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Great Apes Research Paper

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Great Apes Joseph

Both Africa and Asia are home to the magnificent great apes, including bonobos, chimps, eastern, and western gorillas, and orangutans. The population of of these creatures is drastically going down. The reason being is that the apes are losing their forests. Humans are the main cause of forests being cut down. Humans are cutting down the trees for lumber, commercial logging, and mining. But there are other reasons for the great ape 's death, such as poachers and diseases. Poachers have been told to stop, but it still happens. The government even made it illegal. Diseases cannot be stopped, which is why they kill so many apes. I think that people should stop cutting down forests, and help save the environment. …show more content…

Orangutans have many characteristics such as long hair, long arms, small ears, round eyes, and bare faces. Their toes and fingers are both opposable, to help them grab things and swing from trees better. Orangutans are reddish, brownish, orange. The big floppy cheeks on the orangutan are “flanges”. Male orangutans develop flanges at around 15-20 years of age. The orangutan only lives in the Sumatran rainforest and the island of Borneo, and is one of the largest apes. If the orangutan is not up in the trees(Which is where it gets around), it is on the ground crawling on all fours. Of course they have their knuckles tucked in. This is where the term knuckle walker comes from. Normally an orangutan can live in the wild for around 50 years. The orangutan’s diet is comprised of mostly fruits, and the rest is mostly vegetation and small insects. There are about 920,000 apes today.This big creature can get up to 90 kg for males, and around 35 kg for females.

Gorillas Gorillas are mostly herbivores. They spend around half the day, the gorillas eat vegetation, but sometimes the will eat termite larvae. When on two feet, the average gorilla can measure up to 1.2-1.7meters and weigh up to 200kg. Females are about 100 kg; half of a male. The gorillas travel in groups ranging from 2-50 members(Most commonly 5-10). The population is around 101,530 gorillas including western lowland gorillas, Cross River gorillas,

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