Absolutely heartbreaking, I fear we're now entering a period where the better known megafauna is disapearing, never to return; I'm sure numerous unknown/little known species are going all the time, but aren't noticed or news worthy. Wow, 50 years to no more chimps, and there were about 2 million a century ago.
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Chimps Could Be Extinct in 50 Years - Study

SOUTH AFRICA: June 9, 2004


JOHANNESBURG - Humanity's closest relative the chimpanzee could be extinct in around 50 years because it is hunted for meat and threatened by deforestation and disease, researchers said yesterday.


Only 8,000 remain of the most vulnerable chimpanzee subspecies, the Pan troglodytes vellerosus, which is found predominantly in Nigeria, and it could be extinct in two decades, according to a study.

The study was presented at a conference of The Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance (PASA) in Johannesburg. PASA sanctuaries care for orphaned or injured great apes.

"It is believed that the illegal hunting and eating of apes - known as the bushmeat crisis - has had the greatest impact on the rate of decline, along with deforestation, human encroachment and disease," PASA said in a statement.

"The situation is much more critical than we thought," said Norm Rosen, an anthropologist at California State University-Fullerton who coordinated the study.

The study used the rate of orphans brought by people to sanctuaries to calculate the loss of chimpanzees in the wild - and showed a dramatic increase in the number of baby chimps losing their parents.

Rosen's study - which estimates that 10 chimpanzees in the wild are killed for every orphan that reaches a sanctuary - predicts that the vellerosus subspecies will become extinct in the next 17-23 years.

The other three chimpanzee subspecies face slightly better odds, but all are expected to disappear in 41-53 years, at current rates of decline.

"The numbers at the sanctuaries don't lie. You don't get the kind of steady stream of orphaned chimpanzees we're seeing without a devastating drop in the wild population," said Rosen.

Chimpanzees are found in western, central and eastern Africa.

The 19 PASA sanctuaries currently care for approximately 670 chimpanzees, a number that has risen by more than 50 percent in the last three years.

The study is the latest to sound the alarm about the fate of the great apes, which consist of chimps, gorillas, bonobos and the orangutans of Asia.

One recent UN study said less than 10 percent of the forest home of Africa's great apes will be left relatively undisturbed by 2030 if road building, construction of mining camps and other infrastructure developments continue at current levels.


Story by Ed Stoddard


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

I was talking to someone a few weeks ago who was telling me that the silverback gorilla will definitely be extinct in my lifetime......... i couldn't believe it, i had no idea it was that bad! (and i'd just watched 'Gorilla's in the Mist' the night before...... weird) I haven't looked into it, but there must be something being done to help prevent this?

Practically speaking, there really isn't much that can be done, the logging companies aren't stopping for ethical/environmental reasons, they'll just cut every last tree down, but how people can actually eat chimps is so beyond my comprehension and that's something that would have to be addessed at the places where the chimp meat is sold, and somehow convince people not to create a market for it, just disgusting and horrible.
Orangutans may be gone in the wild in only a decade, read that very recently, it's a clear sign that the amazing species unfortunte enough to share the earth with us are finished. If these species are going, then they're all going, letting our close relatives disappear doesn't provide hope for those more distant.
While taking environmental studies courses some years ago, I decided that humanity can't last beyond 200 more years, now I feel like that as very optimistic on my part.

I was talking to someone a few weeks ago who was telling me that the silverback gorilla will definitely be extinct in my lifetime......... i couldn't believe it, i had no idea it was that bad! (and i'd just watched 'Gorilla's in the Mist' the night before...... weird) I haven't looked into it, but there must be something being done to help prevent this?


Very little is being done, because people don't care. They care about making a living, making money, in the case of the bushmeat trade, they care about eating. The First World doesn't care about the Third World, and actually helps destroy these habitats by funding logging and mining corporations.

The little we can do is try to educate people about the extinction crisis, and discuss how our own way of life is leading to this worldwide destruction. Then maybe we can make appropriate choices about how we want to live.

The fact that the chimps are disappearing is especialy disappointing from the perspective of trying to educate people; who's done more than Jane Goodall in terms of educating the public about such issues? If 40 years of her efforts have been for nil, do any other species have a chance?

The fact that the chimps are disappearing is especialy disappointing from the perspective of trying to educate people; who's done more than Jane Goodall in terms of educating the public about such issues? If 40 years of her efforts have been for nil, do any other species have a chance?


It is discouraging. I think education needs to be much broader, less specific. Not to say people shouldn't embrace charismatic megafauna, they should. But we need to take a broader look at ecosystems and think of "the environment" not as something "out there" in Africa, or somewhere else, but right here, where we live. How are we treating it? How are we dealing with other lives right here in our local ecosystem? Are we living within the limits of our local ecosystems? Most people don't even think about these things. Even environmentalists tend to think of the environment as something out there in a forest somewhere, not something in the cornfield where their breakfast flakes were grown. If we start asking questions about these environments, these ecosystems, our knowledge and understanding of the world life systems and how we are affecting them can be much deeper, I believe. People in the First World have to lead the way in these matters. We have the benefit of education, access to information, and the ability to look beyond a day to day struggle for survival. Can we be an example to other peoples? We in North America and Europe have mostly destroyed our charismatic megafauna and many other species, can we expect other peoples not to follow in our lead, when we supposedly live the best way on earth? Can we learn from our mistakes and help others learn from our mistakes?

I agree Ludi, but I fear we may be too late to change things, so much is gone orgoing, and how long would it take for a completely revised curriculum throughout the world's schools, one which focuses significant attention to these most pressing of issues, to have an effect? Very sad, I was aware of ecology thirty years ago, just the basic concept at least, as a kid, why does it seem like it's less out there now than before?

Don't lose hope. It's not just in schools that education takes place, we can educate people all the time, when we talk to them and especially in the way we live. We have to become the change we want to see. If we live in a way that's destructive to the earth's life systems ourselves, we can't very well criticise others for doing the same things. Change is hard, and comes slowly, sometimes it doesn't seem to come at all. But we need to keep trying.

Yes, giving up doesn't help, but affecting change in others is a slow process, and I think really what's involved with the chimps in particular concerns stopping logging companies immediately, which isn't going to happen; the destruction of the rainforests within which they live(d) eliminates their homes, and opens their habitat up to hunters.
I wonder how many people among the general poulation will even care when they're all gone? I mentioned to a not-so-bright coworker that the orangs face imminent extinction, to which she responded 'Oh,they just say that to scare you.' Makes little or no sense, I know, just the complacency and ignorance common to far too many people.