The African rainforest may not survive if we wipe out its chimpanzee population

Sep 2, 2020

Bonobo apes, primates unique to Congo and humankind's closest relative, groom one another at a sanctuary just outside the capital Kinshasa, Congo on October 31, 2006. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly/File Photo - TM3ECAR15L201

Chimpanzee numbers have dropped from 1 million to less than 300,000. Image: REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Alex Chepstow-Lusty

Associate Researcher, Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group, University of Cambridge

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A chimpanzee cultural collapse is underway, and it’s driven by humans

Tropical rainforests (dark green) still cover much of central and west Africa. Image: Vzb83 / wiki

Oil palm fruit swallowed and deposited in faeces by chimpanzee at Gombe National Park. Image: D Mwacha A Collins / Jane Goodall Institute

Cusano, an alpha male in Gombe, Tanzania, was among those who died in the 1996 respiratory outbreak. Image: Alex Chepstow-Lusty, Author provided

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