Among the Great Apes: Adventures on the Trail of Our Closest Relatives »

Paul Raffaele, the author of Among the Cannibals, has scored many world scoops for such magazines as Reader's Digest, Parade, and Smithsonian magazine—among them, stories on North Korea, Saharan slave traders, Mao's China, the Khmer Rouge's Cambodia, and East Timor's fight for independence. He has reported from every continent on Earth, including the Antarctic; his favorite assignments were when he went among the great apes. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

Join Paul Raffaele, whom the Washington Post calls the "last of the great, old-fashioned adventure writers," is on a journey to meet the last great apes living in the wild.

Humans have long felt a deep attraction to the great apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. We see a reflection of ourselves in their faces, in their mannerisms, and in their interactions with kin. But we also look to them for contrast. Part of how we define ourselves as human rests with recognizing the differences between us and the great apes, in spite of the substantial amounts of DNA we share.

In decades past, many great primatologists, including Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Richard Wrangham, have dedicated their lives to the observation and study of the great apes in their natural habitats. Unfortunately, many of these sheltering places no longer exist. The great apes live in some of the most volatile regions on our planet, lands plagued by civil unrest, poverty, environmental degradation, and corrupt governments.

In Among the Great Apes, acclaimed nature journalist Paul Raffaele goes into the wild to see how our closest relatives are faring today. He takes us through isolated jungles and misty mountain forests, sharing wonderfully intimate observations of ape life paired with the most current research about their behavior.

Raffaele introduces us to leading conservationists and researchers working to save and study the apes. But, best of all, he gets up close to these amazing animals. He describes orangutans fashioning umbrellas from long leaves, a young chimpanzee mothering a "baby" log, and the bonobos' lively ritual of swinging like gymnasts through the treetops before building elaborate nests to sleep in. Moving from Borneo to the Congo, Among the Great Apes brings us to the natural habitats of all the species and subspecies of the great apes a trip possible for perhaps the last time.

Associated Press

Praise for AMONG THE CANNIBALS:“Simply fascinating. . . . Raffaele’s book is worth devouring.”

The Mountain Gorillas: Gorillas and Guerillas in the Mist 1

The Wild, Wild Chimpanzees 69

The Bonobos: Our Long-Lost Cousins 129

King Kong at the Brink: The Western Lowland Gorillas 183

The Cross River Gorillas: Rarest of the Rare 237

The Enigmatic Orangutans: Borneo's Man of the Forest 295

A Call to Arms 343

Bibliography 353

Index 355