This book is part of Firefly’s series Changing the Future for Endangered Wildlife. Different authors write about animals facing tough times, and the humans working to help them. Overall this is a readable and hopeful book series that avoids the trap of traditional environmental doom-and-gloom stories that just invite apathy.

Chimpanzee Rescue focuses on humans’ closest cousin. Compared to some of the other books in the series, this one is a bit more disturbing. Perhaps it’s because the plight of chimpanzees is that much worse than other animals.
Bow delivers the chimp basics: evolutionary history, habitat, behaviour, history of human interaction, and environmental and hunting pressures. More importantly, like the other books, there is an emphasis on what people have done and can do about helping the chimps. Lots of photos accompany the text, but they’re not all cute.

The photo on the book cover is too dark and it doesn’t catch the eye, but the topic really made me think about the future of the chimpanzee species.

I loved the facts about the chimpanzees and their habitat—I learned a lot. For example, chimpanzees are exploited by humans who want to make money. There are also a number of pictures that illustrate points the author is trying to make. The information about the people helping the chimpanzees, however, was less interesting than learning about the chimpanzees.

Overall the book was quite serious. It’s well-written, informative, and, at the same time, depressing. It’s not a fun book, but a very interesting read.

If I were to rate this book out of 10, I would give it an 8.5. In one word, I’d describe it as interesting. Chimpanzee Rescue is a warning of what’s going to happen to our cousins, the chimpanzees.



(Originally published in the Mar/Apr 2005 issue of YES Mag.)