Tag Archives: apes

The newly discovered Tapanuli orangutan of Sumatra

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To the surprise to almost no one, I found this very interesting.

New Species of Orangutan Is Rarest Great Ape on Earth

On November 20, 2013, the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme got a call about an injured orangutan found in the mountainous region of Tapanuli.

 

“He had cuts on his face, on his head, back, hands, and legs,” recalls researcher Matt Nowak. “They even found some air rifle pellets inside his body”—indicating torment and harassment by people. Despite veterinary treatment, the orangutan, named Raya, died eight days later.

 

But Raya lives on as the representative member of a new orangutan species, Pongo tapanuliensis, or the Tapanuli orangutan—the rarest great ape species on the planet.

 

An adult male Tapanuli orangutan in the Batang Toru Forest.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TIM LAMAN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

THE APES OF WRATH is educational… no, really, it says so right here

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Cover by Alex Solis

Cover by Alex Solis

Dr. Joan Gordon, co-editor of The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction and Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction as well as a frequent writer about the conjunction of science fiction and animal studies, used The Apes of Wrath as the centerpiece for her Hutton House Lectures (Long Island University) five session class “Going Ape in Fiction.”

846. GOING APE IN FICTION Joan Gordon

This seminar will look at the portrayal of our close cousins, the apes, in fiction, as allegories, symbols, mirrors of ourselves, and mindful subjects. We will begin by reading selections from the anthology The Apes of Wrath, edited by Richard Klaw, and conclude with the novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler. In between, we will discuss relevant short non-fiction readings. For the first class, please read from The Apes of Wrath “The Apes and the Two Travelers” by Aesop, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Poe, and “Tarzan’s First Love” by Burroughs. You might want to prepare by visiting the zoo and eating a banana monkey-style.

WOW!