How You Can Help Great Apes!

There are four species of great apes: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos.

Sadly, the great apes are endangered; some experts think they may be extinct in the wild in 10 or 15 years.

There are several reasons why the apes are in danger:

• They are losing their habitat, because logging companies cut down the trees to make money and sometimes because local people clear the land for farming, firewood, and for building.
  
• Deforestation and roads created by loggers and miners means chimpanzees and other great apes are forced to live in smaller and small areas and separated into small populations. This causes populations to start inbreeding-that's when individuals who are closely related to each other mate and have babies. When that happens the groups become weak and start getting different diseases.
  
• The great apes are being hunted for meat. Sometimes the people kill the animals to get the protein they need; but in other cases they kill wild animals because they prefer taste of wild animal meat to the meat of farm animals like goats and chickens. Meat from wild animals is called bushmeat.
  
• Great apes are also threatened by diseases like Ebola.
  

How can we try to make a difference for the great apes?

• Throughout the world there are restaurants serving bushmeat and the flesh of "exotic" animals. If you live in a place where this is the case, you can take a stand against the illegal bushmeat trade. Refuse to eat bushmeat and refuse to go to restaurants that serve it. You can sign a promise at the website of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force.
  
• Raise awareness. Many people don't know that our closest cousins are under the threat of extinction. If you're a student, consider doing an awareness campaign with an information booth at your school. Write letters to the editor talking about the great apes. In your letter encourage people to support politicians who care about the environment.
  
• Support GRASP Send an email or letter to your member of Congress in support of the Endangered Species Act. (IFAW)
  
• Volunteer with a national conservation organization. Click here for links.
  
• Learn about how what you and your family buys can help the environment. You can ask your parents not to buy products that use great apes in advertising. Learn all about how to be a "green" buyer here. http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/teach.htm
  
• Support the Chimp Collaboratory's campaign to end the use of great apes in entertainment. Learn more about this issue on our site at Chimpanzee Central. Also, read why chimpanzees don't make good pets.
  
• Start your own Roots & Shoots group and help great apes! Learn more about Roots & Shoots by clicking here.

Try This

Set up an information table at your school telling people about the plight of chimpanzees and other great apes. You can include posters with images of the four great apes -- chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans and a graph showing their decline in numbers since the turn of the century (from 1-2 million to approximately 150,000).

Further Reading

Read about Jane Goodall's Reasons for Hope here.