Pygmy chimpanzee may be near extinction, experts say

[quaoar]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6681249/

Creatures rank among humanity's
closest living relatives


The Associated Press
Updated: 5:58 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2004GLAND, Switzerland - One of humanity's closest relatives, the pygmy chimpanzee, may be much closer to extinction than previously thought, a conservation group said Thursday.

A study by the Worldwide Fund for Nature found that poaching and human encroachment into the animal's natural habitat had left far fewer pygmy chimpanzees — or bonobos — in Congo's Salonga National Park than previously thought.

"These initial results concern us greatly," said Peter Stephenson, the expert on great apes at the Swiss-based group, which is known as the World Wildlife Fund in the United States. "If things are this bad here, we can assume that across the Congo, bonobos are in crisis."

The Salonga reserve — roughly the size of the Netherlands — could be the world's largest pygmy chimpanzee habitat, but authorities have been unable to monitor it adequately because of Congo's long civil war, the conservation group said.

[proud patriot]

1. My son and I were just reading our Zoobook on chimps

:cry: now I have to tell an eight year old this .

[tk2kewl]

2. Does that mean Cheney will be president?

[Massacure]

3. Of course they are nearly extinct. They are evolving into Georgius Bushius

:P

[mmonk]

4. It's good to know

we have one since they are so rare.

[aquart]

5. Noooooooooooo! They make love not war.

I guess there are some problems that can't be solved by more sex.