Chimpanzees

One of the the four ape species that professor Stanford discusses in his book, Planet Without Apes, is the chimpanzee. Chimpanzees can be found throughout the continent of Africa; they are primarily located in rain forests, but can also be found inside open woodlands or areas where trees and brush are present. Chimpanzees live in fission-fusion societies, which means that there community breaks apart for some part of the day, before coming back together as a single whole group for the rest of the time. In the chimpanzee community, males are known to never leave the place in which they were born and raised; while females are known to emigrate during or right after puberty.

One of the biggest problems concerning chimpanzees is deforestation. Deforestation kills chimpanzees and separates many others from their communities, leading to territorial conflicts. As it is known, chimpanzees are very territorial animals who often fight against neighboring communities for territory. Deforestation tears down the communities of chimpanzees which forces them to move out and find new homes. While looking for a new place to live, chimpanzees will often times fight because there will be other chimpanzees residing in the territory which they are trying to move into.

The other issue with deforestation is it leads to problems with genetic flow. Female chimpanzees are supposed to emigrate from their communities during or after they hit puberty to breed. If deforestation is killing all of the chimpanzee communities around, than females have no where to go breed. This leads to inbreeding and ultimately to an isolated gene pool.

A solution for deforestation is the state governments, where chimpanzees live, need to create laws to better protect forest. These laws need to be targeted toward large corporations who use trees to produce wooden goods or to investors who wish to build where forests are present. Creating laws and strictly enforcing them is one way deforestation can be stopped.