Why Great Apes are Great.

There are tons of animals, many of which are nothing like us, humans. I mean look at a sponge, they don't even have moving bits. However, once you slink down mammalia and into the primates, you find creatures that do mirror some of the traits of homo sapiens very very closely. And the closest other animals to us are in the family hominidae, who you will probably know better as great apes. And indeed great they are, just look at us humans. We are obviously great apes, and I would say we are a smash hit in the evolutionary box office. Maybe too much of a hit. So these other genetic cousins of ours should be pretty great as well. What exactly makes them so great? What separates the common smelly monkey from the enlightened chimp? Well, that's what we'll answer today. If we are going off the definition of great as big, not remarkably good, then great apes still take the cake. The lightest great ape, the bonobo, weighs about 30 to 40 kilograms, which is just about as heavy as the heaviest monkeys. And the male eastern gorilla can weigh in at 140 to 180 kilograms, which is indeed quite big. In terms of size alone, great apes are some big lads, at least compared to the other primates. Out of the anatomical traits that differentiate apes from monkeys, the most prominent is the tail. While monkeys have tails that range from various sizes, with a select few having little to no tail, all apes have an incredibly reduced vestigial tailbone. This is easily the most simple way to tell apes and monkeys apart. Other physical differences are apes have broader but flatter rib cages and a shorter spine, making their torso wider but also not as long as monkeys. The apes' longer arms compared to their shorter legs give it a hunched over gait, compared to the monkeys' more quadrupedal walk, like a dog or a cat. All of these traits also allow apes to assume a bipedal, vertical pose, although monkeys are also sometimes known to walk vertically. They also have their scapula, the shoulder blades, set on top of their backs, rather than on the sides, like monkeys, which allows for greater arm movement, as well as more dexterous wrists. This allows apes to do their iconic swinging from tree to tree thing, instead of monkeys, usually climb and hop from each tree. Apes also generally live twice as long as monkeys. But probably the most important difference between great apes and monkeys is their brains. Apes are pretty smart. After all, they do have a remarkably larger brain-to-body ratio than most animals. Just like humans, they have been documented using tools, both in labs and in the wilds, such as a twig that they use to fish out insects. Chimps sometimes even use stone hammers, as in literally just a good shaped rock, to crack open nuts. And in fact, digs reveal Great apes can also more easily imitate, as in repeat behaviors and acts others do, than other primates. They also can be taught language abilities, like sign language and even geometric symbols, which form a sort of primitive grammar, which was learned by Kanzi the bonobo. It is highly debated whether or not they are actually showing signs of understanding language, or is it just simple mimicry and memory, but it still shows high signs of significant learning capabilities. This higher level of being able to learn things and use parts of their environment to solve problems, and quite possibly being able to communicate through a form of language, shows the intelligence of apes and what allowed one member of them, Homo sapiens, to conquer and inhabit all parts of the world, and become arguably the most successful species ever. Now, let's go through all the ape species, going from least like us to most like us. We start off at a split, between all other apes, great apes, and hylobatidae, or lesser apes. I've had enough talking about lesser apes this video, because really the only thing that separates great apes from lesser apes is that one is our humanity, and all of the other big mighty apes party, and the other is the gibbon. I feel quite sorry for the gibbons, they are pretty cool. They live in monogamous groups, where male and female mate for life and live in a family unit with their offspring, and also have shown some pretty impressive intelligence, such as understanding and actively using deception, as well as possibly understanding mirror images as their own reflection. However, due to their quite tiny size, the largest gibbon only being 14 kilograms, and lack of significant sexual dimorphism or nest building, they are unfortunately not great enough to be great apes. However, even though they are excluded from the primate equivalent of the grown-ups table, they do have a lot of buddies. There are 18 species of gibbon, more than twice the number of species of all the other apes combined. These include one of the most widespread and common species, the lar gibbon, as well as the largest of the gibbons, the siamang, yes you have to say it like that, who along with being the largest, also has a unique goller sac, a sort of throat sac that inflates and lets them create a unique resonating call. Although not great apes, gibbons are still pretty cool. We are now in the hominidae family, where the great apes reside. The next type of ape to branch off from the rest of the great apes is the subfamily panganay, home to the pango genus, better known as orangutans. There were once many members of panganay, including the infamous gigantopithecus, the largest ape ever, and so-called real-life bigfoot and king kong, but now all other panganay have gone extinct except for orangutans. There are three species of orangutan, the sumatran orangutan from, you guessed it, sumatra, who have overall thinner bodies and faces, the bornean orangutan, which is more heavy a set, in fact it's the largest tree-dwelling creature alive, and the recently described tapunuli orangutan, who are also the most endangered at less than 800 left in the wild. Orangutans are some incredibly interesting creatures. They are the most arboreal of all great apes, spending most of their time in trees. This is where they get their names, which translated from Malay mean man of the trees, and are also some of the most striking, with long shaggy orange fur. Mature male orangutans are significantly larger than females. Males also have distinctive fleshy cheek flaps as well as throat pouches. Orangutans are the most antisocial of the great apes, with independent males living alone. Females with young form close bonds with their offspring and live in a close proximity to other females, who are also probably close relatives. Mature male territory usually overlaps with one or more females, who are his breeding partners. Orangutans forage for leaves, insects, honey, as well as unique to bornean orangutans, bark. However, their largest intake of nutrients is from fruit, which makes up more than half of their diet. Although the other great apes usually get the spotlight for being smart, orangutans show signs of impressive intelligence. Orangutans are known to use tools to extract insects and seeds in the wild, and are also able to understand calculated reciprocity. Now, moving along to the subfamily Homininae, or the African hominids, where the next group to branch off is the taxonomic tribe Koralini, where only