The focus of study for primatologist, Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee are our closest cousins, sharing 98% of our genes. Highly social animals, they care for their offspring for years and can live to over 50. 

Wishing you all a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!

And Best Wishes for a Fantastic New Year in 2024!

The Great Horned Owl - a majestic bird with a wingspan of approximately 4.6 feet and weighing only about 3 pounds, doesn't actually have 'horns' but has tufts of feathers that resemble horns. 

The critically-endangered Orangutan, known as the “gardeners” of the forest, play a vital role in seed dispersal in their tropical forest habitats. Their numbers have decreased from 230,000 total a century ago, this includes the Bornean, Sumatran, and a third species announced in November 2017, the Tapanuli, to more than half that number.

Among the many species of seals are the harbor, ringed, ribbon, spotted, and bearded seals. Also included are the northern fur seals and Steller sea lions that live in the Arctic region. The ringed, ribbon, spotted, and bearded seals are known as "ice seals" and live on sea ice in the Arctic for at least part of the year. The "ringed seal lifecycle relies on ice and rapid ice loss in the Arctic causes seal pups to be prematurely separated from their mothers during milking period and also creates a situation where the inablility to build dens for protection leads to high pup mortality."