 Art sales alone raise $16,725 for conservation in Iowa, around the world
Des Moines, Iowa – November 20, 2007 – Another $7,000 has been raised through the sale of additional art works created by the bonobos and orangutans living at Great Ape Trust of Iowa, bringing to nearly $40,000 the amount raised this year in central Iowa to support The Trust’s conservation efforts.
Paintings in the Apes Helping Apes exhibit at Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure, 2723 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines, remain on display through Nov. 25. The first 16 paintings sold in a matter of days for a total of nearly $10,000. Eight more were added to the collection and offered to Great Ape Trust supporters in a recent silent auction, bringing the total from the sale of art to $16,725.
That amount, coupled with the $22,000 in direct conservation aid raised last summer in Great Ape Trust’s 2nd Annual Bowlathon for Great Apes, brings to nearly $40,000 the amount central Iowans have contributed this year to support G reat Ape Trust’s in-situ conservation programs. Great Ape Trust is strongly committed to conservation in great ape range countries, where all types of great apes are endangered. Some species, such as the the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) and the Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), are critically endangered. According to estimates compiled by Great Ape Trust, wild populations have declined 80 percent to 90 percent since 1900. Some subspecies, such as mountain gorillas, number only in the hundreds.
Several of the Apes Helping Apes paintings will hang in Des Moines homes and businesses, and the buyers’ generosity suggests there’s not only an interest in the art the apes create, but also support for conservation of the habitat apes in the wild depend upon for survival. Great Ape Trust Director of Conservation Dr. Benjamin Beck said the money raised will go a long way in range countries where great apes remain, he said. For example:
- $3 buys an energy-efficient stove for a family in Rwanda, where critically endangered mountain gorillas and endangered chimpanzees are found in the wild. This reduces the demand on wood from the rain forest and the time to collect it, thus improving villagers’ quality of life.
- $100 buys a sweater and rain gear for a ranger in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National park, where a cadre of rangers works around the clock to protect one of the few remaining populations of mountain gorilla, or 500 seedlings of native forest trees for forest restoration programs.
- $150 provides transportation, a snack and teacher time for a visit of 30 school students to a nature center in an ape range country; pays the monthly salary for a nature center teacher; or provides boots, rain gear, field clothing and a back pack for a field assistant.
- $300 is the monthly salary and food budget for a field assistant or community game guard for a variety of ape field projects.
- $5,000 pays one month’s salary for “ape mothers,” animal care staff, maintenance staff and administrative staff of an ape sanctuary.
The apes creating the paintings for “Apes Helping Apes” did so voluntarily and as part of ongoing enrichment activities at Great Ape Trust, where scientific research seeks to understand the origins and future of culture, language, tool use and intelligence. The work at The Trust builds on a growing body of research that has found the four types of great ape – bonobos, orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas – are thinking, self-aware and intelligent beings.
Apes Helping Apes is modeled after a similar program at the Houston Zoo called Pongos Helping Pongos, which has raised thousands of dollars for in-situ conservation. Peter Clay, a senior orangutan caretaker, heard about the idea at a recent ZACC (Zoos and Aquariums Committing to Conservation) conference. Ape caretakers at Great Ape Trust are encouraged to develop conservation initiatives, and Clay thought it could be duplicated in Des Moines.
Great Ape Trust Background
Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a scientific research facility in southeast Des Moines dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence. When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). |
Great Ape Trust is certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums
