What are Apes

Apes are the animals that look most like human beings. They are also called anthropoid apes (anthropoid means "like a man"). Apes have short, bent legs and very long arms. They are covered with hair, which may be black, brown, a reddish brown, or gray. Apes do not have tails as monkeys do. An ape is like a man in other ways. It has 32 teeth, as a man does. It has a brain like a man's, too, but the brain is smaller.

Some scientists believe that an ape can learn anything that a four-yearold child can learn; but apes never learn to talk. Apes sometimes walk upright as men do, but usually they walk on their feet and the knuckles of their hands. There are no apes in the Americas (unless they are brought across the seas for use in zoos and shows). Apes come from Africa and Asia. There are four kinds of ape: gorilla, chipanzee, orang-utan, and gibbon. There are separate articles about these apes in later volumes of this encyclopedia.