Eating Apes

Eating Apes
Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Total Pages : 348
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520243323
ISBN-13 : 0520243323
Rating : 4/5 (23 Downloads)

Synopsis Eating Apes by : Dale Peterson

Annotation As Jane Goodall never fails to mention, "bush meat is the greatest conservation crisis in my lifetime." This book documents in text and photographs how wild animals in the Congo Basin, particularly the Great Apes but also chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas, are slaughtered and used for human consumption.

Eating Apes

Eating Apes
Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Total Pages : 349
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520938427
ISBN-13 : 0520938429
Rating : 4/5 (27 Downloads)

Synopsis Eating Apes by : Dale Peterson

Eating Apes is an eloquent book about a disturbing secret: the looming extinction of humanity's closest relatives, the African great apes—chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. Dale Peterson's impassioned exposé details how, with the unprecedented opening of African forests by European and Asian logging companies, the traditional consumption of wild animal meat in Central Africa has suddenly exploded in scope and impact, moving from what was recently a subsistence activity to an enormous and completely unsustainable commercial enterprise. Although the three African great apes account for only about one percent of the commercial bush meat trade, today's rate of slaughter could bring about their extinction in the next few decades. Supported by compelling color photographs by award-winning photographer Karl Ammann, Eating Apes documents the when, where, how, and why of this rapidly accelerating disaster. Eating Apes persuasively argues that the American conservation media have failed to report the ongoing collapse of the ape population. In bringing the facts of this crisis and these impending extinctions into a single, accessible book, Peterson takes us one step closer to averting one of the most disturbing threats to our closest relatives.

Eating Apes

Eating Apes
Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Total Pages : 348
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520230903
ISBN-13 : 0520230906
Rating : 4/5 (03 Downloads)

Synopsis Eating Apes by : Dale Peterson

"Eating Apes" is an eloquent book about a disturbing secret: the looming extinction of the African great apes. In bringing the facts of this crisis into a single, accessible book, Peterson takes readers one step closer to averting one of the most disturbing threats to our closest relatives. 16 photos. Maps.

The Hunting Apes

The Hunting Apes
Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Total Pages : 266
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780691222080
ISBN-13 : 0691222088
Rating : 4/5 (80 Downloads)

Synopsis The Hunting Apes by : Craig B. Stanford

What makes humans unique? What makes us the most successful animal species inhabiting the Earth today? Most scientists agree that the key to our success is the unusually large size of our brains. Our large brains gave us our exceptional thinking capacity and led to humans' other distinctive characteristics, including advanced communication, tool use, and walking on two legs. Or was it the other way around? Did the challenges faced by early humans push the species toward communication, tool use, and walking and, in doing so, drive the evolutionary engine toward a large brain? In this provocative new book, Craig Stanford presents an intriguing alternative to this puzzling question--an alternative grounded in recent, groundbreaking scientific observation. According to Stanford, what made humans unique was meat. Or, rather, the desire for meat, the eating of meat, the hunting of meat, and the sharing of meat. Based on new insights into the behavior of chimps and other great apes, our now extinct human ancestors, and existing hunting and gathering societies, Stanford shows the remarkable role that meat has played in these societies. Perhaps because it provides a highly concentrated source of protein--essential for the development and health of the brain--meat is craved by many primates, including humans. This craving has given meat genuine power--the power to cause males to form hunting parties and organize entire cultures around hunting. And it has given men the power to manipulate and control women in these cultures. Stanford argues that the skills developed and required for successful hunting and especially the sharing of meat spurred the explosion of human brain size over the past 200,000 years. He then turns his attention to the ways meat is shared within primate and human societies to argue that this all-important activity has had profound effects on basic social structures that are still felt today. Sure to spark a lively debate, Stanford's argument takes the form of an extended essay on human origins. The book's small format, helpful illustrations, and moderate tone will appeal to all readers interested in those fundamental questions about what makes us human.

