Countdown to extinction for world’s great apes
[How we as a society can permit the wholesale extinction of our closest living relatives, is beyond my imagination to understand… I read an article like this, and all I can do is shake my head. -Thomas]
Countdown to extinction for world’s great apes
Disappearance of gorillas, chimps and orang-utans would ‘destroy a bridge to our own origins’, warns United Nations
Tim Radford, science editor
Wednesday November 26, 2003
The Guardian
Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans - the closest living relatives of humanity - could vanish from the wild within 50 years, say United Nations leaders meeting today in Paris. They have appealed for $25m to save the world’s great apes from extinction.
“The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes, animals that share more than 96% of their DNA with humans,” said Klaus Töpfer, the head of the UN environment programme. “If we lose any great ape species we will be destroying a bridge to our own origins, and with it part of our own humanity.” He called the $25m (£15m) “the bare minimum we need, the equivalent of providing a dying man with bread and water”.
The UN first sounded an alarm about the rapidly dwindling numbers of great apes in 2001 and appealed for funds. But by last year, researchers on the ground had begun to reveal an even more ominous pattern of loss. They found that ape numbers in Africa had been slashed by logging, hunting and disease.
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Our closest relatives in danger
Gorilla
Lowland and mountain gorillas range through nine African countries. There are no reliable figures - but one estimate suggests 80%to 90% of the population may have been lost in just five years, as new roads have opened up inaccessible forest to poachers, loggers and bushmeat hunters.
Chimpanzee
Two species, Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus (the bonobo or pigmy chimpanzee) range through 21 African countries. There could be 105,000 Pan troglodytes, and fewer than 20,000 bonobos left. Chimpanzee DNA is so close to human DNA that one scientist has proposed that they should be reclassified as genus Homo.
Orang-utan
Pongo pygmaeus, found in Sumatra, Borneo and Sarawak. Total numbers are unknown - but the species is at “extremely high risk” of extinction in Sumatra where a population put at 6,000 three years ago has been falling by 1,000 a year. It is also endangered in Borneo. Greatest threats: logging and forest fire.
