Going Ape

World Chimpanzee Day, who would have known. They are all very nice, but my favorite would be the issue from the Czech Republic.

There also is World Orang-utan Day ...

But let's stick to the chimpanzees for now:




This 2025 issue which shows Jane Goodall on one of the stamps is also available as 2 MSs of 4. More Sierra Leone:






A maxi card from South Sudan, 2026 issue.



One of my favorite more "historic" issues, Gambia 1996.




Guinea 2025, one of a set "Biodiversity".

Cobie, thanks for the reminder. Orangutan Day is held each August 18th. If I remember, I will post several orangutan stamps.

Monkeys, issued by Guinea on August 10, 1998.

- Debrazza's monkey (Cercopithecus neglectus)
- Talapoin (Cercopithecus talapoin)
- Crab-eating Macaque (Macaca irus)
- Grivet (Cercopithecus aethiops)
- Diana Monkey (Cercopithecus diana)
- Moustached Monkey (Cercopithecus cephus)
- Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta)

Hello again Laophil: Thanks for the latest addition. Note that Macaca inuus is actually an older scientific name for the Barbary macaque, Macaca sylvanus (just as Macaca irus is an older name for the crab-eating macaque, Macaca fascicularis).

I posted a recent issue from Sierra Leone with chimpanzees. There is a companion issue of Western lowland gorillas, and this issue also comes as a MS of 8 or two MSs of 4:

Thank you very much, Cobie, for pointing my mistake. I confused between inuus and irus (maybe I need better glasses ) and indeed the 300F is Macaca inuus which is called today Macaca sylvanus (Barbary macaque).

Thanks for the great gorilla stamps from Sierra Leone! They are great and very attractive.

The northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys or Hylobates leucogenys) is a Critically Endangered species of gibbon native to South East Asia. Today, the Northern white-cheeked gibbon is found only in northern Vietnam and northern Laos. They were formerly also known from southern China, in Yunnan province. They were confirmed to be extinct in China in 2013.

Adult male and female Northern white-cheeked gibbons, issued by PR of China on December 7, 2002. These gibbons are sexually dimorphic, with males and females having different colourations and the former also being slightly larger.


Northern white-cheeked gibbon in Ben En National Park, issued by Vietnam on July 1, 2006. Note the name Ogilby 1840 after William Ogilby (1805–1873), an Irish-born zoologist who was at the forefront of classification and naming of animal species in the 1830-40s and served as Secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1839 to 1847.

Northern white-cheeked gibbon, issued by North Vietnam on March 8, 1961 in a set of four animal stamps:

Thanks Laophil! One of Vietnam's rare primates.

Here is an MC of a 2022 set of the People's Republic of China, showing landscapes but with a tiny primate squeezed in;the photo shows a female Hainan gibbon - only some fifty of these may be left ...



Another of the set has a golden snub-nosed monkey:

Many thanks, Cobie!

Happy International Orangutan Day!!! :) :) :)

Orangutans are the great apes of Southeast Asia, found naturally only on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Three species are recognized today: the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), and Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis); all are classified as Critically Endangered, mainly because of habitat loss, forest fragmentation, and hunting. International Orangutan Day, observed annually on August 19, raises awareness of these remarkable apes and the urgent need to protect their remaining rainforest habitats.

Here is a group of different philatelic items depicting Orangutan.

Two stamps issued for use in North Borneo, 1931 and Sarawak, 1955.


Orangutan in Wilhelma zoo, Stuttgart, Postal Stationary, Germany.

Czech Republic, 2001 and Malaysia, 1999.


Orangutan and baby in Perth zoo, Australia - Maxicard and a commercial cover sent to Israel, 1994.


Orangutan and baby on stamp and postmark, Issued by the UN in 1998 to publicize the important of the rain forests in the world.

Czech Republic, 2018.

Orangutan on Indonesian banknote, 1992. The only Orangutan banknote I know about.

Orang Utan, 0.5 Chon, issued by North Korea in 2002.