The main driver of the conflicts, it seems, is habitat loss for chimps throughout areas of western Uganda, forested lands outside of national parks and reserves, which have been converted to agriculture as the population has grown. The native forest that once covered these hillsides is now largely gone, much of it cut during recent decades for timber and firewood, and cleared to plant crops.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) will not be retiring all of its chimpanzees to a sanctuary, as it originally pledged to do, agency head Francis Collins announced today. Nearly four dozen chimps at a biomedical primate facility in New Mexico will remain there because they are too old and sick to move, he said, although scientific studies of them have ended. Some federally owned or supported chimpanzees at other biomedical primate facilities may also not be retired to sanctuaries.
Many acts of animal cruelty are closer to becoming federal felonies after the House’s unanimous passage Tuesday of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act.
Scientists can’t agree on the intelligence of our primate relatives, but new evidence has just bumped up our ape brothers and sisters a few points. Research published Monday in the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that great apes — chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas — may have a stronger understanding of their minds and the minds of others than scientists ever suspected.
Before you buy Halloween treats, use this list to find candy without palm oil. By taking a few seconds to look at ingredient labels, you can choose orangutan-friendly Halloween candy.