YouTube Transcript:
Every Ape in Planet of the Apes Explained | WIRED

I'm Dr Tera swinsky president and CEO
and chief scientific officer of the
diasy Guerilla
fund and I'm here to talk about each
great ape that's featured in the new
Planet of the Apes
trilogy what a lot of people don't
realize is that humans are considered
great apes as
well great apes are a group of animals
called hominids there's actually eight
species but you might be familiar with
the four most common types which are
chimpanzees gorillas orangutans and
bonobos
chimpanzees chimpanzees are the most
featured ape in the Planet of the Apes
trilogy although Caesar is shown to be a
pet in the movie chimpanzees and
actually all primates do not make good
pets for a chimpanzee to be a pet it has
to be taken away from its mother at
quite a young age and mother infant
bonds and chimpanzees and all the great
apes just like in humans are incredibly
strong so that's a very atic experience
for a young
chimpanzee chimpanzees communicate with
each other using a variety of both
gestural and vocal communication the
same way we do they have a pant hoot
which is a very loud sound that they
make when they're excited maybe when
they find a good food or if they hear
other chimpanzees in the
region so Caesar communicates with
humans in the movie using sign language
in the 1960s and70s sign language was a
really interesting uh area of research
with chimpanzees but actually with all
of the great apes so every one of the
great apes each species has actually
been taught to use sign
language and one of the amazing things
about chimpanzees is they have the
widest distribution of any of the great
apes they can live in rainforests or
they can live in savanas as well on the
western side there's the Western
subspecies and they live in countries
like Sagal and Mali and then you have
the Nigeria Cameroon chimpanzee which
not surprising is found in Nigeria and
Cameroon then there is the central
chimpanzee and they're found in gaban
the Republic of Congo Equatorial Guinea
and then on the far East Side you have
the Eastern chimpanzee and they live in
countries like Rwanda Bundi and
Tanzania when Caesar overtakes rocket
for Alpha status he is showing one of
the classic Hallmarks of chimpanzee
Behavior so male chimpanzees have linear
dominance hierarchies and they
definitely compete over the course of
their life to be dominant and the reason
for that is related to reproduction so
dominant male chimpanzees sire the
majority of Offspring in the movies
Caesar is portrayed when he has a infant
as sort of a a king and queen type
situation the two of them together and
that is not actually what we see in
chimpanzee Society chimpanzees have a
mating system that is called promiscuous
where males mate with multiple females
and females also mate with multiple
males I think one of the most incredible
things about chimpanzees that's been
shown is that they actually have protoc
cultures that are just like human
culture so culture is something that is
not something you learn in your
environment but it's actually passed on
socially so it's passed on generation to
generation and researchers have
documented that chimpanzees in the wild
have these different cultures so they
have different behaviors that have
nothing to do with their environment but
rather have been created by someone in
their group and then passed on over time
through social learning
in the movie you see chimps using
weapons quite a bit this is not
something we generally see a lot of in
the wild however there have been
examples of chimpanzees throwing sticks
and other objects down on human or other
observers probably the closest example
are there are chimpanzees in West Africa
who have been observed using sticks kind
of as Spears and putting them in holes
to try and stab another species of
primate called a bush baby
in the planet of the ape trilogies we
see the chimpanzees walking upright
quite a bit and chimpanzees and other
great apes can certainly do this they
can walk upright although they generally
don't do it for long periods of time and
it's really because these animals are
well adapted for living in the trees and
so the way that their bodies function
and are formed to enable them to climb
makes it really difficult for them to
walk upright for long periods of
time
bonobos bonobos and chimpanzees look
very similar bonobos are slightly
smaller than chimpanzees and that led to
them being called Pym chimpanzees for a
long time but we know them as a
different species they're not just a
different type of chimpanzee they're
their own species but they are smaller
they also are born with a very dark face
whereas chimpanzees are born with a
light face that darkens over time and
those are kind of some of the the big
physical
differences bonovas have the most
restrictive range of any of the great
apes so they are found in only one
country Democratic Republic of the Congo
and they are found south of the Congo
River whereas chimpanzees and gorillas
are found north of the Congo River so
they actually are the only great ape
that lives in this particular part of
Congo what's really different about the
way that Koba is portrayed in Planet of
the Apes is it's very unbo like where we
see more striking differences is in
their behavior so he's a very aggressive
individual and in actuality bonobos are
really considered kind of pacifists they
are very playful they keep their playful
personality as adults they're known for
being very calm using sex rather than
aggression to settle fights really it's
chimpanzees in the wild that have the
more aggressive personality that you see
being portrayed in
kobba in the movie you see that Koba and
Caesar are split over their relationship
with humans in the wild we don't see
that there is animosity towards humans
generally it's the opposite where humans
are aggressive and attack or kill great
apes human
work human work what we do see though is
animosity within a species bonobos are
actually the only species where that
hasn't been observed actually when
groups come together they can be quite
friendly now what has happened in some
places particularly with chimpanzees is
that where human communities and
chimpanzee communities have come close
together so for example where humans
have deforested areas and chimpanzees
are left in small little isolated Forest
patches we have seen chimpanzees attack
humans and I think it's not an animosity
thing that they're actually viewing
humans as a source of prey and actually
just recently there was the first ever
recorded sighting of chimpanzees killing
a gorilla even after 50 plus years of
watching these animals in the wild it
was just observed for the first time
earlier this year
gorillas in the movie the gorillas are
really portrayed as the guards and I
think a lot of that is just a result of
their sheer size gorillas are amazing
they are the world's largest primate
they start at 4 lbs at Birth and males
can grow to be 400
lb there's four types of gorillas in
total and only one of those four are
found in zoos and in West Africa there
are two subspecies there's the Cross
River gorilla and then there's the
Western lowland gorilla and that's the
