Endangered The book Endangered is about the journey of survival and the connection between a young American girl (Sophie) and a bonobo monkey (Otto) in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sophie’s mother lives in the Congo and runs a bonobo sanctuary. While on her way to the sanctuary to visit her mother for the summer, Sophie sees a man on the side of the road with a bonobo. She notices how malnourished and how bad the bonobo looks and against the rules of her mother, Sophie purchases the bonobo. When she reaches the sanctuary her mother is upset because even though she had good intentions of saving the bonobos life, bargaining with the man Sophie inadvertently promoted the illegal sale of the endangered bonobos. While at the sanctuary Sophie struggles to improve Otto’s health and a …show more content…
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has had many conflicts. The people of the country are poor, but interest is shown in the country because of mining. When war did break out the rebels enslaved and took people to work in the mines. Also, with the status of the country, the bonobos are becoming more and more endangered. This is in part because of poverty. The bonobos are being poached and killed for their meat and people even use their body parts because of superstitions. On top of this, the bonobo’s are also losing their habitat. With an increase in a growing population more land is demanded taking from the bonobos. Logging companies are pushing further and further leaving the bonobos at risk for losing their habitat.
Overall I enjoyed the book. I understand that this story is fictional, but a lot of the references reflect real life in the Congo. The country with a complicated past and the turmoil that can still be seen today. It is fitting that Eliot Schrefer titled this book Endangered. It can make reference to the dwindling numbers of the bonobos, but also to Sophie’s exposure to danger while in the
Isbell and Wright’s articles both focus on monkey species and their native environments, Africa for Isbell’s (1994) vervet Old World monkey and South America, Peru area, for Wright’s (1994) owl and titis monkeys. The articles main focus is the relationship between these monkeys and their natural predators. Focusing on how the predator aspect of their lives is determined by their environment and adaptations they make to ensure survival. Isbell’s Vervets Year of Doom focuses more on the adaptations that was forced upon the vervets’ because of their changing environment, the death of fever trees. While Wright’s Night Watch on the Amazon focusses more on how the primates way of life affects their relationship with predators and the likelihood of attacks. Both articles have similar aspects however the species way of life, specifically their environment and sleep schedule, are quite different as well as the authors way of observing and studying the primates within their habitats.
Indubitably, Louie Zamperini faced an extraordinary and life saving change in his lifetime. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand tells Louie's story and how religion saved his life. The story takes place primarily during the mid-20th century, where the United States fully engaged in war against the Axis Powers.
This book was about the life of apes in their natural habitat that is being destroyed. Stanford highly pushed the idea of extinction and what people are doing to the apes. Stanford explains the threats to the ape's survival and tells us ideas that could help stop or slow down the decline of the ape population. He tells us about the complex cultural, social, economic and
Nowadays, in today’s society, survival is considered the basic instinct of all humans. Commonly defined as the state of “continuing to live or exist, in spite of an accident, ordeal or difficult circumstance,”(Dictionary) survival teaches us the will to succeed and face adversity despite the challenges and obstacles we may encounter along the way. In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “ The Poisonwood Bible,” there is a central theme of survival. Whether it includes finding supplies and resources or fending off predators, the Congo presents challenges in which the Price Family must strive to overcome. Through the use of setting, allusion, style and symbolism readers are able to understand each character’s reaction and adaptability to the adversities of the congo.
In the novel ,The Natural by Bernard Malamud,Roy Hobbs a soon to be baseball player with his whole life ahead of him thinks his baseball career will skyrocket and will become a well known baseball player,but he let is love life interfere with his career. Roy Hobbs was shot at nineteen years old and lost his best friend all because of the same girl.His career skyrocketed but it was at the time where his age did not do him so good.The protagonist Roy Hobbs is a progressive character because although he was shot at nineteen and forced to take a fifteen year leave out of the big league baseball,he overcame his injuries and was determined to be the best.
Imperialism has been a strong and long lasting force, oppressing societies for generations on end. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, demonstrates how the Congo is continuously affected by this concept and ideology. Throughout this story, Kingsolver manipulates each family member and individual within the book, to better show Western and European ideas and attitudes, to convey the large amount of hypocrisy, in foreigner’s actions.
