Planet Without Apes

Stanford, co-director of the Jane Goodall Research Center at the University of Southern California, persuasively argues that the continued survival of the great apes, humanity's closest living relatives, is approaching a tipping point. "Great apes have the deck stacked against them," he writes: for them to survive, there must be swift and "fundamental changes in how we view land use and the ethics of captive animals." Stanford begins by demonstrating why gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and bonobos merit priority, given their similarities to humans in such areas intelligence, culture, and tool-making. A pragmatist, the author observes that limited resources are probably best employed in securing tropical forests where generations of apes can live on, rather than creating sanctuaries for orphans. He also notes that the "ape-holding nations of the developing world should be expected to allow" wildlife, including apes, to become extinct in the absence of an "economically compelling path to preserving them."This is a timely call for effective action. Agent: Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency. (Nov.)