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12-10-2003, 02:14 AM
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#1 (permalink) |
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Rattus Norvegicus
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Research facility.
Posts: 3,829
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The Extinction of Our Closest Relatives
"The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes—animals that share more than 96% of their DNA with humans. If we lose any great ape species we will be destroying a bridge to our own origins, and with it part of our own humanity."
—Dr. Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme All four of the world’s great ape species—chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans, are facing extinction in their natural habitats in the very near future unless immediate and drastic action is undertaken on their behalf. Destruction of the ape’s natural habitat through logging and mining operations, the illegal bushmeat trade, civil unrest, and the spread of the Ebola virus throughout the primate population of Africa is threatening to eradicate all three African species within the next 15 to 20 years. Orangutans, which are not indigenous to Africa, face a similar fate. In 1950, the chimpanzee population of Africa stood at 5 million. Today that figure has been reduced to an estimated 152 to 255 thousand and continues to dwindle. And the figures for gorillas and bonobos are even more alarming—the estimated population of mountain and lowland gorillas in Africa indicates that there are less than 100,000 of these animals remaining, and that only 20 to 50 thousand bonobos may remain in existence. These figures are based on 2001 estimates, and as it stands now there are probably more human children born in a single day throughout the world than there are living apes. A preliminary 3 day conference was held in Paris beginning on November 26 of this year by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme to discuss the status and funding of their joint task force, the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP). Delegates from 23 African nations and western donor nations met to discuss viable means of ensuring the continued survival of the four great ape species. Klaus Topfer called upon the donor nations to provide at least $25 million to finance GRASP’s most basic operational needs. Their immediate goal is to fund increased law enforcement efforts in Africa’s National Parks and Reserves, to provide public educational programs to native Africans and westerners alike, and to bolster the economic infrastructure of the African countries in order to reduce their dependence on mining and slash and burn agriculture. Dr. Jane Goodall, special envoy for GRASP, while speaking of the conference on a recent lecture tour in Germany, stated that "the world is precariously close to the day when there will be no more great apes in the wild. It’s quite possible that today’s teenagers will raise their children in a world with no wild chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos. It’s a tragic prospect, but there is still time to act—though scant little of it. I hope all of us, especially our young people, will do everything they can to save the great apes, who are so like us in so many ways." It is imperative that we act now to save the great apes from extinction. It is only through the study of the great ape species that we will ever gain true insight into the origins of our own behavior and means of social order. They are the mirror image our own species, and the only living link to our distant ancestors. Chimpanzees and bonobos are more closely related to humans than they are to gorillas. Bonobos in particular should warrant our most immediate concern. They are closer genetically to humans than any other species—even closer than chimps. Anatomically, they resemble Australopithecus—our earliest hominid ancestor. They are capable of walking upright for far greater distances than chimpanzees, and they resemble humans more than chimps do. Their societies are female dominated, and they prefer to resolve personal conflicts through sexual behaviors rather than violence, unlike chimpanzees. Bonobos are found in only one section of the Congo River basin of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo’s brutal 40 year civil war has prevented western researchers from studying these apes, and their population has plummeted as a result of soldiers and displaced villagers hunting the bonobos for food. Their demise is imminent, and there are currently only 106 bonobos in captivity in all the world’s zoos. The need for immediate intervention to end the further destruction of the bonobos and the other great ape species cannot be overemphasized. The loss of the world’s great ape species would be the greatest wound that we have ever inflicted on nature. It is only through them that we will ever gain a final understanding of where we came from, what we are, and what we will become. http://www.blockbonobofoundation.org/ http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/07/p6s1.htm http://observer.guardian.co.uk/inter...656147,00.html http://www.bonobo.org/ http://www.janegoodall.org/jgi/index.html |
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12-10-2003, 08:23 AM
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#2 (permalink) |
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bloody phreak from hell
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Hell
Posts: 27,844
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We destroy the monkeys, we destroy ourselves...
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03-06-2005, 10:52 PM
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#9 (permalink) | |
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 10,956
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Quote:
if we destoryed all primates, then the human race will come to exctinction someday as well, as it was the humans themselves who ruined the primate evloution...
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03-07-2005, 01:42 AM
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#11 (permalink) | |
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Here
Posts: 3,940
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Quote:
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03-07-2005, 02:18 AM
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#12 (permalink) | |
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Rattus Norvegicus
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Research facility.
