38 Books Like Between Ape and Human

This book was my encyclopedic introduction to the question of legendary man-like species existing around the world in the present day.

I was in my early teens the first time I read this book, returning again and again. I found inspiration in Sanderson as an unconventional scholar-adventurer who explored the planet and fostered my fascination with exotic and elusive species on the fringes and my appreciation of world biogeography. He was a founding figure of cryptozoology, the search for hidden animals. Through his synthesis, the legendary became zoology. 

In college, I eventually found a tagline for my intellectual preoccupation–physical anthropology. I was especially captivated by the pattern and process of the evolution of human bipedalism–the adaptations for walking on two feet. As a physical anthropologist himself, Krantz was a kindred spirit and approached the mystery of Bigfoot from that mutual perspective.

His central focus on the footprint evidence for sasquatch aligned with my interests in hominin bipedalism. After brief opportunities for collaboration, upon his passing, his data and collections were bequeathed to my laboratory. 

John Green combines the spirited curiosity of an investigative reporter with the incisive logic of the argument of a rhetorician and the articulation of a wordsmith.

I found that he skillfully painted the historical and anecdotal context for this intriguing mystery as an adept journalist, drawing me into the very scene, to become part of the actual experience. He also went to lengths to make the evidentiary case for the scientists to acknowledge and seriously consider the proposition. With that determination, he promoted and sponsored the launch of a venue to provide a platform for the dissemination of scholarly publications exploring the question of relict hominoids, with me as the editor-in-chief.

John Bindernagel’s book persuasively demonstrated that rather than being an enigmatic monster, sasquatch anatomies and behaviors, as reported by hundreds of independent eyewitnesses, were remarkably parallel to those of known great apes. Rather than an inexplicable anomaly, sasquatch constitutes another species of hominoid ape.

As I pursue Bindernagel’s thesis, I have discovered further that some anatomies and behaviors attributed to sasquatch actually anticipated those of great apes only recently recognized or appreciated.  

This is my only other fiction pick. I read this many years ago, when it was new, but it stayed with me. We see a lot of relationships between people and dogs or people and horses, but this is a novel about a girl and a group of bonobos. That’s an interesting twist on the human/animal relationship, because other primates are so similar to us in their intelligence and approach to the world. They are mostly helpless against human forces, but then again so are young girls. The bonds formed in this book are worth the price of admission, and the suspense is high throughout.

I read this book as a young adult and immediately passed it on to all my friends. This book is a popular explanation of sociobiology (sometimes called behavioral ecology) that focuses on how evolution might be selected for aggression. 

It is one of the most compelling explorations of why evolutionary biology is so important for the average person to understand. Ironically, it is exactly the kind of thing that Stephen Jay Gould hated–he was a staunch opponent of sociobiology, partly because he feared the potential social implications.

But here, I think Gould was wrong and Wrangham largely correct. It is simply a fact that males are more violent (in every society ever studied), and understanding why so that we can attenuate its effect might be one of the most important things a society can do. In a clear and reasonable voice, this book makes the argument for sociobiology difficult to… show more.

The book and the original 1968 movie are worthwhile experiences that examine our society, our treatment of animals, and our treatment of each other by creating a planet in which the roles of humans and apes are swapped.

The screenplay was written by Oscar-winner Michael Wilson and Emmy-winner Rod Serling and adds a legendary ending that was the talk of the neighborhood kids when I was growing up. It created a powerful symbol of mankind’s possible eventual destruction that stayed with me over the years.

The 2001 remake of the movie stayed fairly true to the original movie but was a bit slow because of its many side stories. The second remake in 2011 had amazing special effects but made the disturbing point that humans have become a destructive society that must be abolished by the apes.

While the original message was to treat animals and each other better, the… show more.

This book tells how three unlikely women–Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas–broke scientific ground with their study of the wild chimpanzee, the mountain gorilla, and the orangutan. In every case, a deep emotional involvement with the animals opened the door to insights that male-dominated “objective” methods of research had minimized or overlooked. “Each woman’s first few months in the field were marked by despair, as the study subjects either could not be located or fled at first sight. The women could not make it work–not by extra stealth, not by better equipment, not by new techniques.  One can manipulate an experiment to hasten it, but one cannot force or hurry a revelation.”

This is the first issue of an excellent YA comic book series. I really do enjoy scifi that features apes or any kind of simian life (yes, I love the Planet of the Apes series), so this book got my attention with the cover. The main characters are all space monkeys or simian astronauts that have landed their spacecraft on an alien world. One unfortunate monkey is the chosen explorer while the others watch his progress from the relative safety of the spaceship. The story is tense and surprising. The art is very skilled and I truly look forward to the next issue of the series which is expected to be released soon.

I believe an understanding of how human society evolved into its current state is a key ingredient in the search for ways to influence its future. Desmond Morris provides an insightful foundation for this by analyzing the human-animal from a Zoologist’s viewpoint. He traces our evolution from a small insect-eating forest dweller to a fruit and nut-eating ape to a predominantly carnivorous hunting ape.

This last major transition most interests me because it explains the significant biological and cultural changes needed to compete with established carnivores. This includes lengthened brain development, communication, male/female bonding, social organization, and territorial protection. While this transition introduced major differences between humans and other primates, the inertia of evolution over millions of years still impacts our behavior.