Did You Know? 10 Incredible Unknown Facts About Apes
10 Amazing Unknown Facts About Apes You Should Know
Did you know humans belong to the family of Apes? Yes, you heard right. That’s why we’re going to show the 10 lesser-known facts about Apes.
Do you know that You’re an ape? Yes, You heard right. Humans belong to the family of apes. But we think apes are large, intelligent animals that live in Africa and Asia. The family of apes include gorilla, champagne, orangutan, bamboos, and gibbons. Apes share their synapomorphy with their ancestor.
Here, we’ll share the 1o lesser-known facts about Apes that you should know.
10 Lesser-Known Facts About Apes That you Should Know
Below, we’ve mentioned the 10 lesser-known facts about apes.
1- They Are Not Monkeys
Apes are primates. The last ancestor of apes and monkeys lived around 25 million years ago. Generally, their arms are larger than legs and they don’t have tails just like monkeys. Apes have a larger brain-to-body size ratio. They depend more on their eyesight than their sense of smell. They have a more intricate and longer life span.
2- Bonobos Are Rare
Bonobos are one of the rarest species found in lush rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their population is between 10,000-50,000 individuals left in the wild.
3- Apes Are Always Make Their beds
Apes sleep in the nest and show advanced building techniques. Using the different ways they build comfy sleeping dens. They make a new nest every night, as apes rarely sleep in the same place twice. Silverback gorillas prefer to make their nest on the ground but females and younger males sleep aloft. Orangutans, chimps and bonobos also show the same building techniques as Apes. They chose the large forks in strong branches to build a nest to support their weight.
4- Female Bonobos Rule Society
Bonobos are the cousin of a great ape. The female is more dominant. They peacefully overpower the male to choose their own mates and claim the best food.
5- Orangutans Are The Slower Breeder
Orangutans are the slower breeder of the apes to reproduce. They live up to 45 years in the wild and they have a baby every eight years. Young orangutans depend on their mothers for over five years.
6- Some Apes Are Great At Maths
Apes show some outstanding and undeniable brainpower. But from this ability, how clever are they? The answer is: they will never be able to speak because of the [ostion of the larynxes. But it doesn’t mean they don’t understand the language. A gorilla named Koko learns a vocabulary of more than 1,000 words in American sign and can use it to communicate. A bonobo named Kanzi learnt to understand English the way human children do. Orangutans are great at Maths. Also, chimpanzees that have been beaten their human trainer at the memory games,
7- Orangutans: Flanged or Unflanged?
The male orangutan has the ability to develop large facial pads known as flanges, but nobody knows why they develop these and others don’t.
8- Apes Are Under threat
The world’s largest climbing species, orangutans disperse their seeds from their favourite and help to maintain the health of the ecosystem.
9- Apes Have Their Own Language
The apes are a vocal bunch and use a large vocabulary of sound to communicate such as shrieks, hoots, roars and growls, as well as other more subtle noises.
10- They Are More Than One Type Of Gorilla
There are two species of gorilla, each made up of two subspecies. Gorillas are found in the tropical rainforests of Africa.
11- Gorillas grin like us, but it’s not because they’re happy
Just as we communicate how fellow humans are feeling by assessing facial expressions, gorillas use gestures and vocalisations as well as a variety of expressions to communicate with each other. One of the most easily recognized is the ‘play face’. This includes an open mouth but covered teeth; It’s non-threatening and means ‘I can bite you but I won’t’.
Humans associate a smile with enjoyment, but it is a greeting or affiliation. It is often thought that when the teeth are bare, it is a sign of aggression, but with gorillas, this is only true when the mouth is open and ready to bite. If the teeth are pressed together, it is almost always a sign of submission. These expressions are combined with many other physical signs and vocal expressions to form a complex language.
12- We Share 99+ Of Our Dna With Chimps
Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and humans all belong to a family of primates called Hominidae. Based on genetic analysis, humans are more closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos, both of which share 99.6 % of our DNA. Gorillas share 98 percent and orangutans 97 percent. Although the similarities are striking, it is the 0.4 % that allowed us to move on from the evolution of apes. They keep in mind that we share about 50% of our DNA with fruit flies!
Humans are not descendants of any primate species that are still alive today. The common ancestor of chimpanzees, humans and gorillas evolved about ten million years ago.
