{"id":11736,"date":"2019-11-05t23:40:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-05t23:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/clinging-onto-chimps-why-you-should-think-of-chimpanzees-during-the-climate-crisis\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07t19:39:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07t19:39:31","slug":"clinging-onto-chimps-why-you-should-think-of-chimpanzees-amidst-our-climate-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/clinging-onto-chimps-why-you-should-think-of-chimpanzees-amidst-our-climate-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"clinging onto chimps: why you should think of chimpanzees during the climate crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
our closest living ancestors are vanishing before our eyes. are we next?<\/em><\/p>\n have you ever wondered what it would be like to interact face-to-face with our closest living relatives? to hear them, smell them, hold them? my intense curiosity for these questions, as well as a desire to help promote wildlife conservation, is what led me to getting to know some of the most marvelous creatures that walk the planet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n imagine waking up 6 a.m., having torrents of rainfall slide heavily down off your raincoat and onto your boots. then imagine having an orphan chimpanzee reach out at you, cautious at first, murmuring with a soft \u201choot hoot hoot,\u201d fervently grabbing for your middle finger. when she first deeply gazes up at your face, with eyes that are so full of expression it makes you question if she is even real at all \u2014 it changes you. after spending six weeks surrounded by almost 100 chimpanzees in sierra leone, i can confirm, and hopefully convince you, that chimpanzees are well worth saving from extinction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n the world as we know it is rapidly changing, and with these changes come negative implications to tropical forest ecosystems and the primates who inhabit them. currently, 60% of all primate species<\/a> are under the threat of extinction, and 75% of species have declining populations<\/a>. wild chimpanzee populations have plummeted since the 2000\u2019s, causing extinction already in four of their 25 range countries<\/a>. if we don\u2019t take action now, populations will decline by an additional 80% within the next 30 years or so<\/a>. the trajectory is clear \u2014 it is up to our generation to alter the trend. <\/p>\n so the question now becomes, how do we prevent this impending extinction crisis? one answer to this overwhelming large problem begins on a relatively small scale, but is slowly summoning up momentum in the deep rainforests of sierra leone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n sierra leone is home to approximately 10% of the estimated 53,000 remaining western chimpanzees<\/a>. sierra leone\u2019s expanding human population has swiftly increased deforestation of critical chimpanzee habitat, making way for agriculture, mining, and infrastructure development. this combined with diseases like ebola, as well as hunting for bushmeat and the illegal pet trade, has caused a dramatic decrease in their population. so much so, that they are now on the iucn (international union for conservation of nature) red list of threatened species<\/a>.<\/p>\n