Posts: 3,829
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Quote:
 That's Washoe in my avatar.
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03-07-2005, 02:21 AM
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#13 (permalink) | |
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The pampered poodle
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Washington
Posts: 479
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Quote:
 BITE YOUR TONGUE, Ravensteven!We most definitely SHOULD NOT use monkeys and apes for any kind of research. They deserve to be protected and to live out their lives with dignity. My God, we live in the 21st century now and we, humans, can do better than that.  Mayflower  RS
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03-07-2005, 05:54 AM
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#14 (permalink) | |
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Here
Posts: 3,940
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Quote:
Mayflower  Ravensteve
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03-07-2005, 07:23 AM
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#15 (permalink) | |
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Keepin' it real...
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: New York
Posts: 2,656
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Quote:
Feel free to sacrifice yourself for research purposes. |
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03-07-2005, 01:26 PM
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#16 (permalink) |
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The pampered poodle
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Washington
Posts: 479
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Thank you, Malfoyish. I appreciate your support.
 Oh, RS - why don't you take up Malfoyish's idea? You could help mankind by volunteering yourself. Who knows, they might actually fix your deafness. Ravensteven Mayflower
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03-07-2005, 03:27 PM
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#17 (permalink) | |
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Here
Posts: 3,940
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Quote:
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03-07-2005, 04:51 PM
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#18 (permalink) |
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This body is on loan
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 817
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Mauled Man Tried To 'Reason' With Chimps
Unclear How The Chimps Got Loose Mar 7, 2005 1:02 pm US/Central SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A man who was severely mauled by two chimpanzees at an animal sanctuary last week was quickly overwhelmed when the apes attacked, his wife said Monday. “One was at his head, one was at his foot. But all that time ... he was trying to reason with them,” a sobbing LaDonna Davis told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I couldn’t do anything.” Davis, 64, and her husband, St. James Davis, were visiting Animal Haven Ranch near Bakersfield on Thursday when two male chimps escaped their enclosure and attacked the couple. “When we made eye contact, the charge was on,” LaDonna Davis said. “There was no stopping anything, and the big chimp came around from behind me and pushed me into my husband. The male came around from behind and chomped off my thumb. ... My husband must have realized we were in deep trouble because he pushed me backward. At that time, they both went for him.” St. James Davis, 62, lost all the fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek, lips and part of his buttocks in the ferocious attack, his wife said over the weekend on NBC’s “Today Show.” She also said one of his feet was mutilated. A Kern County Sheriff’s commander also said his genitals were mauled. St. James Davis was being treated at Loma Linda University Medical Center, where doctors said his condition was “minute by minute,” his wife said Monday. “Right now what they are trying to do is keep his breathing constant,” she said. “That’s all they can tell me, but I told him that he can’t leave me. He has to be strong.” The Davises were visiting the sanctuary to celebrate the birthday of Moe—a 39-year-old chimpanzee who was taken from their home in West Covina, a Los Angeles suburb, after biting off part of a woman’s finger in 1999. Authorities were continuing to investigate how the two chimps, named Ollie and Buddy, got loose. Both were shot and killed during the attack. (© 2005 The Associated Press http://cbs11tv.com/localnews/topstor...066140417.html |
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03-07-2005, 06:07 PM
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#19 (permalink) | |
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Banned
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Here
Posts: 3,940
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Quote:
Mayflower ravensteve
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03-10-2005, 12:00 AM
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#20 (permalink) | |
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The pampered poodle
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Washington
Posts: 479
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Quote:
Ravensteven MayflowerI PITY THE FOOL that disses the chimps! |
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03-06-2006, 08:24 PM
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#22 (permalink) |
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Rattus Norvegicus
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Research facility.
Posts: 3,829
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More bad news. It’s still not looking good for bonobos.
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03-06-2006, 09:54 PM
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#23 (permalink) | |
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Have fun~
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Rose
Posts: 2,395
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Quote:
Ouchie |
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03-06-2006, 10:15 PM
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#24 (permalink) |
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Premium Member
 Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 2,286
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Yeah, I saw this yesterday and it sure is depressing.
I am still shaking my head over that remark made by a native to the effect that he doesn't believe the apes are declining in numbers since his family has eaten them for generations. D'ohhh. |
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03-07-2006, 11:25 AM
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#25 (permalink) | |
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bloody phreak from hell
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Hell
Posts: 27,844
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Quote:
 Resolving fights with sex. 
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