Looking at chimp’s future, seeing man’s
When researcher Richard Wrangham looks at the future of chimpanzees, he sees people. Though scientists like him have invested decades in understanding the apes, and Western conservationists and activists have raised money and agitated to safeguard them, it is clear that it will be the people who live closest to the chimps — in ever-increasing numbers — who will determine the animal’s future. Wrangham, the Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, and Elizabeth Ross, founder and executive director of the Kasiisi Project in Uganda, last Thursday described the difficult present for chimpanzees in Uganda’s Kibale National Park, their potentially bleak future, and the sources of hope. With half of the people younger than 15, Uganda’s already dense rural population is set to explode. The nation, which had just 5 million people in 1950, is estimated to have 33 million now, and projections say it will have nearly 100 million by 2050. As the...