Real Apes of the Planet

Get up close and personal with Siswi, an orangutan who uses soap to improve her personal hygiene. Experience the mind numbing cold of the Japanese Alps, and heads 100 meters underground to a secluded monkey dormitory. Then there are baboons with a thirst for flamingo flesh, macaques with criminal minds, and fluorescent mandrills who wear war-paint to do battle.

The key to primate success is that, like us, most species live in close knit family groups. We explore the complex world of primate social lifestyles. In Peru Emperor tamarin males are conned into childcare; vervet monkeys in South Africa have a sophisticated alarm system to warn for predators and by using team work chimpanzees have become some of the most success hunters on the planet.

Our primate cousins are much smarter than you might imagine. Just like us they use tools, solve problems, and even have emotions. In Uganda chimps pass on cultures and customs through generations. We meet Dora at orangutan school in Sumatra and a bonobo in the States who can have conversations with humans and toast marshmallows in a fire he makes himself.