Among Chimpanzees: Field Notes from the Race to Save Our Endangered Relatives

256 Pages·2014·1.81 MB·English

by  Nancy J. Merrick

1
Likely historic distribution. From Tess Lemon, Chimpanzees (London: Whitlet, 1994).
2
Current conservation areas. From A.P.E.S. Portal (http://apesportal.eva.mpg.de).
3
Speculative future distribution if survival only in some national parks.
Among
Chimpanzees
Field Notes from the Race to
Save Our Endangered Relatives
NANCY J. MERRICK
BEACON PRESS, BOSTON
This book is written on behalf of the amazing chimpanzees—and in honor of
those who have loved them as much as I have.
It is especially dedicated to my friend Bandit, an uncommonly intelligent chimp
whose life made mine so much richer.
To Jane, who fights every day on behalf of chimps.
And to David, who fights for peace and humanity.

Treat the earth well; it was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to
you by your children.
KIKUYU PROVERB, KENYA
CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Jane Goodall
PREFACE
PART I. RETURN TO AFRICA, 2008
CHAPTER 1. DÉJÀ VU IN PARADISE
CHAPTER 2. SANCTUARY
CHAPTER 3. NEW ARRIVALS
CHAPTER 4. FULL CIRCLE
CHAPTER 5. FACADE AND SURVIVAL
PART II. GOMBE EAST AND GOMBE WEST, 1972–1976
CHAPTER 6. THE PATH TO GOMBE STREAM
CHAPTER 7. A DIFFERENT TIME
CHAPTER 8. NEW DEVELOPMENTS
CHAPTER 9. KOBI
CHAPTER 10. KIGOMA BOUND
CHAPTER 11. AFTER GOMBE
PART III. GREAT APE ADVOCATES/WHAT WE LEARNED, 2008–
2011
CHAPTER 12. SOUNDING THE ALARM
CHAPTER 13. IN THE NICK OF TIME
CHAPTER 14. LINKING DESTINIES IN UGANDA: 2011
CHAPTER 15. AFRICA’S SANCTUARIES AND FRAGMENTED FORESTS
CHAPTER 16. ENDING BUSHMEAT
CHAPTER 17. CHIMPS, GUERRILLAS, AND DR. HAMBURG
CHAPTER 18. CAROLE NOON AND THE POWER OF ONE
CHAPTER 19. ZOOS
CHAPTER 20. FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT
PART IV. MAKING IT HAPPEN
CHAPTER 21. THE FUTURE OF THE GOMBE CHIMPS
CHAPTER 22. THE CONGO BASIN
CHAPTER 23. HAIL MARY: WHAT ONE PERSON CAN DO
CHAPTER 24. ROOTS & SHOOTS, AND FINAL REFLECTIONS
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX
FOREWORD
In every person’s life, there are pivotal moments, events that alter our perspectives and
leave us changed forever. One of those moments in my life came in 1986, when I
attended a conference on chimpanzees that brought together chimp researchers from all
over the world. One after another, as each of us shared the stories of the chimpanzees
we were studying, we were shocked to recognize a terrible commonality: in every study
site, there was habitat destruction—whether due to human population growth, logging,
mining, or cattle grazing. Chimpanzees were being caught in snares, losing their arms
or legs or even their lives. Some were hunted for the live-animal trade, the mothers shot
in order to steal their infants for medical research or for entertainment or to become
pets. We heard about the bushmeat trade—the commercial hunting of wild animals,
including chimpanzees—very different from the subsistence hunting that had enabled
forest people to live in harmony with their world for hundreds and hundreds of years.
During one afternoon session, we also heard about the sometimes horrible
conditions some captive chimpanzees face. We saw secretly filmed footage of
chimpanzees imprisoned in the sterile, steel-barred five-by-five-foot cells of a medical-
research lab. The images chilled my soul and filled me with sadness—and anger. I
arrived at the conference as a scientist, having realized my childhood dream of living
with animals in Africa and writing books about them—and even acquiring a PhD along
the way, thanks to Louis Leakey. But I left as an activist, knowing that I would have to
leave the forest and the chimpanzees I loved to do my bit, to do everything I could to
try to save them. I have not spent more than three weeks consecutively in any one place
since; instead, I travel constantly on their behalf.
The chimpanzees and the other great apes face an uncertain future. Chimpanzees are
already extinct in four of their original twenty-five range countries and nearly so in ten
more, and it is estimated that their populations could decline by another 80 percent in
the next thirty to forty years.
Local people living in poverty are cutting down more trees to try to eke out a
livelihood for their families, even as over-farming depletes nourishment from the soil.
Foreign companies acquire land for logging or mining concessions or for intensive
farming, securing it from government officials who are often corrupt. And as humans
encroach ever deeper into the forest, so the danger of passing human diseases to the
apes increases, for they are so like us biologically that they can catch our infectious
diseases. And we can catch theirs.
I have seen the desperate poverty of so many of the people living around wilderness
areas. We cannot hope to save the chimpanzees—or any other wildlife—if we do not
help the people improve their lives. We must fight poverty on the one hand, greed and
corruption on the other. And above all, we must try to educate young people to be better
stewards of this planet than we have been. We also need more and more people to learn
about the problems, to commit themselves to doing their best to help, and to become
powerful voices for the great apes. Otherwise, our grandchildren may know a world
where the last of the great apes live in zoos, or small forest patches, with little hope of
long-term survival.
One of the aspects of my life at the Gombe Stream Research Center I loved was
working with the students who came to learn about the chimpanzees and to help collect
