Apes

This growing collection gives you a peek inside the worlds of our fellow primates, ​their appearance, adaptations, behaviors, languages, conservation statuses, and more. ​Notice the relationship between how they live and where they live:
How do their habitats nurture them? ​And how do they enrich their environments?
​

​The exact number of ape species and subspecies is a bit fluid as the advent of DNA analysis provides deeper insights into taxonomic classifications. In addition, new technologies are facilitating the discovery of previously unstudied species while, sadly, others become extinct.

Great Apes

Bonobos

Bonobos (Pan genus) include one species and found in Central Africa.

They are sometimes referred to pygmy chimpanzees, but they are a distinct species from chimpanzees, although both ar in the Pan genus.

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Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees (genus Pan) include 4 subspecies, and are found in West and Central Africa.

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GORILLAS

Gorillas (genus Gorilla) include 2 species and 4 subspecies, and are found in Central Africa​.

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Orangutans

​Orangutans (genus Pongo) included 3 species and 3 subspecies, and are found in Southeast Asia​.

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Lesser Apes

Gibbons

Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae. Also called the smaller apes or lesser apes, gibbons are smaller than great apes, are tailless, and do not make nests.

Gibbons occur in tropical and subtropical rainforests from eastern Bangladesh and northeast India to southern China and Indonesia.

The Gibbon family is divided up into 4 genera, and at least 18 species and 184 subspecies.

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