This novel is based on storytelling. Each girl has their own point of view of what life is like in the Congo. For, example, it was absolutely terrible for Rachel. She never wanted to be there from the start. When they first arrived in the Congo, no one wanted to be there. Certain girls changed their minds. Ruth May, for example, conformed to the Congo culture. She even made friends along the way, by playing games like “Mother May I” with the children of the Congo. Leah did not really conform to the culture. She wanted to hunt with the guys, but she still was a part of their culture. She fought for women’s rights in the Congo. Leah
I decided to look at the sexual behavior of bonobos because they are known for their frequent sexual behavior. Though they are not one of the types of great apes mentioned in the book, a bonobo is nonetheless a great ape that belongs in the same genus as the common chimpanzee. Furuichi et al. observed bonobos in their naturalistic habitat in Wamba, Democratic Republic
The author uses pathos to get people to feel sympathy for the family in the village who lost their son when he got mauled by a lion. This quote greatly supports the author's purpose for writing this article. Finally he supports this claim asserting people are too ignorant to make a feasible claim about the situation. He uses diction and parallel structure to appeal to pathos when stating, “Don’t tell us what to do with our animals when you allow your own mountain lions to be hunted to near extinction in the eastern United States. Don’t bemoan the clear-cutting of our forest when you turn yours into concrete jungles.” The author uses parallel structure when repeating, “Don’t “ to emphasise his overall point. He also uses diction to assert his claim when he uses the words, “extinction, bemoan, and concrete jungles”. He specifically used these words to get us to feel the injustice about how the Americans are acting about Cecil’s death. Overall, Nzou combines his condemnatory and critical tone with these appeals to effectively point out to the people who are “crying” about Cecil’s death that lions are harmful to people and killing lions happens all the time in the area. This article would be informative to the public who are outraged about Cecil’s death and
Chapter 1: Dian Fossey plans a trip for seven weeks to Africa where she will study gorillas and meet scientists Louis and Mary Leakey. Fossey goes with the Leakey’s to look at a giraffe fossil at an excavation site. She ends up falling into the ditch where the fossil was, breaking her ankle and throwing up all over the fossil. After two weeks of recovering, Fossey goes to study gorillas with Alan Root, a photographer, and his wife, Joan. After watching the gorillas, Fossey returns to her hometown, Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Leakey then offers Fossey an opportunity to study gorillas in Africa for a long period of time, and it will be completely free for Fossey. Fossey agrees and once again begins her trip to Africa. She goes out with her
At these moments, life in the Congo is a living nightmare. The eastern provinces of the Congo see violence every day. Women are getting raped at alarming rates. Children are constantly abused and forced to become child soldiers. There are no sources of medicine or even clean water. Anyone can get murdered at any time, and no one is even safe in their own homes.
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is about Ivan, a silverback gorilla who is raised by a human and lives in captivity at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan is brought to the Exit 8 after being captured and separated from his family while living in the wild. Ivan considers his new habitat a “domain” and refuses to admit that he is living in a cage. However, when Stella, an elephant, dies as a result of neglect, Ivan is forced to accept his situation. Moreover, he has to fight to keep the promise he made to save Ruby, a young elephant, from going down the same path as the rest of them. In her novel, The One and Only Ivan, Applegate uses characterization, setting, and plot to convey Ivan’s determination to become a protector.
Goodall, J. (1971). In the Shadow of Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. The author’s goal in writing this book is to discuss her experiences and what she had learned from studying wild Chimpanzees. Goodall wrote this book in order to convey her knowledge of a species of animal she loves very much, so that others may become educated and join her in protecting them. She dreamed of going to Africa to see them, and was offered a job by Dr. Lewis Leakey. Goodall wanted nothing more than a chance to help. Her experiences in surrounding herself with them have completely changed the way scientists conduct field research. Whether she intended to or not, the data she has collected has debunked myths and uncovered truths about chimpanzees, while bringing more light to human behavior.
The Virunga National Park is one of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet and home to a short list of endangered mountain gorillas. Currently, there are 880 mountain gorillas located in the forests shared between the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Virunga was the first national park founded by King Albert I of Belgium in Africa. The park was founded in order to protect the mountain gorillas, but unfortunately poaching had caused them to go extinct. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely rich in natural resources, but is politically unstable, has a lack of infrastructure, and deep corruption. The Congo had faced serious threats since the Civil War and wasn’t declared independent until 1960. In 1994, factions of african rebel groups are trying to gain control of natural resources to sell to foreign corporations. Since parts of Virunga lies on the eastern Congo, the park also lies within the natural resources that European private corporations are highly interested. It wasn’t until 2010 when oil was discovered in the eastern Congo (Virunga National Park). The Virunga National Park is known for its
Elephant populations suffered a drop in numbers that carried the species into the endangered animals list. At the beginning of the twentieth century, about ten million elephants lived in Africa. Presently, the ten million is reduced to half a million because of illegal hunting and habitat loss. Studies of the population show twenty-two thousand were killed in 2012 and twenty-five thousand in 2011. When comparing the death rate to the natural population growth, there is a possibility the largest mammal on Earth could be extinct soon (Vaughan 1). Because the elephant is the largest animal to walk on land, the greatly increasing human population affects the elephant population first. They live in some regions of the world that have the densest human population which continues to grow, which therefore continuously decreases their own population (Bryner 1). As the human population swiftly increases, the elephant population in turn, decreases. This is so because they cannot cohabitate the same living space. Elephants and humans cannot cohabitate because they would kill each other due to the inability to communicate. About population recovery, the Animal wildlife foundation states, “Populations of elephants- especially in Southern and Eastern Africa- that once showed promising signs of recovery could be at risk due to the recent surge in poaching for the illegal ivory trade”(1). Poaching presents one of the main issues that make recovery so difficult for these animals.