Just Like Us

Rick Quinn

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“Outstanding photography! This book is a valuable contribution to the public’s understanding of our remarkable ‘near relatives.’” —Robert Bateman, wildlife painter and environmental icon

“Just Like Us is an entertaining and informative read that illustrates how one ordinary person can be a catalyst for positive change.” —Jane Goodall, primatologist and bestselling author

"Just Like Us will be a classic and is a must read. The book adds much to what we can learn about ourselves. A beautifully written adventure with great apes, with some of the most difficult and stunning photographs of the great apes ever made." —Thomas Mangelsen, award-winning nature and wildlife photographer and conservationist

A stirring account of hope and survival for the planet's endangered great ape species.

For most of his life, veterinarian Rick Quinn ignored a deep longing to meaningfully protect the endangered animals that fascinated him. Then one day, he read two magazine clippings about the great apes and knew it was time to set aside excuses and find the means to help. Armed with his camera and an insatiable curiosity, Dr. Quinn set off for the front lines of great ape conservation.

Just Like Us is a gorgeous tribute to our not-too-distant relatives as well as the courageous people who are risking their lives to protect them.

In this remarkable memoir, we follow Dr. Quinn’s seven-year journey across seven African countries and Indonesia, where he photographed each great ape species in its natural habitat. Using inspiring stories juxtaposed with stunning photographs, he illuminates the threats to great ape survival as well as the complexity of saving them. The result delivers an empathetic sense that these magnificent beings really are—strikingly so—just like us.

The author will donate all proceeds of your book purchase to Docs4GreatApes.

Sujets

• Endangered Species
• Jane Goodall
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: Girl Friday Books
• Date de parution: 02 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781954854321
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

Copyright © 2020 Rick Quinn
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Girl Friday Books, Seattle, Washington
Developmental and line editing: Kel Pero and Gail Hudson
Design: Paul Barrett
Project management: Devon Fredericksen
Image credits: cover & interior © Rick Quinn; cover author photo © Diane Hawthorne
For more on Rick Quinn’s work, visit www.docs4greatapes.org
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-7348802-1-2
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-9548543-2-1
First edition

To the memory of my loving mom, Patricia L. Quinn, who planted the seeds of curiosity about people, places, and animals in her son and always made things better.
For the Little Ones—Mackenzie, Jamie, Liam, Avery, and their cousins-in-waiting—that you and your amazing parents might find your own ways to enjoy and protect all things natural.


Juvenile Sumatran orangutan, Sikundur, Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Orangutans learn to move within the forest canopy by swinging on vines and swaying back and forth on tall saplings until their outstretched arms can grasp a limb from the next tree, pull it toward them, and transfer their weight. There are usually at least two limbs holding on to a tree at any one time.

Contents
Foreword
Prologue
1. We Are All Great Apes
2. The Silent Promise
Eastern Gorillas (Mountain): Rwanda
3. Through a Wider Lens
Eastern Gorillas (Mountain): Rwanda and Uganda
4. Pant-Hoots and Bloodcurdling Screams
Chimpanzees: Uganda and Congo Republic
5. Shaggy Red Primates and Troubling Red Flags
Orangutans: Borneo
6. In the Heartland of the Congo Basin
Bonobos: Democratic Republic of the Congo
7. Orphaned Refugees: Returning Home
Orangutans: Sumatra
8. Active Gorilla Duty
Eastern Gorillas (Grauer’s): Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
9. The Final Photo Shoot: Risking Crime, Kidnapping, and Homicide
Western Lowland Gorillas: Central African Republic and Congo Republic
Epilogue
Appendix
Acknowledgments
About the Author


Chimpanzee, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Chimpanzees have a low forehead with a very prominent brow ridge and eyes that are deep set and relatively close together. As the author quietly photographed this young male, he got the impression that he was deep in thought.

