The new ESA status will be published in the federal Register on June 16, and will go into effect 90 days after publication in the Federal Register on September 14, 2015. Animal conservationists can all agree that the final rule has been a long time in coming.
“It’s wonderful news that all chimpanzees now have the endangered status that these highly intelligent and imperiled primates need to survive,” said Tara Easter, a scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Protecting captive chimps as endangered is the morally correct thing to do, and it will also help safeguard the species in the wild.”
Chimpanzees have gone through quite an ordeal to finally reach the status they have been given today, and it has taken a whole coalition of conservation and animal activist groups, spearheaded by the Jane Goodall Institute to help them reach this pinnacle of success. And it is a success, and not just for wild chimpanzees, but for all the captive ones held in the pet trade and in research facilities across America.
Because of Jane Goodall’s efforts, we fell in love
It was Dr. Jane Goodall’s pioneering research into chimpanzees, started in the 1960 in Tanganyika’s Gombe Stream Game Reserve that opened our eyes, and made us look at our closest living primate relative in a totally new and different way.
And after 50 years of field study, Goodall’s discoveries and observations narrowed the perceived gap in culture and intelligence between Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes. And because of Jane Goodall’s efforts, we fell in love with chimpanzees, for their intelligence, cultural traits that were so similar to ours, and just because we saw them in a different way than just as a wild animal.
Jane, as she is called, and not Dr. Goodall, also documented the tragic consequences of ongoing habitat loss, deforestation, disease and capture for the pet trade that chimpanzees are facing. According to LiveScience, while 50 years ago there were over a million wild chimpanzees, today we would have trouble filling a large football stadium with the population left in the wild.
Putting our house in order is the first step
The United States has taken the first major step in ending the alarming and illegal trade in chimpanzees and other primates. Now that we have gotten our house in order, by declaring wild and captive chimpanzees as endangered, we can now face the rest of the world in addressing the illegal trade in chimpanzees and other primates for the pet trade or medical research.
Chimpanzees are found in 22 countries across Equatorial Africa, and human activities are continuing to put them at risk. The Great Ape Conservation Fund plays a critical role in promoting effective conservation. With $9.4 million in funding and an additional $11.5 million in leveraged funds, grants have been issued for conservation field projects. These include developing conservation policies and local leadership and improving law enforcement to ensure the long-term survival and protection of chimpanzees and gorillas, says the USFWS.
