Chimpanzees, our close cousins are so much involved in maintaining the rich diversity of East and Central Africa’s tropical rainforests. The huge seeds that they consume and disperse are too large for most animals in the jungles, hence without them, other great apes and the forest elephants, the jungles would be unrepairably changed. However today, all the four sub-species of chimpanzees are actually endangered.
According to the Jane Goodall Institute, the widespread deforestation rate, illegal trade of chimpanzees as pets and poaching has obliterated the World’s population of chimpanzees in the wild that drastically reduced from a million individuals at the beginning of the Century to less than 500,000 today. There are presently four known sub-species of chimpanzees that include the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees totaling to 6000-9000 individuals, the western chimpanzees totaling to 18,000 to 65,000 individuals, the Eastern chimpanzees that are about 21,000 to 55,000 individuals and Central chimpanzees totaling to about 115,000 individuals. Much as three chimpanzee species are regarded as endangered, the western chimpanzees are critically endangered.
These great apes are mankind’s closest relatives sharing about 98.7% of DNA. Because of this, some scientists taxonomically categorize the chimpanzees are “Homo”, the same sub-family as human beings. They are very intelligent with systematic social structures and cultures in addition to be renowned tool users. These Great Apes make good use of different tools to perform a number of tasks that include sticks for extracting honey, termites, bees and ants, wood and stones for cracking nuts, long branches that serve as fishing rods for extracting algae. Given their omnivorous diet, they consume insects plus their larvae, fruits, smaller primates such as red colobus, shoots, young bush pigs, bushbucks and duikers, flowers, honey, pith, tree barks, honey and leaves.
Chimpanzees occupy a wide range of habitats that range from primary as well as secondary forests, dry forests, wetland forests, montane forests, dry woodland savannah areas to farmlands across Equatorial Africa, from the beautiful Senegal in the West African region to Tanzania and Rwanda in the East and Central African region. In some of the range countries such as Benin, Gambia, Togo, Burkina Faso and many others, all the four sub-species of chimpanzees have completely become extinct.
Reasons why Chimpanzees are endangered.
The main reasons why chimpanzees are endangered include the drastic loss of their natural habitats resulting from conversion of their homes to agricultural land, diseases (these Great Apes are susceptible to over 140 human diseases), poaching/hunting for bush meat and pet trade. These challenges are aggravated by chimpanzees’ slow reproductive rates as it takes another 14-15 years to put back an adult chimpanzee as a breeding individual after bring murdered.
Talking of human diseases, Ebola Virus for instance has a huge effect on chimpanzee population hence a reason why a mortality rate of over 95% was recorded between 1994 and 2005. Also, armed conflicts in some countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo has largely contributed to destruction of their natural environments hence decline of species, given the constant movement of armed militia through the jungles or thousands of people who are forced to relocate.
How Chimpanzees can be protected from getting extinct?
Protection of the critically endangered and endangered species of chimpanzees from getting extinct is the joint effort of travelers, concerned governments, communities surrounding Chimpanzee habitats and Conservation Organizations. First, more stringent anti-poaching as well as more effective law enforcement patrols have to be undertaken. Chimpanzee populations have to be monitored while the Conservation Organizations can offer financial and intellectual assistance to governments to gazetted and manage National Parks. Additionally, local communities around chimpanzee habitats have to be encouraged to utilize forest resources in the buffer zones not inside natural habitats.
