Primates are a group of mammals that include the apes, monkeys, lemurs, and humans. Apes, monkeys, and lemurs share 96 to 99 percent of our DNA, and are in danger of extinction. In this course, we take a virtual tour to Madagascar and Southeast Asia to meet the lovable lemurs; then on to Africa, Asia, and South America to meet old-and new-world monkeys—the baboons of South Africa’s Cape Peninsula, the langurs of India’s Gir Forest, and the pygmy marmosets of the Amazon. We also explore the habitats of the lesser apes and the great apes—the swinging (and screaming) gibbons, the docile orangutans and gorillas, the brainy chimpanzees, and the “make love, not war" bonobos.

Sharon Boorstin is a contributing writer for the Los Angeles Times, specializing in lifestyle and travel. She was the Restaurant Critic of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, and edited Gayot Guidebooks for Los Angeles and other cities. She also wrote for magazines including Bon Appetit, Smithsonian and Town & Country Travel. With her husband Paul, she wrote dozens of screenplays for feature films and television. Her memoir/cookbook, “Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship” was a selection of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club. Raised in Seattle, Washington, Sharon moved to Los Angeles in 1966 after graduate school in Education at U.C. Berkeley.