GUINEA, NEWS AND OPINION: my thanks to The Times newspaper for this story which, for me, highlights many problems with respect to wildlife conservation on this planet. This story is an example of a dysfunctionality between humankind and nature which we all know about now and which has been heightened recently with climate change and plastic pollution to name two examples.
As humans run the planet any animal-human conflict is down to us.
Most of the world has heard of the successful film franchise, Planet of the Apes. It’s a dystopian planet Earth in which apes become a dominant species and kill humans. They have developed an intelligence in this dystopian, fictional world which begins to match that of humans.
In West Africa there is a very small group of intelligent apes (chimps) living on the slopes of the Nimba Mountains around a subsistence farming community. This group has dramatically shrunk in size because of a lack of space as the human population expands which has also caused food to become scarcer for both people and the chimpanzees.
For many years, scientists have been visiting this remote site in south-eastern Guinea to study this wild chimp family which exhibits the most sophisticated behaviour recorded in our closest relatives.
Because of the increase in the human population in that area, this chimp family has been reduced to just 4 individuals. And there appears to be friction between the chimpanzees and the humans perhaps because of shortages in food and space.
There have been “accidents” in which chimpanzees had become excited and one expert says that when chimpanzees become excited, they can’t control themselves.
This may have led to the abduction and killing of a child by one of these chimpanzees. They believe it is a chimp with the name Jeje.
At this location, there is a research facility called the Bossou Environmental Research Institute, built in 1976. As I understand it, the research facility studies the chimpanzees.
The Times reports that, “Last Friday one of two surviving male chimpanzees tore an eight-month-old human baby from her mother’s back and disappeared into the forest to kill the child. Witnesses claim the baby girl had been eviscerated by the chimp, perhaps using tools. The organs had been harvested for food, some reports said.”
Indeed, a Planet of the Apes scenario and very concerning. The local community became vengeful and violent. The target was not the chimpanzees but the scientists who studied the animals based at the above-mentioned facility.
The locals set fire to papers and equipment including computers, camera traps and drones at the facility. They gutted the place. The army was deployed to restore calm. The protesters also brought the “tiny, mutilated body of the baby, named as Yoh Helene to the facility to highlight the danger of meddling with their community.”
The expansion of human activity in the area resulted in damage to the chimpanzee’s habitat. A new road network has fragmented the habitat locking the chimpanzees into a 16 km² pocket of forest. This isolated them genetically as it cut them off from other chimpanzees in a neighbouring area with whom they could mate to enhance their prospects of survival as a group.
It appears that this highly intelligent group of chimpanzees will be lost to humankind as a result.
There were plans to create a corridor to connect the Bossou chimpanzees with groups over the mountain but the project displaced farmers from land and left both animals and humans short of food.
In the past there was enough space to grow enough food to share it with the chimpanzees but things have changed. In addition to the abduction and killing of the child, a teenager is recovering in hospital with a head injury from a recent clash.
The relationship between these chimpanzees and the local humans was a good one but it’s changed very negatively. It is now a strained relationship as local elder said that, “We no longer know what kind of chimpanzees they are. The chimpanzees we had here had a good relationship with us and did not kill a child.”
More: 17% of Americans believe they can beat a chimpanzee in unarmed combat
