WarnekeCGadeW

Christopher WarnekeLab 724 Tuesdays 1:20-4:20William GadeLab 722 Mondays 5:00-8:00April 21, 2009

Conservation of Chimpanzees: Problems and Solutions

Abstract

There are many issues that must be considered when thinking about chimpanzeeconservation, including disease, poaching for bushmeat, and habitat loss. Moreover, there arestrong reasons to justify protecting the species, such as maintaining access to various kinds of research, preserving the role they play in their ecosystem, and sustaining biodiversity. Wereviewed journal articles to assess the current status of chimpanzees in the wild, the problemsthey face, and possible solutions to these problems. Most of the articles we reviewed presenteddata indicating that the numbers of chimpanzees are steadily declining. We found habitat loss to be the primary factor for this decline. It is also the most difficult factor to address. Disease, likethe outbreaks of the Ebola virus that occurred in the mid-nineties, has also ravaged chimpanzee populations. It is especially important to recognize the potential for transmission of disease between humans and chimpanzees. Unfortunately, even well-intentioned human/chimpinteraction poses risk for spread of infectious disease if appropriate protocol is not followed.Finally, while the bushmeat trade is not the most significant cause of decline, it is still animportant contributing factor, and perhaps the one we can most easily attend to. We concludethat the ways to save the chimpanzee species are complex and vary with the cause of decline, butthat solutions are possible and should be implemented.

Introduction

Conserving biodiversity is a highly important topic facing today’s ecologists . Of particular concern is the conservation of our closest relatives in nature, the great apes, and above1

Christopher WarnekeLab 724 Tuesdays 1:20-4:20William GadeLab 722 Mondays 5:00-8:00April 21, 2009all the chimpanzees (

Pan troglodytes

). While it is known that chimpanzees are less endangeredthan the other great apes (Oates 2006), a survey of the available literature indicates that thenumber of chimpanzees surviving in the wild is nonetheless decreasing (Campbell

et al.

2008,Kondgen

et al.

2008, Walsh

et al.

2003). The well established status of chimpanzees ashumankind’s closest relative in nature makes their conservation a top priority. We share roughly96% of our genes with them, including 99% of our aligned genes (Varki and Nelson 2007).Some scientists, such as Jared Diamond, have gone as far as arguing that they should be placedin the genus

Homo

. Regardless of one’s position on that more academic matter, their geneticsimilarity makes them ideal subjects for medical research (Diamond 2006). Furthermore, their sophisticated behavior, which includes the ability to use tools and transmit this knowledgeculturally, continues to inform us about the way our own ancestors may have lived (Whiten

et al.

2005). Maintaining the role chimpanzees play in their habitats and ecosystems, as well as preserving biodiversity for its own sake offer us additional incentive to protect them.The status of the chimpanzee species, and its encompassed subspecies, is one of the keyaspects of its conservation. The species is generally accepted to be made up of four subspecies:

Pan troglodytes troglodytes

,

P. t. verus

,

P. t. vellerosus

, and

P. t. schweinfurthii

. The InternationalUnion for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the worldwide body that authoritatively selectsthe status of species and subspecies. The IUCN currently has the species, including all four subspecies, listed as “Endangered.” This means that over the past three chimpanzee generationsthere was a 70% reduction in the population and, if trends continue as they are now, there will bea 50% reduction in the next three chimpanzee generations (IUCN 2008). This calculation is performed over generations rather than years because the reduction cannot be seen on a year-to-2

Christopher WarnekeLab 724 Tuesdays 1:20-4:20William GadeLab 722 Mondays 5:00-8:00April 21, 2009year basis in a productive way. For the current range of the species, as well as the subspecies, seeFigure 1. There is dispute as to what the status of chimpanzees currently is, however. There arecalls to raise the status for the species to “Critically Endangered” (Walsh

et al.

2003). There arealso those who think that the status should be dropped to “Vulnerable” (Oates 2006). While thestatus at the moment remains in some dispute, the overall population trend for the species has been agreed upon as decreasing (Walsh

et al.

2003; Campbell

et al.

2008). For that reason, we believe it is prudent to err on the side of caution and begin enacting conservation measures now.Other conflicts in this area occur when one is only concerned with conservation at thespecies level. It has been argued that

P. t. verus

has more genetic variation between it and theother subspecies than some mammal species, and should therefore be elevated to full speciesrank (Morin

et al.

1994). The fact that there is so much genetic variation within chimpanzees is astrong reason for the conservation effort of the species. The possibility that what we currentlythink of as chimpanzees may be more accurately described as multiple species would alter thehominid family tree and possibly change the way that humans look at their own evolution.In this paper, we will seek to understand the status of chimpanzees and the issues thataffect their risk of extinction. Because the conservation of a species is a complex problem, wewill examine it from many angles. A few of these challenges include the rate of loss of habitat,the native people’s overexploitation of the species for use in the bushmeat trade, the issue of disease and its relation between chimpanzees and humans, the scientific conflict over the level of endangerment of the species, as well as the scientific dilemma about whether certain subspeciesshould be elevated to species rank (IUCN/SSC 2003). We will then compare and critiquesolutions that various sources put forth. In doing this, we aim to offer an accurate portrayal of 3