Planet Ape

by Steve Parker

"Planet Ape" brings you face to face with your closest living relatives, the Great Apes. Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans are only a hair's breadth away from us in evolutionary terms; our DNA differs by just a few per cent. These fascinating creatures hold up a mirror to humanity, giving us insights into our past, our present, and perhaps even our future - the environmental pressures they face today could be those we face tomorrow. "Planet Ape" reveals the Great Apes in unprecedented where they live, how they live and the challenges they face. Throughout, the approach is to compare them with each other and with us, their cousins. Using innovative artworks, photographs and text, the book makes key comparisons with human beings including anatomy, social life, physical and mental development, diet and communication. From peace-loving bonobos to warring chimpanzee communities, from highly sociable gorillas to solitary orang-utans, from their amazing communication skills to their breathtaking physical agility, "Planet Ape" is the first book to do justice to the diversity and complexity of the ape world and what it tells us about our own.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2009

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer known for producing hundreds of children's and adult nonfiction books covering zoology, medicine, evolution, and natural history. Educated at the University of Wales, Bangor, where he earned first class honours in zoology, he later worked at the Natural History Museum and held editorial positions at Dorling Kindersley before becoming a freelance author during the late 1980s. Parker contributed early titles to the acclaimed Eyewitness series and later wrote award-winning books including Science Crazy, Fizzing Physics, The Human Body Book, and Kill or Cure. He has also edited major collaborative works on evolution and medicine, regularly visits schools and libraries, and serves as a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

Reviews

[Cory · Rating 5 out of 5]

read through page 72. Will come back to it later. Library book to return.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative & well illustrated work that provides an excellent introduction to the subject of the great apes along with some information about other primates.

Their physical traits and behaviour are covered including a section at the end about the various threats to their continued existence. I had not realised how important a role they play in terms of their habitat in spreading seeds.

I checked this out of the library in order to increase my knowledge of apes and monkeys to assist in my new role as a volunteer in the education department of a local zoo. Since starting to read it, I've become a lot more confident when talking to visitors about the range of primates at the zoo, especially our apes.

[Lyn Dahlstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is not great writing, it is a sweet read. Loved the bonobo apes. It was over too quickly.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice primer on the apes.