In 1997, the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) published a report regarding a formal admission by the NIH of a chimpanzee “surplus.” Entitled “Chimpanzees in Research: Strategies for their Ethical Care, Management and Use,” 1 the report concluded that there is a “moral responsibility” for the long-term care of chimpanzees used in scientific research. Project R&R’s goal is to end the use of chimpanzees in U.S. research.
There are a further five troops which live in protected areas (National Parks) in the southern Cape Peninsula. Established in 1964, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. This subspecies is threatened by habitat fragmentation due to logging and agricultural development, hunting for the bushmeat trade, and possibly climate change. “The new Moyen-Bafing National Park in Guinea hosts between 4 - 5,000 western chimpanzees in an area of 6,426 sq km, the largest protected area for chimpanzees in Guinea and the largest chimpanzee population in Africa. The population of these troops is not included in this population data.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has declared the chimpanzee an endangered species—and the booming human population is primarily to blame.
In the June 2019 census, it was estimated that a total of 449 baboons were living in 11 managed troops on the Peninsula.
At present the figure has gone down to below 200,000!. Both species have experienced sharp population declines.
This means a single person can infect, on average, 12 to 18 people in an unvaccinated population. Now, there are hardly 6 countries in Africa which house healthy populations of chimpanzees.
While this chimpanzee population has remained stable over the last decade, the researchers have recently found signs that it is falling under increasing threat from the bush meat trade. This drastic decrease in the number of chimpanzees began in 1960.
We work to educate the public; change existing laws, policies, and practices; and enact new laws for improved protection of chimpanzees while they remain in U.S. labs. The more people are immune to a disease, the less likely it is to proliferate, making vaccinations critical to prevent the resurgence of known and treatable diseases.
A century ago there were probably more than 230,000 orangutans in total, but the Bornean orangutan is now estimated at about 104,700 based on updated geographic range (Endangered) and the Sumatran about 7,500 (Critically Endangered). By adding these population studies to a central database, researchers found that only about 35,000 western chimpanzees remain in the wild. Estimating the ancestral population of anatomically modern humans, Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones chose bounds based on gorilla and chimpanzee population densities of 1/km² and 3-4/km², respectively, then assumed that as Homo erectus moved up the food chain, they lost an order of magnitude in density.
The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti) is found in the Gulf of Guinea biodiversity hotspot located in western equatorial Africa. While measles may be the most virulent, vaccination efforts and herd immunity can curb its spread.
Update: Baboon population - June 2019.
Currently, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is the only existing federal law that requires minimum standards of care and treatment for certain animals in U.S. labs.
There was a time when more than one million chimpanzees used to live in the forests of at least 25 countries in Africa.