Among the Great Apes: Adventures on the Trail of Our Closest Relatives

Join Paul Raffaele, whom the Washington Post calls the "last of the great, old-fashioned adventure writers," is on a journey to meet the last great apes living in the wild.

Humans have long felt a deep attraction to the great apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. We see a reflection of ourselves in their faces, in their mannerisms, and in their interactions with kin. But we also look to them for contrast. Part of how we define ourselves as human rests with recognizing the differences between us and the great apes, in spite of the substantial amounts of DNA we share.

In decades past, many great primatologists, including Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Richard Wrangham, have dedicated their lives to the observation and study of the great apes in their natural habitats. Unfortunately, many of these sheltering places no longer exist. The great apes live in some of the most volatile regions on our planet, lands plagued by civil unrest, poverty, environmental degradation, and corrupt governments.

In Among the Great Apes, acclaimed nature journalist Paul Raffaele goes into the wild to see how our closest relatives are faring today. He takes us through isolated jungles and misty mountain forests, sharing wonderfully intimate observations of ape life paired with the most current research about their behavior.

Raffaele introduces us to leading conservationists and researchers working to save and study the apes. But, best of all, he gets up close to these amazing animals. He describes orangutans fashioning umbrellas from long leaves, a young chimpanzee mothering a "baby" log, and the bonobos' lively ritual of swinging like gymnasts through the treetops before building elaborate nests to sleep in. Moving from Borneo to the Congo, Among the Great Apes brings us to the natural habitats of all the species and subspecies of the great apes—a trip possible for perhaps the last time.