data for their PhDs or for our long-term study. Many of them have gone on to become
respected scientists, doctors, teachers. One of them was Nancy.
I remember Nancy from the days when I taught human biology at Stanford
University, and I remember how pleased I was when she was picked out of many
applicants to join our team. Nancy went on to become a doctor—and an excellent one, I
am told. I would have expected no less. But she did not turn her back on the
chimpanzees. Indeed, more than very many of my ex-students, she has risen to the
challenge. I have been amazed and delighted by the way she has flung herself into
learning ever more about the problems apes and people face in Africa, and by her
determination to do all she can to help—even to the extent of involving her family.
Nancy has also been a great supporter of Roots & Shoots, the program for young
people I began in Tanzania in 1991. Roots & Shoots started with twelve high school
students on my veranda in Dar es Salaam, but it now has members of all ages, from
preschool through the university level, in more than 120 countries—and growing. There
are groups right across Tanzania, and it is expanding in other African countries and
throughout the world. Its recent expansion across mainland China means that these
youth are now a vital part of our growing global family of young people who are
learning, through service projects, to make the world a better place for people, other
animals, and the environment we all share.
Roots & Shoots is creating leaders for tomorrow—young people who communicate
with each other, who understand that despite differences in culture and skin color, the
same human heart beats within. In this way, we are trying to build a better world for
tomorrow, based on understanding, love, compassion, and respect for all living things.
Nancy started one of the first groups in California and has been involved ever since.
In this delightful and insightful book, Nancy shares the stories of people who have
made enormous differences in the lives of chimpanzees, often sacrificing comfort and
risking health and even their own lives—people who understand that it is up to us to
speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.
I was so young when Nancy’s love for the chimpanzees began. And she was even
younger—just nineteen years old. Our friendship, and our love for life and living, has
remained undimmed. She moved away from the forest in pursuit of her career, but she
describes a pivotal moment of her own that brought her full circle. Her personal story,
and the stories of others she has met and admired, reminds us that every one of us can
become involved. If we are passionate, determined, and not afraid of hard work, we can
truly make a difference. The chimpanzees, the gorillas, and the bonobos need us all if
they are to survive, and the forests do, too—and we need the forests, most desperately.
Just remember that when we get together, and take action together, we can be a strong
voice for the natural world.
Nancy tells a tale that is about commitment and transformation. I hope that you will
enjoy it as much as I did, and that you, too, will join us and get involved.
Jane Goodall
PREFACE
The disturbing e-mail arrived on June 16, 2009, its subject header reading, “Decimation
of Chimp Population in Tanzania.” I agonized for two days before opening it, hoping its
contents would not be as devastating as I feared. Finally, it was time. I clicked on it and
found an update from the Scientific American website:
Tanzania’s chimpanzee population has plummeted to just 700 today, according
to a report from the Tanzania National Parks Authority. The Parks Authority
blamed disease and predation—by humans and other mammals—for the
dramatic losses. The country’s chimpanzees are located in just two habitats,
making them highly susceptible to population-destroying illnesses.
And there it was—exactly what I had dreaded. It appeared that even in Tanzania,
home to Dr. Jane Goodall’s famous research center, chimpanzees are threatened with
extinction. If true, it meant that one catastrophic epidemic or even just continued habitat
loss could spell disaster for these last Tanzanian survivors.
An e-mail from Dr. James Moore, of the University of California, San Diego,
revealed that the faulty estimate of 700 was not that far off from current estimates of
1,000 to 2,600 chimpanzees.1 One hundred of the chimps make up three small adjacent
communities at Goodall’s research site in western Tanzania. This is a population so
small that it is teetering on the edge of biological nonviability. The others remain in
areas to the south where human encroachment is fast approaching. The message hit hard
because it cinched the truth—the situation was even bleaker than what we had guessed
while visiting Tanzania some months before. This was final confirmation that it was
past time to investigate the full extent to which chimpanzees are at risk across
Equatorial Africa.
The truth was tough. One hundred years ago, chimps numbered in the millions, and
although an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 remain, their numbers are plummeting even
in remote forests. Exponential human population growth means that critical swaths of
forest are becoming fragmented or disappearing, and chimps living in unprotected
forests—a majority—are in immediate danger every day. In fact, many chimp
populations can no longer survive in what little forest area they are left with. Field
researcher Matthew McLennan writes,