Africa's Great Apes in Peril

MiTEG writes "Scientific American is reporting that the number of great apes of western Africa declined by 56% between 1980 and 2002. The decrease is larger than previous estimates because it was found that deforestation is not the only substantial cause of population reduction. Other significant causes of death are poachers and the Ebola virus."

Comments

Damn!

[KDan]

There goes the Welsh's safety net!!! What will they do when the sheep run out?

Daniel

Re:Damn!

[Pentagram]

Wear artificial fabrics. Apeskin didn't appeal much anyway.

URL extincted

[den_erpel]

I normally read a story before commenting, but in this case, I'll make an exception, since the link to the article is:

http://slashdot.org/ahref=

What is this actually referring to?

Re:URL extincted

[jpkunst]

This is a working link to the article.

JP

Re:URL extincted

[g4dget]

Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."

Sure, you can say that...

Re:URL extincted

[MiTEG]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure the link worked when I submitted the story.

I blame slashdot ;)

Here is an Unbroken Link

[infernalC]

The story at Scientific American can be reached from this link.

obsolete bipeds

[iggymanz]

out with old; in with the new

Re:obsolete bipeds

[Red Rocket]

out with old; in with the new

I agree with that 100% (as long as we define iggymanz as the "old").

They die, We die. Are you paying attention yet?

[SolemnDragon]

They are the closest thing to the human race on earth that we've got in terms of relative species. And what's more, they are a relatively INNOCENT species, since they are generally non-predatorial as species go (Unlike, say, the jaguar or the wolf, both of whom take up more of the precious attention of out ecologically minded society- what little precious attention that there is.)

Without them, it can be argued that we are losing a valuable part of our environment. But Even at the most base, survivalistic level, you need them to live. why? because the diseases that can wipe these animals out are the diseases that can wipe us out. All ethical considerations of conservation and the morality of medical testing aside, we need creatures running around with something close to our DNA. And to have them wiped out by human acts in addition to general disease spread is unconscionable, and we need to be greeting this news with more interest and concern than apathy. THey die, we die, and that goes for each of the other thousands of endangered species as well. Now, before you give that snide response of, well, we can't save them all... Consider Schindler's list. Maybe we can't save them all. But we better be trying. And this is one where we really can save ONE species. Oke, i'll climb down off my soapbox, but not until i offer you this. More later as i gather more links.

Re:They die, We die. Are you paying attention yet?

[DarkZero]

But Even at the most base, survivalistic level, you need them to live. why? because the diseases that can wipe these animals out are the diseases that can wipe us out. All ethical considerations of conservation and the morality of medical testing aside, we need creatures running around with something close to our DNA

I'm not in favor of the extinction of any animals, but I have to say that your argument just doesn't make sense. If there were no more apes or monkeys, then their natural diseases would not be ingested by the poor Africans that eat their meat, and then their natural diseases would not spread to the general population of the world. Without any apes or monkeys, ape and monkey diseases would not be crossing over to our species.

There are probably a lot of good reasons to save the Great Apes, but protection from disease is NOT one of them. From the standpoint of protection from disease, Great Apes and all other non-human primates are nothing but walking incubation chambers for brain and immunodeficiency viruses that will cross over to our species and kill us once they've matured. African primates would save more lives by being extinct than by being alive. Africa is going to continue to be poverty stricken for a very, very long time, so there will be poor, hungry Africans eating their brains for a very, very long time, and in that time several new viruses will cross the species barrier and potentially travel into Europe, Asia, or the entire world.

Re:The first thing that came to mind

[wcbarksdale]

I read it as "Africa's Great Apes in Perl". I mean, I know CPAN is comprehensive, but lifeforms?

F***ed Species . . .

[Red Rocket]

Homo Sapiens, that is.
As proof, just read most of the above messages. Our planetary siblings are about to be wiped out (due primarily to our own greed) and the idiots come out of the woodwork to make jokes about it. The weakness of your education in biology is showing when you make light of a critical issue like this. You betta' recognize. All of life is woven together. Start plucking out the threads and pretty soon it falls apart. Or, if you've ever played the game called "Don't Break the Ice" where you knock out the blocks until, suddenly, the whole platform collapses, you can see the analogy. We're just busy as hell knocking out blocks trying to get richer than the other guy. Stop, already. Just look around (outside preferably) if you want truth, beauty, and riches. We already have it all and we're just shit-canning it.

Re:The first thing that came to mind

[fred fleenblat]

Upon first glance, I read the headline as "Africa's Great Apes in Parallel."

Just wondering...

[JDWTopGuy]

How much risk is there from poachers infected with Ebola?

*blank stare*