What about wild chimpanzee populations? Chimpanzees are highly intelligent and social animals. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the estimated western chimpanzee population in Senegal is nearly 6,000; in fact the study estimates this population to … Researchers found 90% fewer nests than a similar audit carried out in 1990, which suggested the chimp population had crashed from 12,000 to about 1,200. The population of the endangered West African chimpanzees in Ivory Coast has fallen by about 90% in less than 20 years, a study has suggested. Growing human populations all across Africa means more forests have been cut down for agriculture, mining, and logging interests. chimpanzee, including an evaluation of the change in population size over the last three decades, an update of their geographic range, and an overview of estimated current population sizes. Human activity causes severe problems for these primates. Schemes of the models describing the evolutionary history of western gorillas. Evidence suggests that chimpanzee populations decline at sites with high human population densities and high levels of habitat disturbance. “It’s probably a matter of when, not if,” warns Byler. Increased levels of deforestation and poaching were likely to be main factors for the decline… Since then, information on chimpanzee abundance and distribution within this region has been sparse. There was a significant main effect of human presence such that those viewing photographs of a chimpanzee standing next to a human, were 35.5% less likely to categorize chimpanzee populations as endangered/declining compared to those viewing photographs with the chimpanzee standing alone (Wald Chi-square = 11.925, p = 0.0006)(Figure 2). The extraordinarily large Ngogo chimpanzee community in Kibale National Park, Uganda, preys heavily on the local population of red colobus (P. tephrosceles). Figure 2. As a proxy for change in abundance, we used transect nest count data from 20 different sites archived in the IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. The effect of background setting was substantial but … As in the Taï project, demographic, clinical, and diagnostic monitoring systems should be implemented to objectively document the negative effects of research or tourism. Here we assess the rate of population change for the western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus, over a 24‐year period. The result has been a steady decline in the chimpanzee population residing in Tanzania’s smallest national park, from 150 chimpanzees in the 1960s to about 90 today (see Why the Chimpanzees of Gombe National Park Are in Jeopardy). One unexpected consequence of the high rate of predation by chimpanzees on red colobus at Ngogo has been documentation of a major decline in the local red colobus population. 'Western chimpanzee populations have declined extremely quickly and continue to do so - with little or no prospect of this decline halting. Schemes of the demographic models. database, representing 25,000 of the estimated remaining 35,000 western chimpanzees. PLoS Genet 3:617–626 Africa, but whereas the chimpanzee is a generalist, the Bjork A, Liu W, Wertheim JO, Hahn BH, Worobey M (2011) gorilla is a closed-canopy specialist. Now, it’s satellites are helping save chimps on Earth. As a proxy for change in abundance, we used transect nest count data from 20 different sites archived in the IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. 2003). There are only around 200,000 of them left and experts project that in the next 30-40 years, their population will decline by 80%, leaving only 40,000 wild chimps alive. National parks and reserves in six range countries protect only 21 percent of western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees, according to a new report. We also discuss possible reasons for their decline and outline what is needed to substantially improve conservation of this subspecies. Census data showed a steep decline in this population in the center of the chimpanzees' home range between 1975 and 2007 [Lwanga et al., 2011; Teelen, 2007b]. Because of the close proximity of many chimpanzee populations to human settlements and their remarkable genetic similarity to humans, there’s a high risk of chimpanzees catching diseases like Ebola that could prove fatal. To update the status of chimpanzees in Côte d'Ivoire and evaluate their population trend, we repeated the 1989–1990 survey. 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