Catching Fire

Catching Fire
Author :
Publisher : Profile Books
Total Pages : 318
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781847652102
ISBN-13 : 1847652107
Rating : 4/5 (02 Downloads)

Synopsis Catching Fire by : Richard Wrangham

In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes". Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. "This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome

Eat Like the Animals

Eat Like the Animals
Author :
Publisher : Harvest
Total Pages : 261
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781328587855
ISBN-13 : 1328587851
Rating : 4/5 (55 Downloads)

Synopsis Eat Like the Animals by : David Raubenheimer

Our evolutionary ancestors once possessed the ability to intuit what food their bodies needed, in what proportions, and ate the right things in the proper amounts--effortlessly balanced. When and why did we lose this ability, and how can we get it back? David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson answer these questions in a compelling narrative, based upon five "eureka" moments they experienced in the course of their groundbreaking research. The book shares their colorful scientific journey--from the foothills of Cape Town, to the deserts of Australia--culminating in a unifying theory of nutrition that has profound implications for our current epidemic of metabolic diseases and obesity. The authors ultimately offer useful prescriptions to understand the unwanted side effects of fad diets, gain control over one's food environment, and see that delicious and healthy are integral parts of proper eating.

Among African Apes

Among African Apes
Author :
Publisher : University of California Press
Total Pages : 216
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520274594
ISBN-13 : 0520274598
Rating : 4/5 (94 Downloads)

Synopsis Among African Apes by : Martha M. Robbins

These compelling stories and photographs take us to places like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, Ivindo National Park in Gabon, and the Taï National Park in Côte d’Ivoire for an intimate and revealing look at the lives of African wild apes—and at the lives of the humans who study them. In tales of adventure, research, and conservation, veteran field researchers and conservationists describe exciting discoveries made over the past few decades about chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. The book features vivid descriptions of interactions among these highly intelligent creatures as they hunt, socialize, and play. More difficult themes emerge as well, including the threats apes face from poaching, disease, and deforestation. In stories that are often moving and highly personal, this book takes measure of how special the great apes are and discusses positive conservation efforts, including ecotourism, that can help bring these magnificent animals back from the brink of extinction.

The Beginning was the End

The Beginning was the End
Author :
Publisher : New York : Praeger
Total Pages : 264
Release :
ISBN-10 : UOM:39015037395202
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (02 Downloads)

Synopsis The Beginning was the End by : Oscar Kiss Maerth

Asserts the human species is at a low level in the evolutionary chain and that the human brain grew larger than its physical skull could accomodate, causing damage which resulted in the species' alienation from the immaterial world.

Ape House

Ape House
Author :
Publisher : Random House
Total Pages : 371
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780385530255
ISBN-13 : 0385530250
Rating : 4/5 (55 Downloads)

Synopsis Ape House by : Sara Gruen

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly) novel “full of heart, hope, and compelling questions about who we really are” (Redbook) from the acclaimed author of At the Water’s Edge and Water for Elephants “Terrific: an incisive piece of social commentary.”—The New York Times Book Review Isabel Duncan, a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab, doesn’t understand people, but apes she gets—especially the bonobos Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Makena, who are capable of reason and communication through American Sign Language. Isabel feels more comfortable in their world than she’s ever felt among humans—until she meets John Thigpen, a very married reporter writing a human interest feature. But when an explosion rocks the lab, John’s piece turns into the story of a lifetime—and Isabel must connect with her own kind to save her family of apes from a new form of human exploitation.

The Drunken Monkey

The Drunken Monkey
Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Total Pages : 179
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520958173
ISBN-13 : 0520958179
Rating : 4/5 (73 Downloads)

Synopsis The Drunken Monkey by : Robert Dudley

Alcoholism, as opposed to the safe consumption of alcohol, remains a major public health issue. In this accessible book, Robert Dudley presents an intriguing evolutionary interpretation to explain the persistence of alcohol-related problems. Providing a deep-time, interdisciplinary perspective on today’s patterns of alcohol consumption and abuse, Dudley traces the link between the fruit-eating behavior of arboreal primates and the evolution of the sensory skills required to identify ripe and fermented fruits that contain sugar and low levels of alcohol. In addition to introducing this new theory of the relationship of humans to alcohol, the book discusses the supporting research, implications of the hypothesis, and the medical and social impacts of alcoholism. The Drunken Monkey is designed for interested readers, scholars, and students in comparative and evolutionary biology, biological anthropology, medicine, and public health.