the genus Gorilla and its two species are located. The two species are the darker furred, larger eastern gorilla, and the more populous western gorilla, who have longer faces and broader chest than their eastern relatives. Their most common subspecies, the western lowland gorilla, has the completely serious taxonomic name of Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla, or as I like to say, Gorilla Cubes. Gorilla males, just like orangutans, are bigger than females, and weigh anywhere from 136 to 195 kilograms, which is nearly twice as heavy as females. All gorillas, even though they are the biggest and generally considered the most intimidating of the apes, are almost completely herbivorous, although they sometimes eat termites and ants. Mountain gorillas of the east almost only eat green vegetation like leaves and shoots, with their western gorillas relying on fruits the most. The social life of gorillas is quite similar between all species, and pretty complex. Gorillas live in small groups called troops, usually composed of females and their offspring, and one male gorilla, although more than one male troops do exist. The one dominant male is usually more than 12 years old, and has a noticeable silverish patch on their back, which gives them their name, Silverback. Silverbacks are in charge of making choices for the group, leading them to food, solving disputes, and protecting the troop from threats. The silverback also forms strong bonds with their females through grooming, in order to maintain loyalty and mating rights. If there are any other males in the group, a behavior only found mostly in eastern mountain gorillas, they are younger subordinate males who lack the silver fur, known as blackbacks. However, most males, once matured, will leave the troop and create a new troop, out of mature females, who also usually leave their natal group once reaching adulthood. Sometimes, many males reach maturity and leave at the same time, creating an all-male group. In terms of intelligence, like their relatives, the gorillas are very smart. Tool use, once thought to be something they were incapable of, has been observed in gorillas, like this female using a stick to measure the depth of water. Gorillas also have been seen using rocks to break open palm nuts. However, the most famous example of gorilla intelligence was Coco, a female western lowland gorilla, who was able to use 1,000 signs in a modified version of American Sign Language, nicknamed Gorilla Sign Language, as well as reportedly understanding 2,000 English words, as well as supposedly understanding more abstract ideas like good and fake. Now, we reach the final stop on the great ape's taxonomic tree, at the tribe Hominini, where the final two genres branch off from each other, pan and homo. I think we all know humans pretty well, but our closest relatives in pan, the common chimpanzee and the bonobo, are also fascinating. Chimpanzees and bonobos, once thought to be the same species, show a few physical differences from each other. Chimps and bonobos actually overlap in weight, however, the biggest male chimp will always be bigger than the biggest male bonobo. Both of the species' males are larger than females, but not nearly as much of a size difference as with the other great apes. Bonobos are more gracile, and chimps are bulkier and more muscular. Bonobo heads are smaller, and their faces are black with pink lips and long hair that parts over their face, opposed to a chimp's tan face, darker lips, and balder heads, as well as chimps having a more prominent brow ridge over their eyes. Although not physically too different, psychologically, chimps and bonobos are near opposites. Both are very smart, which we'll get into later, but while bonobos are peace-loving hippies, chimps are utter psychopaths. Chimp society is patriarchal, and at the heart of every chimp group is one dominant male, who has the breeding rights to females. These males will aggressively defend their status, beating any chimp who challenges him into submission. Male chimps will form coalitions in order to seize or maintain power in the hierarchy. For instance, one chimp may get his two buddies, who he has gained an alliance with by picking the bugs off their backs, and stage a chimp coup d'etat against the dominant male. This form of devious politicking is common in the chimpanzee world. They are just as nasty to exterior conflicts as they are interior, as chimps, even though primarily herbivorous, have also been known to hunt monkeys together like a pack, with drivers to make the monkey run a certain way, and ambushers to catch the monkey to eat them. They are also highly territorial, and will kill other chimps in land disputes. Chimp groups will sometimes attack each other and eat the enemy's babies. Compared to the chimps' bestial and savage society, bonobos are primarily matriarchal and peaceful, with violence rarely occurring. Females usually assume a more powerful, hierarchical spot than males, with the male status defined by his mom's status, and the mother-son bond being the strongest one a male has. They are not nearly as territorial to other bonobo groups, or show the same level of hierarchical aggression. In fact, bonobos are very friendly. Maybe a bit too friendly. I won't go into details, but just realize that these are some promiscuous little suckers. Why are these two seemingly identical animals so socially different? The best theory is, to sum it up, that bonobos live south of the Congo River, while chimps live north. Bonobos don't have to fear food competition with other animals, like chimps do with gorillas, and therefore are less violent and territorial than chimps. Anyways, back to the intelligence of both species, both bonobos and chimps are considered some of the smartest animals to exist, and they show this complex intelligence in their everyday life. They show complex tool use, nest building, social bonding, deception, and hunting tactics. Although bonobos are less experimented on, countless experiments have been done with chimps, such as a recent one that shows chimps solve puzzles for their psychological enjoyment, all just to see how close they are to humanity. So that's the great apes for you, and they truly are great. Nowhere else in the animal kingdom will you find creatures as socially and mentally acute as these four genuses. One of those is you, a human, who's watching this video and understanding this information right now, unless of course you're not a human. Remember, if you're feeling down on yourself, realize, you're a great person, it's built right into your taxonomic family. I would like to thank the indispensable Wikipedia for supplying most of the data, and as you should know, it's great in the sort of brief, not too in-depth understanding of certain topics like is discussed in this video. There really is a lot you could say about great apes, especially intelligence, but that would be an outrageously long video. I also have a few other, more specific sources that I'll link to in the description that give me more detailed answers that I needed to make this video. Also, thanks to the many images and videos I used to help show you the wonderful world of great apes. Of course, thank you for watching this video till the end, and see ya!