Challenge
African great apes are rapidly disappearing along with their enormous behavioral and cultural diversity, their complex genetic history, and their remarkable social and demographic characteristics. Many central questions about the evolutionary and ecological drivers of great ape adaptive flexibility, and resulting population diversity, have not yet been addressed although they are essential in developing great ape conservation strategies.
Mission and goal
We combine innovative research and classical survey methods:
- to advance scientific understanding of great ape population diversity
- to promote evidence-based conservation
of great ape populations, the extant bridge to our evolutionary past.
Research
We collect and analyze data on small to large spatial scales to investigate the evolutionary and ecological drivers that generate the behavioral, social and demographic diversity observed among great ape populations.
Conservation
We provide decision makers with a scientific basis for:
- priority setting in terms of geography, strategy and action
- reconciling economic and conservation interests
Information dissemination
Data are archived in the A.P.E.S. database. Outputs and contextual data are made available on the A.P.E.S. mapper and the A.P.E.S. database.