Foreword
A cross the once vast forests of Africa and Asia, great ape populations are in rapid decline. Chimpanzees and bonobos are designated as endangered—the Western chimpanzee is critically endangered, as are both orangutans and gorillas. The causes for their decline are numerous and nearly all are linked to human activity. By raising awareness about these magnificent animals, our closest living relatives, and illustrating how seemingly disparate issues are interconnected, Rick Quinn wants to mobilize ordinary citizens—acting as consumers, voters, and investors—to help save these vanishing and iconic species.
On every page, Rick’s sensitive observations simultaneously move the heart and feed the mind. His powerful images complement his thorough research—research that has clearly been undertaken by someone with a passion for understanding and protecting great apes, the people who live close to them, and the extraordinary landscapes humans and great apes share.
I first met Rick when I spoke at Western University, where he had organized an evening event as part of my Canadian lecture tour. Since that initial meeting, our paths have crossed on several occasions and I have come to know him and his family as close friends, as well as friends of so many other animals. Rick is a veterinarian and educator and he has gradually expanded his interests in the world of wildlife conservation and advocacy. He has photographed each of the great ape species in their natural forest settings in Asia and Africa and many of the images are included in this book. Also, Rick has been very generous in donating many of these high-impact photographs to support the work of the Jane Goodall Institute.
In Just Like Us , Rick shows how great apes are affected by human political strife and economic hardship. The dominant threats to their survival are illegal hunting for bushmeat sold in local markets and exported to expat communities abroad; the shooting of mothers to steal their infants for the live animal trade; and illegal logging and surface mineral extraction that destroy great ape habitat. Moreover, human populations are growing and people are penetrating ever further into the apes’ forest homes, carrying with them diseases to which the apes may be susceptible, as they are biologically so close to us. These threats are compounded by the reproductive cycles of all great apes—a female chimpanzee in the wild, for example, usually does not have her first infant until she is eleven or twelve years old, and then there is a birth interval of an average of five years. For orangutans the birth interval is closer to seven years.
The more I travel, sharing my message about the plight of wildlife in all parts of the world, the more I realize that efforts to protect animal species and their environment can only be successful if we work with local communities. Life for people in rural areas in Africa and Asia is often exceedingly difficult. Many are subsistence farmers, and as competition for scarce resources increases, conditions in the villages may become worse.
This became horribly obvious when I flew over Gombe National Park in 1990. When I began chimpanzee research in 1960, Gombe was part of what was known as the Equatorial Forest Belt, stretching almost unbroken from western East Africa to the West African coast. But thirty years later I flew over a tiny island of forest surrounded by completely bare hills. There were more people living there than the land could support. The soil was over-farmed and becoming infertile, but people were too poor to buy food from elsewhere. In 1994, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) initiated Tacare, a community-based conservation programme that worked with villagers to introduce sustainable agricultural practices, develop water management projects to ensure clean drinking water, improve the standard of healthcare, and support educational needs. Gradually we gained the trust of the villagers and today JGI operates similar programmes in six other African countries. JGI Canada is working in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Senegal. And everywhere we build trust and goodwill, and the local people have become our partners in our conservation efforts. It has become a cornerstone of the work of the Jane Goodall Institute in Africa over the years.
In 2013, Rick cofounded the not-for-profit Docs4GreatApes. With its partners, the organization has been building healthcare capacity by designing and providing medical upgrading courses for frontline nurses in remote village clinics in the Virunga Massif and by sponsoring East African veterinarians to pursue graduate training in wildlife medicine.
Many people feel helpless in the face of global problems, not realizing that they can help. The most important message that I take around the world is that we, as citizens of Planet Earth, can and should do something to help, no matter how small. The cumulative effect of small individual actions can bring about big changes. When conservationists raised awareness of the incredible scale of orangutan habitat loss created by clearing forests for palm oil plantations in Indonesia, people began to boycott products containing palm oil. The industry was pressured into taking palm oil only from established plantations and to increasingly label products as containing palm oil that is “sustainably produced.”
We are at a crossroads. So many species need our help if they are to survive beyond this century. Just Like Us is the culmination of Rick’s journey of discovery, an entertaining and informative read that illustrates how one ordinary person can be a catalyst for positive change. Despite the urgency and magnitude of the problems that we humans have created, there are reasons for hope: the explosive development of the human intellect that is coming up with technology to help us live in greater harmony with nature, and to reduce our own ecological footprint; the resilience of nature; the energy, commitment, and determination of young people, when they know the problems, to roll up their sleeves and take action to make this a better world; and the indomitable human spirit of those who tackle seemingly impossible tasks and won’t give up.
I encourage you to support conservation efforts by learning more about the issues, writing to your elected representatives to encourage them to support projects that benefit the natural world, and urging companies and corporations to consider the environment and future generations. And of course you can always make a donation to organizations supporting those working on the ground.

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE,
Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute
& UN Messenger of Peace


Juvenile western lowland gorilla, Makunda group, Dzanga-Ndoki National Park, near Bai Hokou, Central African Republic. Young gorillas spend time developing skills that will be useful later in life through play with younger gorillas. Oddly, this young gorilla was alone and had a dejected appearance—perhaps having a time-out.

Prologue
I never saw it coming. I was a content veterinarian. But one day, in the solitude of my home study, something changed.
The chaos on my desk was hiding the document that I was desperate to locate. Happen