chimpanzee is a relatively small ape, it grows to an average of 110 centimeters and weighs 40-60 kilograms. A chimpanzee has very long arms that are as much as 2.5 meters when they are stretched out. A chimpanzee has long black hair all over most of its body. His face is almost naked and pink.
Life
The chimpanzee is considered to be the most intelligent ape. It is an animal that lives in the trees but also on the ground. They live in groups of dozens of animals without a real leader. There is often a kind of ranking, often the oldest lady is at the top.
Chimpanzees are extremely handy and smart animals. They use all four limbs in almost all their actions.
Types
As a result of the chimpanzee’s very wide range, a number of different local species have emerged. The different subspecies have also been given different names. One of these species is the bonobo, also known as the dwarf chimpanzee. This animal is only found along the left bank of a river in Congo. The bonobo is slightly smaller and half the weight of the common chimpanzee. A clear difference is that in the bonobo two toes are connected by a skin patch.
Gorilla
Appearance
The hair color of a gorilla is black or brownish gray, the hairs on its body are very short. Males and females are getting grayer the older they get. The females grow to about 150 centimeters in most cases and weigh up to 140 pounds. The males can grow up to 230 centimeters and weigh more than 300 kilos.
Life
The gorillas live in the tropical rainforests of Africa. They walk on the soles of their feet and the knuckles of their hands. Most of the time they sit on the ground, only the very young gorillas climb trees a lot. A big difference from the other two species of apes is that gorillas hardly use tools, they do almost everything with their hands and feet and are not likely to use a stick to tinker with something. Gorillas live in large and social groups with a male as the leader. Gorillas are very calm animals as long as they are not challenged. As soon as they start attacking the opponent, chances are that they will lose it, gorillas have a very high strength. The gorillas do sleep low in the trees. They never go too high because there is a chance that the branches will break when lying on them with their 300 pounds.
Types
The gorilla that is known to most people is the lowland gorilla. However, there is a second gorilla species. This is the mountain gorilla. This mountain gorilla lives in the volcanic regions of Virugna and Kahusi at an altitude of 2700 to 3600 meters! The mountain gorilla is a highly endangered species, in 2012 it is estimated that only 823 mountain orillas were left in the wild. A very strange thing about the mountain gorillas is that they sometimes eat stones. They do this to ensure that they get enough minerals.