1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910461882603321

Autore

Stanford Craig B (Craig Britton), <1956->

Titolo

Planet without apes [[electronic resource] /] / Craig B. Stanford

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012

ISBN

0-674-07166-2

0-674-06788-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (262 p., [8] p. of plates ) : ill

Disciplina

599.88

Soggetti

Apes

Endangered species

Extinct animals

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- PROLOGUE: Save the Apes! -- ONE: Heart of Darkness -- TWO: Homeless -- THREE: Bushmeat -- FOUR: Outbreak -- FIVE: In a Not-So-Gilded Cage -- SIX: The Double-Edged Sword of Ecotourism -- SEVEN: Ethnocide -- EPILOGUE: May There Always Be Apes -- Notes -- Further Reading -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Planet Without Apes demands that we consider whether we can live with the consequences of wiping our closest relatives off the face of the Earth. Leading primatologist Craig Stanford warns that extinction of the great apes-chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans-threatens to become a reality within just a few human generations. We are on the verge of losing the last links to our evolutionary past, and to all the biological knowledge about ourselves that would die along with them. The crisis we face is tantamount to standing aside while our last extended family members vanish from the planet. Stanford sees great apes as not only intelligent but also possessed of a culture: both toolmakers and social beings capable of passing cultural knowledge down through generations. Compelled by his field research to take up the cause of conservation, he is unequivocal about where responsibility for extinction of these species lies. Our extermination campaign against the great apes has been as brutal as the genocide we have long



practiced on one another. Stanford shows how complicity is shared by people far removed from apes' shrinking habitats. We learn about extinction's complex links with cell phones, European meat eaters, and ecotourism, along with the effects of Ebola virus, poverty, and political instability. Even the most environmentally concerned observers are unaware of many specific threats faced by great apes. Stanford fills us in, and then tells us how we can redirect the course of an otherwise bleak future.