Whether it is bonobos, eastern and western gorillas, chimpanzees, or orangutans, great apes are considered to be most like us humans. In turn, some of you will find it all the more surprising that many great apes in Asia and Africa are in danger of becoming extinct. This makes your efforts as a prospective volunteer in great apes conservation all the more vital. If you want to make sure that these majestic apes do not become extinct anytime soon, the time to sign up for one of our various volunteer projects is now.

Whether it is civil wars that are raging in parts of Africa or global warming and pollution, many great apes have either lost their natural habitats already or are in great danger of loosing their homes soon. Commercial logging, mining, and deforestation are some of the other factors that are contributing to the habitat losses that many great apes are faced with.

As a prospective volunteer in great apes conservation, you should also know that the illegal poaching and hunting of these apes continues to be a huge problem. As part of this kind of charity work, one of your tasks might thus be educating the local population so that they can see how much they are hurting all of us by hunting these apes.

Even worse, any prospective volunteer in great apes conservation will come to realize that the trade of bushmeat has turned into an entire industry. Therein, dead monkeys are not only traded for their meat, but for their body parts as well, which are believed to have medicinal or magical properties by traditional cultures in both Asia and Africa.

Also keep in mind that killing the mother ape for her meat likely means that the baby ape is not going to survive either. If you would like, you can opt to volunteer at an ape orphanage volunteer project. Given that many great apes continue to be subjected to all kinds of laboratory testing, the time to join a great ape conservation volunteer program is now. Unless more and more people decide to volunteer in great apes conservation as soon as possible, there will not be that many apes left to save.

If you would love to volunteer in great apes conservation, your adventure as a volunteer abroad will either take you to Africa or Asia. However, keep in mind that the last remaining great apes in Asia are found in Sumatra and Borneo. If the island life is not for you, you should thus choose to become a volunteer in great apes conservation in Africa instead.

Lucky for you, you should be able to find a volunteer project that is a perfect match here. We have partnered with a number of organizations to make it easy for you to volunteer in great apes conservation. Do not just keep your location preferences, but your personal skill set in mind as you are choosing the volunteer project that is the best fit for you.

Volunteering in great ape conservation is going to mean that no two days are the same. First and foremost, you need to decide whether you would like to volunteer at a great apes orphanage or aid in various research activities. Depending on your choice of program, you might be asked to feed and care for orphan baby apes as a volunteer in great apes conservation.

Alternatively, your job might be monitoring the local great ape population by means of sophisticated GPS tracking devices. Of course, you will be working with trained conservation professionals to make sure that you can get the task done as best as possible. From going out in the field and recording the habitat losses that the great ape population in your area is faced with to fundraising, there is plenty that you can do to help. Simply read trough the description of our various great apes volunteer projects to choose whichever program you would like to join.