Great apes are humanity's closest relatives. Great apes include gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos, also known as pygmy chimpanzees. At the turn of the century, there were approximately one million chimpanzees in Africa. That number has fallen to 150,000. Mountain gorillas have halved in size over the past decade, leaving just 320 roaming the trees of their homeland. Some say these great apes will face extinction within a decade. Why is this the case and should we let this happen? These monkeys are losing habitat areas daily. They are also constantly slaughtered for their meat and body parts. These two huge contributors to great ape depletion are just additional unnecessary threats to the existence of our loved ones. We must not forget that there are also diseases and environmental disasters that kill these intelligent, human-like primates. Humans share up to 98% of their DNA. This makes great apes a very valuable and important subject of study. We have a lot to learn from them. Because we are so closely related, this could also be a link to global extinction. Perhaps a more in-depth assessment of each of the factors contributing to the depletion of the four great apes could help to understand just how damaging and unhelpful this depletion has become for them and us. The massive decline of great apes is due to habitat loss. Habitat loss includes clearing forests for agriculture, timber extraction and firewood. Perhaps the orangutan is in the most trouble because of this. The last large groups of these primates are found in the great rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. These forests are currently being destroyed by illegal loggers, planters, but also by forest fires. Many of these fires appear to have been started by plantation owners. Logging is not just about cutting down a few large trees. It's about stealing all their resources. Great apes use their environment to make tools and obtain food. If we continue to take away their main source of food, they will certainly die. In addition to destroying their food resources, logging creates islands of tropical forest. Cutting down trees leaves empty spaces. This causes isolation of the great ape population. Gap caused by logging is also a common cause of these rainforest fires..