Primate facts for kids: 7 apes, monkeys and lemurs to research

Primates are the group of mammals that includes monkeys, apes, lemurs and us. Most have forward-facing eyes, grasping hands with nails rather than claws, and big brains for their size, and the roughly 500 species live mainly in the tropical forests of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans — are our closest relatives: chimpanzees share about 98–99% of their DNA with humans, crack nuts with stone hammers and pass those skills down through generations. Gorillas are the largest primates, and for all their strength they eat mostly leaves and stems. Orangutans are the largest tree-living animals and spend almost their whole lives in the canopy of Borneo and Sumatra. Lemurs are found only on Madagascar, where they evolved in isolation into more than 100 species. Primates are also among the most threatened mammals: every great ape is Endangered or Critically Endangered, and around 98% of lemur species are threatened.