Eating apes / Dale Peterson ; with an afterword and photographs by Karl Ammann ; foreword by Janet K. Museveni.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peterson, Dale.

Series:

California studies in food and culture ; 6.

California studies in food and culture ; 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apes--Africa, Central.

Apes.

Wildlife conservation--Africa, Central.

Wildlife conservation.

Ape meat industry--Africa, Central.

Ape meat industry.

Central Africa.

Physical Description:

ix, 320 pages : illustrations (chiefly color)., maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2003]

Summary:

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 expose 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.

Contents:

1 Laughter 3

2 Beginnings 18

3 Death 37

4 Flesh 57

5 Blood 80

6 Business 104

7 Denial 126

8 A Story 151

9 History 183

Appendix A. Saving the Apes 231

Appendix C. The Primate Family Tree 243

Appendix D. The HIV/SIV Family Tree 244.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-300) and index.

ISBN:

0520230906

OCLC:

50079919