Apes are divided into “great” and “lesser” categories, with humans and gorillas being poor climbers. Monkeys evolved from Old World monkeys and have three-color vision. The lineage that gave rise to humans produced Homo erectus, which used tools and may have traveled short distances across the ocean. Most non-human apes are endangered due to overhunting and habitat destruction.
An ape is any homonoid (member of the superfamily Homonoidae). This includes the “lesser apes”, 13 species of gibbon, which live in the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia, and the “great apes”, family Homonidae, which includes orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans, all closely related. Characteristics of these animals include large brains and long limbs that are usually adapted for climbing trees. Among these homonoids, only humans and gorillas are poor climbers.
All monkeys are omnivores, consuming fruit, grass seeds, and occasionally insects or small animals. Some are vegetarians, like the gorilla, while others are dedicated hunters, like chimpanzees and humans. Most are social, especially humans, traditionally living in groups of up to about 200 members, though cities can be arbitrarily large.
Monkeys evolved from Old World monkeys, which have smaller brains and bodies and less social organization. These in turn evolved from arboreal primates resembling living species such as lemurs. Like their relatives the Old World monkeys, monkeys are one of the few groups of animals to have three-color vision, also exhibited by marsupials and bees. They rely heavily on their astute vision and ability to scuttle quickly through trees to avoid predators such as felines and canids. Others, like the gorilla, rely on their size and strength, while humans rely heavily on tools.
These animals evolved about 25 million years ago in Africa or Asia, where they remained until humans migrated to Europe and the rest of the world just about 90,000 years ago. The great apes split from the lesser ones about 18 million years ago. Orangutans split from each other about 14 million years ago, gorillas split about 8 million years ago, and chimpanzees and humans split about 3-5 million years ago. The lineage that gave rise to humans produced various species, including Homo erectus, which was intelligent enough to use tools and spread across much of modern China and India. It is not fully known whether these early relatives of humans could use complex language. They may even have been smart enough to build rafts and travel short distances across the ocean.
Most of today’s non-human apes are endangered due to overhunting and the destruction of rainforest habitat. Worldwide, there are an estimated 70,000 orangutans, 300,000 chimpanzees and 200,000 gorillas. Their number has significantly decreased over the last century.
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