A planet without apes? Only five kinds of apes remain, and they all face possible extinction.

• Author: Mitani, John C.
• Position: Cover story

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Viewers of the recent Hollywood blockbuster Rise of the Planet of the Apes may be surprised to learn that before the earliest human ancestors arrived on the scene roughly 7 million years ago, apes really did rule the planet.

As many as 40 kinds roamed Eurasia and Africa between 10 and 25 million years ago. Today, only five types remain. Two live in Asia, the gibbon and orangutan; the chimpanzee, bonobo, and gorilla live in Africa. All five are endangered, several critically so. All face the possibility of extinction.

A decade ago, Congress authorized an effort to protect these apes through innovative conservation programs in Africa and Asia that combined taxpayer dollars with private money. But attempts to renew the Great Ape Conservation Fund have gotten stuck in Congress and may become a victim of the effort to rein in the federal budget deficit.

Hollywood's depiction of apes as cunning--if not conniving--creatures comes close to reality. Fifty years ago, Jane Goodall's observations in Africa of chimpanzees using tools and eating meat demonstrated just how similar apes are to humans. Subsequent fieldwork has underscored this point.

Orangutans fashion tools to extract seeds that are otherwise difficult to get at. Gorillas engage in conversational vocal exchanges. Male chimpanzees form coalitions to kill their neighbors and take over their territory. Gibbons, long thought to be monogamous, occasionally mate with individuals outside their group.

Our Closest Living Relatives

If all of this seems human, there's a good reason: Apes are our closest living relatives; in anatomy, genetics, and behavior, they are much more similar to us than they are to other animals.

Apes fascinate and captivate us like no other species. They are prime attractions at zoos, and scientists in disciplines ranging from anthropology to biology and psychology study them closely in captivity and in the wild. As our first cousins in the primate family, apes help us understand what makes us human.

I have been lucky to study all five kinds of apes during 33 years of fieldwork in Africa and Asia. When I look into the eyes of an ape, something stares back at me that seems familiar.

But as the human population expands, ape numbers continue to dwindle. In previous versions of Planet of the Apes films, greed and consumption by human-like apes threatened the world. In reality, it is these all-too-human traits that endanger apes.

Habitat destruction because...