type of gorilla you can see in a zoo
there's a big area in the central part
of Africa where you don't find gorillas
at all that's where you find the bonobos
in Eastern Africa there are another two
species they are the mountain gorillas
and they're the gorillas that were made
famous by Dian fossy and are featured in
the movies Gorillas in the Mist and then
there's one called The Growers gorillas
and like bonobos they are only found in
the Democratic Republic of Congo
male and female gorillas are the same
exact size until about the age of eight
and at that point female gorillas are
considered adults and they sort of grow
a lot more slowly until about 12 when
they're full size male gorillas however
at that age are really they enter a
phase called the blackback phase so it's
kind of an adolescence and they really
shoot up in size and they continue
growing until about the age of 15 and at
that point they've gained their adult
characteristic a male gorilla is called
a Silverback it's just a process of
maturation so every male gorilla becomes
a silver back so just like human males
at a certain age get broader chest and
facial hair male gorillas around the
same age will again get that broad chest
a big head and the hair on the back will
turn silver and that's a sign that
they've reached adulthood and male
gorillas are really they are in charge
of their family so they decide when it's
time to eat when it's time to rest where
the family's going to sleep at night
they really are the Protectors of their
family unit and in the wild the males
really do take on this guard role I mean
all of that size and strength the
purpose of it is to defend their family
and to defend their family from other
groups of gorillas and this is
particularly evident with young gorillas
if they lose their moms and in that
situation they basically will be taken
under the wing of the dominant
Silverback even if it's not their kid
they will still take on responsibility
for allowing this infant to feed near
them so they can still have access to
good food the infants will often travel
near them and they'll even sleep with
them at night in their nest so I do
think this portrayal of male gorillas as
protectors imp Planet of the Apes really
gets at the core of what male gorillas
are in their own
families a couple of cool things about
gorillas when Diane fossy started her
pioneering work to study them 54 years
ago the common perception of gorillas
Were King Kong Ferocious Beast and when
she studied them and got to know them as
individuals and got to see their family
social structure she really changed the
narrative and so gorillas are actually
known as now as gentle Giants gorillas
are stri vegetarian so don't ever let
anyone tell you you can't get big and
strong just by eating your
vegetables gorillas are always black but
they do have a lot of color variation
particularly in the western species you
will get a lot of red particularly
around their heads and then they have
that silver back but I've never seen a
red gorilla in the films there's a white
gorilla named winter but we have not
observed any white gorillas in the wild
there was one in a zoo in Spain his name
was snowflake but white gorillas would
really not camouflage well in the dark
Forest environments of
Africa
orangutans Maurice in the movie is seen
as a very wise and smart ape and
certainly orangutans are incredibly
intelligent there is a joke that said if
you were to give a screwdriver to a
chimpanzee they break it if you gave it
to a gorilla they'd throw it away and if
you gave it to an orangutan they would
sort of squirrel it away and then it
some point use it to dismantle you know
whatever was in the room so they are
known for their incredible
intelligence orangutans are the only
great ape found in Asia so they live on
the islands of Borneo and somatra
orangutans are divided into three
species up until recently actually two
were only recognized the bornean and the
Sumatran and then in
2017 the tapanuli orangutan was also
described
they are a beautiful red color and have
incredibly long arms that really is
because of the particular Niche that
they fill so they are the most
frugivorous of all the Apes meaning they
rely a lot on fruit this part of their
diet makes it hard for them to live in
social groups so you can imagine if
you're a 200 lb male orangutan and you
need to find enough food to eat and you
come across a food tree if there's 12
other orangutans in that fruit tree that
fruit is going to be gone pretty quickly
and as a result they spend a lot of time
high up in the trees and so these long
arms enable them to kind of move from
Branch to branch and span across these
Treetops as they move through the forest
looking for food so orangutans actually
are primarily solitary whereas the
African great apes live in social groups
orangutans spend most of their lives as
solitary individuals and the males in
particular had this really unique look
so they have what are called flanges
around their face so these cheek pads
around their face it's one of their
secondary sexual characteristics and
they emit these very loud long
calls because these animals are solitary
so they need to communicate with other
Rutan over a much larger distance than
say a gorilla might who lives in a
close-knit social
family
humans a lot of people don't realize but
humans are also considered a great ape
so they're kind of the fifth type of
great ape in the movie we see complex
relationship between humans and great
apes and I think the same exists you
know in real life unfortunately for
great apes humans are really their
greatest threat whether it be through
habitat destruction through poaching
climate change we are unfortunately
pushing great AP populations to the
brink of Extinction but I think one of
the reasons that these movies resonate
so much with people is because we see so
much of ourselves in great apes they
share the same emotions as us they share
the same kinds of relationships that we
do and so my hope is when people see
movies like Planet of the Apes they
recognize kind of the common Humanity
that we have with our closest relatives
and that makes people interested in
preserving them in the wild that these
aren't going to be just animals that we
might see in a zoo or in a movie but
that these animals will retain their
incredible cultures and social lives in
the wild as well AP home to me one of
the best things about the planet of the
ape movies is that no actual Apes were
in these movies the fact that these are
all computer generated Apes with humans
behind them to me is incredible and the
technology is amazing and I was lucky
enough to get to work with Andy Circus
when he was actually preparing to be
Kong in the King Kong movies and I think
that his portrayal of Apes is truly
amazing I mean he really captures just
the subtleties of the way they move and
interact great apes are so much like us
like like us they have friends and
enemies like us they have emotions like
us they have really rich complex social
lives and so I think you know my career
as a primatologist and a conservationist
I hope that we can cohabitate together
maybe a little bit better than the Apes
did in the Planet of the Apes trilogy