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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/06/new-great-ape-species-tapanuli-orangutan-human-family-member-fight
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| Welcome, new ape relative: can you teach us not to kill you? | Welcome, new ape relative: can you teach us not to kill you? |
| (6 days later) | |
| If I could be a fly on the wall at any point in the history of science, it would be to watch the young(ish) Charles Darwin – long before his ideas on our shared ancestry with apes were published – enter the orangutan enclosure at London Zoo in 1838. Within the enclosure there resided Jenny, a young and playful orangutan acquired by the British empire. Darwin went to sit with Jenny and observe her; in his hand was a mirror. | If I could be a fly on the wall at any point in the history of science, it would be to watch the young(ish) Charles Darwin – long before his ideas on our shared ancestry with apes were published – enter the orangutan enclosure at London Zoo in 1838. Within the enclosure there resided Jenny, a young and playful orangutan acquired by the British empire. Darwin went to sit with Jenny and observe her; in his hand was a mirror. |
| His scrawled notes on what happened next (published here) tell it best. Jenny was apparently “astonished beyond measure at [the] looking glass, looked at it every way, sideways, & with most steady surprise … after some time stuck out lips, like kissing, to glass ... Put body in all kinds of positions when approaching glass to examine it.” | His scrawled notes on what happened next (published here) tell it best. Jenny was apparently “astonished beyond measure at [the] looking glass, looked at it every way, sideways, & with most steady surprise … after some time stuck out lips, like kissing, to glass ... Put body in all kinds of positions when approaching glass to examine it.” |
| These hastily written words come from a time when there was still a great mystery about the apes, with many of the zoo’s punters considering them a charismatic perversion of human form, far beneath us on the great chain of being. This encounter was undoubtedly a big moment for Darwin. It’s possible that he came to view Jenny’s behaviour and playful and inquisitive style as differing from humans only by a matter of degree, not form. This would have been a novel thought for its time. | These hastily written words come from a time when there was still a great mystery about the apes, with many of the zoo’s punters considering them a charismatic perversion of human form, far beneath us on the great chain of being. This encounter was undoubtedly a big moment for Darwin. It’s possible that he came to view Jenny’s behaviour and playful and inquisitive style as differing from humans only by a matter of degree, not form. This would have been a novel thought for its time. |
| Why do I bring this up? Well, Darwin would no doubt have been overjoyed to learn that, what was once considered to be one single species of orangutan was actually two species – each separated into island populations like the hallowed finches he made so famous. But there’s more. Now we realise that there are not two species of orangutan, but actually three species. | Why do I bring this up? Well, Darwin would no doubt have been overjoyed to learn that, what was once considered to be one single species of orangutan was actually two species – each separated into island populations like the hallowed finches he made so famous. But there’s more. Now we realise that there are not two species of orangutan, but actually three species. |
| The news, announced at the end of last week, is that a discrete population of Sumatra’s orangutans, separated by a large lake to the north, is a unique species with its own calls (more booming), hairstyles (more frizzy) and, perhaps most crucially, DNA. This distinct southern population are still orangutans, of course – but they have kept themselves to themselves for perhaps 100,000 years, going on their own evolutionary journey to modernity. They are, in other words, a new species. And so let us welcome the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) to the world – even though it was always there – and add its name to the very long list of human-named things that exist in our minds and our books only because they have names that we gave them. | The news, announced at the end of last week, is that a discrete population of Sumatra’s orangutans, separated by a large lake to the north, is a unique species with its own calls (more booming), hairstyles (more frizzy) and, perhaps most crucially, DNA. This distinct southern population are still orangutans, of course – but they have kept themselves to themselves for perhaps 100,000 years, going on their own evolutionary journey to modernity. They are, in other words, a new species. And so let us welcome the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) to the world – even though it was always there – and add its name to the very long list of human-named things that exist in our minds and our books only because they have names that we gave them. |
| Our next job is, of course, to worry about its imminent extinction. The entire population of Tapanuli orangutans numbers only 800 individuals, and they face a number of familiar pressures that include hunting and deforestation, some of it to make way for possible mining operations. This urgent threat could make the Tapanuli orangutan one of the most threatened of all great apes, meaning that within seconds of it being discovered, it will likely find itself in the critically endangered category of Earth’s threatened creatures. | Our next job is, of course, to worry about its imminent extinction. The entire population of Tapanuli orangutans numbers only 800 individuals, and they face a number of familiar pressures that include hunting and deforestation, some of it to make way for possible mining operations. This urgent threat could make the Tapanuli orangutan one of the most threatened of all great apes, meaning that within seconds of it being discovered, it will likely find itself in the critically endangered category of Earth’s threatened creatures. |
| There the Tapanuli orangutan will join the eastern gorilla, western gorilla, Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan. (The others – chimps and bonobos – are lagging a little behind, listed merely as “endangered”). It’s not all bad news, though, because one species of great ape is making a very good time of it. It is one you have come to know intimately each day through the use of your own personal looking-glass. | There the Tapanuli orangutan will join the eastern gorilla, western gorilla, Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan. (The others – chimps and bonobos – are lagging a little behind, listed merely as “endangered”). It’s not all bad news, though, because one species of great ape is making a very good time of it. It is one you have come to know intimately each day through the use of your own personal looking-glass. |
| So how did it come to this? How did we let the other great apes down so badly? | So how did it come to this? How did we let the other great apes down so badly? |
| All extinction is a stain on our conscience. Every single species we snuff out deserves our recognition and consideration and our profound regret. But there is something especially sad about the fate of the great apes. That we can’t even manage to save creatures with whom we shared grandparents a geological period ago is a deep red bloodstain upon our altruistic credentials. | All extinction is a stain on our conscience. Every single species we snuff out deserves our recognition and consideration and our profound regret. But there is something especially sad about the fate of the great apes. That we can’t even manage to save creatures with whom we shared grandparents a geological period ago is a deep red bloodstain upon our altruistic credentials. |
| Future palaeontologists will look at the plight of fossil apes in the geological strata being laid down in our current age and wonder why we let them, of all species, dwindle. “Perhaps those early humans thought the other apes stupid?” they will wonder. “Perhaps other apes threatened the early human’s resources?” they will think. “Perhaps they tasted good?” | Future palaeontologists will look at the plight of fossil apes in the geological strata being laid down in our current age and wonder why we let them, of all species, dwindle. “Perhaps those early humans thought the other apes stupid?” they will wonder. “Perhaps other apes threatened the early human’s resources?” they will think. “Perhaps they tasted good?” |
| The truth will be far more embarrassing. We let them go because we just … sort of … forgot about them. So let’s try not to. Let’s keep shining that mirror on ourselves. Let’s keep talking about the plight of great apes. Last week, the world gained a new species, but we – all of us – also gained a new family member. A creature who differs from us by degree, not type. The least we could do is look out for it a bit. | The truth will be far more embarrassing. We let them go because we just … sort of … forgot about them. So let’s try not to. Let’s keep shining that mirror on ourselves. Let’s keep talking about the plight of great apes. Last week, the world gained a new species, but we – all of us – also gained a new family member. A creature who differs from us by degree, not type. The least we could do is look out for it a bit. |
| • Jules Howard is a zoologist, and the author of Sex on Earth, and Death on Earth | • Jules Howard is a zoologist, and the author of Sex on Earth, and Death on Earth |
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