EMMANUEL SAMOGLOU
LIFE REPORTER
Gibbons, such as this one at the Toronto Zoo, are the focus of society and anthropology professor John Steckley’s upcoming children’s book.
A Humber prof is writing a children’s book to raise awareness for what he says is the forgotten primate – the gibbon.
“I call them the invisible ape because people don’t know them,” said society and anthropology professor John Steckley. “I wanted to write something that would inform people and get them interested.”
Steckley said the gibbon, along with gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans and humans, are members of the ape family and do not have tails – a key feature that distinguishes them from monkeys.
While certain apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas have gotten attention through the work of researchers like Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Steckley said little has been done to promote the gibbon.
“There is no great gibbon writer. I don’t intend to be the great gibbon writer, but I intend to write one book about them, because it’s needed.”
The book is a bit of a departure for Steckley, who has focused his career on researching and writing about the Aboriginal people of Canada.
Nonetheless, he said the new subject matter came naturally to him, as gibbons, much like many Aboriginal cultures, are marginalized.
“They’re all threatened or endangered and I felt that someone should write about them,” he said.
Although the book is still being written, Steckley is already busy consulting with various publishing houses.
“I want anybody who can read to read it,” he said. “It’s not for experts.”
Beverly Carter, supervisor of animal care at the Toronto Zoo, said she has two gibbons under her watch in the Indo-Malaya pavilion. She said they are wonderful animals to observe and have an amusing appearance.
“When they’re moving around, they’re great to watch,” she said. “Basically flying through the air, leaping from one branch to the next . . . They have funny little faces.”
In Carter’s opnion, Steckley’s book will improve people’s understanding of the gibbon, an animal that shares a common ancestor with humans, separated by roughly 15 million years.
“Anything that you can get out to the public that heightens their awareness of the trouble that the planet is in and if in doing it you bring animals into the mix, then that’s a good thing,” she said.
Steckley’s agent, Margaret Hart of the HSW Literary Agency, said she is optimistic her client’s book will be successful since it promotes environmental awareness through a relatively unknown animal.
“Publishers will find this project interesting because it deals with conservation from a new perspective,” she said.
“He is somebody with a really creative approach . . . He’s just a very knowledgeable, humanistic guy. He’s a good teacher who cares about issues and he’s a scholar.”