In a population survey of West African chimpanzees living in Côte d'Ivoire, researchers estimate that this endangered subspecies has dropped in numbers by a whopping 90 percent since the last survey was conducted 18 years ago. The few remaining chimpanzees are now highly fragmented, with only one viable population living in Taï National Park, according to a report in the October 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.

This alarming decline in a country that had been considered one of the final strongholds for West African chimps suggests that their status should be raised to critically endangered, said Geneviève Campbell of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

The booming human population in Côte d'Ivoire is probably responsible for the chimpanzees' demise.

"The human population in Cote d'Ivoire has increased nearly 50 percent over the last 18 years," said Christophe Boesch, also of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "Since most threats to chimpanzee populations are derived from human activities such as hunting and deforestation, this has contributed to the dramatic decline in chimpanzee populations. Furthermore, the situation has deteriorated even more with the start of the civil war in 2002, since all surveillance ceased in the protected areas."

In the 1960s, the population of chimpanzees in Côte d'Ivoire was estimated at about 100,000 individuals. At the end of the 1980s, when the first and last nationwide chimpanzee survey was carried out, the total population of chimpanzees was estimated at 8,000 to 12,000 individuals. While that already represented a drastic decrease from the expected numbers, it nonetheless meant that Côte d'Ivoire harbored about half of the world's remaining West African chimpanzee populations.

In the new study, Campbell and Boesch's team conducted another nationwide survey, revealing a 90 percent drop in the chimpanzee nest encounter rate since the time of the last survey. That catastrophic decline in chimpanzees is especially strong in forest areas with low protection status, where the researchers saw no sign of the chimps. Even in protected areas like Marahoué National Park, chimpanzees have clearly suffered since surveillance and external funding support were disrupted by civil unrest in 2002.

"Following my transect lines in Marahoué National Park was similar to doing so in classified forests throughout the country, where I had to search long and hard to find any wild trees," Campbell said. "It was saddening that I only found one nest in this park, as during the previous survey they found 234 nests along the same transects. The one nest I did find was also in an area that had just been cleared for agriculture."

The only remaining refuge for the dwindling West African chimpanzees is Taï National Park. However, this population is also extremely threatened by poaching activities, Boesch said. External financial support in that park is scheduled to end in 2010, a move that will probably have disastrous consequences for the last vestiges of chimpanzees in Côte d'Ivoire.

"The comparisons between the results within national parks in Côte d'Ivoire and compared with the classified forest sends a very clear message: populations of wild chimpanzees living in protected areas with constant funding for conservation activities can survive even during period of rapid increase in human populations and political unrest," Boesch said. "We must appeal to the international conservation community to invest in sustainable funding of conservation activities in national parks with known importance for chimpanzee populations. Our results show that this works."

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2008/10/13/in_a_last_stronghold_for_endangered_chimpanzees_survey_finds_drastic_decline.html

The African Forest of the chimpanzees is being decimated by the logging industry.. it is also threatening the gorillas that rely on the forests. Corruption and illegality is widespread in the logging sector throughout the region. The situation is worsen by bushmeat hunters, using roads opened up by loggers for the slaughter of chimpanzees, gorillas and other mammals to sell as meat on the illegal market.

Jane Goodall studied chimpanzees for more than 4 decades. She is well known for her work in Tanzania. She has just released her new book called Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink. In her new book, she writes about how she came to devote her life to animals and the natural world and what she does to raise awareness about the state of our planet.

About species extinction, one of the things she said in an interview she gave recently was "If we think about only the downside of it, then we lose all hope, and then we are so discouraged that we don't do anything."

Part of the interview and an excerpt from her new book could be read by Clicking Here

For more info about Jane Goodall visit The Jane Goodall Institute

I read her book -Through a Window- when I was in school. She examines the mother-child relationship in her accounts. I like the "conversational story-telling style" in her work.

Through a Window must be interesting. I've never read any of her books; just saw several documentaries about Goodall's work in Africa. I might purchase her latest book.

Her work in Africa is remarkable. However, I saw an interview where she said she is convinced Bigfoot (ape-like creature in northwest America) exists and this is something I have doubts with.

It happens that naturalists become a bit "too naturalist" about some odd things.

I wouldn't judge her whole figure on the base of an opinion like that ... even if for a researcher it's always better to use conditional talking about similar "things".

I agree with Luca. But anyway, I would have to see the interview to see in what circumstances she said that.

Goodall has been doing primate research during most o her life, being convinced of the existence of Yeti, Bigfoot, or whatever they want to name it, is probably based on nits of bits of evidence that sometimes is reported, mixed with some wishful thinking, I presume.

Probably ...

About Yeti I can report what I knew in Nepal [theoretically part of the home land of this primate]. They do think that it exists and local population is able to produce some interesting clues.

Researchers from all around the world go there to face the mystery of the Yeti. What I can say is that at least in Nepal the very isolated environment of some regions has generated modifications in the behaviors of the animals. There are bears who live on bamboo trees like primates [these dwarf bears have been suspected to be the origine of the legend of the Yeti], so we cannot exclude that there could be primates who live like bears [if you talk with Nepali sherpas you get that a Yeti lives more like a mountain bear than like a primate].

It must've been interesting hearing their stories, Luca. I heard that some researchers found hairs, and after analyzing them, they realized that it didn't belong to any known specie.