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Great Apes in
Great Danger: Dead in 5 Years?
The failure of conservation in
great ape range countries is due to primarily to human
crises -- poverty,
illness, war, commercial greed, political corruption, lawlessness.
-Anthony L. Rose, Ph.D. / The Biosynergy Institute; Antioch University Southern
California
The
annihilation and extermination of The Great Apes and many other primate
species is at hand. The future is now. Intervention and action must occur
now and with a sense of urgency. A meeting of conservationists, researchers
and scientists held last year said primates are being put into extinction
much faster than previously reported.
Hunting
and habitat destruction is taking place globally. The worst case scenarios
are playing out right now in the most politically unstable nations of Africa
and Asia. The two factors behind this are money and politics. Political
unrest and illegal logging are driving these primates into extinction at an accelerated
rate. The demand for the wood from the "rich" nations of the world
is driving the logging business.
Even
with immediate intervention saving these primates from extinction will not
be easy. Populations are very slow to recover- primate species have only
three to four offspring in a lifetime. Habitat destruction can isolate the
primates into small groups, which leaves them vulnerable to extinction due
to a loss of genetic diversity.
Barbecued Gorilla
Even
more disturbing is the killing of these Great Apes and primates for food
also known as bushmeat. In most cases the consumers of bushmeat are the
combatants in the many wars and armed conflicts that are taking place in
Africa. The refugees who have been displaced because of the fighting are
also killing them for food.
Cooked
Monkey
Others
are also eating the primates: In Central Africa, Kinshasa's fanciest
restaurants now offer chimpanzee and gorilla steaks on the menu. The going
price for these are triple of beef, so hunters are driven by money to kill.
"I have a problem with gorilla on a dinner plate and I think the world
should." said Karl Amman, a Nairobi-based photographer who has
documented the bushmeat trade.
Bananas
& Gorilla Head
In
some areas people kill gorillas for other reasons-"They think if you
kill a gorilla you become very strong and your power as a man grows,"
said Inogwabini Bila-Issia, a wildlife researcher in The Democratic Republic
of the Congo . China has a lucrative medicinal market for animal parts,
including primate bones from which a wine is made.
Orangutans
are the most at risk of the world's six species of apes. They are found only
in Borneo and Sumatra. Fires in Indonesia have destoyed 50% of the habitat
and other areas have been devastated by illegal logging. Orangutan
populations have been cut by a full 33%. One thousand are being killed
yearly- only about 15,000 remain. In Indonesia loggers have destroyed
national park headquarters and threatened scientists.
138
world primate species are in immediate danger of extinction.
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