Among Chimpanzees: Field Notes from the Race to Save Our Endangered Relatives
Nancy J. Merrick
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 0807084905
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Foreword by Jane Goodall
A former student and colleague of Jane Goodall shares stories of chimps and their heroes, and takes readers on a journey to save man’s closest relative.
Unbeknownst to much of the public, chimps are in trouble: censuses show them to be extinct in four African countries and nearly so in ten others. A large percentage of the remaining populations live in unprotected, increasingly fragmented forests.
When Nancy Merrick learned these startling facts in 2009, she decided it was past time to discover the extent to which chimpanzees are at risk across Africa and what can be done. Merrick had begun working with primates in 1972 as a young field assistant in Jane Goodall’s famous Gombe camp. Like the rest of the world at the time, she was swept up in the excitement of discovering the remarkable world of chimpanzees—their ability to fashion tools, their dazzling intelligence, and their complex relationships and societies. From that moment on, her human-centered worldview shifted, and she became a devoted advocate for our closest genetic relatives.
When Merrick returns to Africa decades later, she’s alarmed by how much has changed. Human activity, such as agriculture and logging, has encroached on natural habitats throughout equatorial Africa, endangering chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos. In an effort to understand what we can do to save great apes, Merrick connects with primatologists and conservationists who are trying to protect the last great forests. Visits to some of Africa’s parks, sanctuaries, and expanding agricultural areas reveal the urgency of the problems and the inspiration of the people leading the search for solutions. Along the way, Merrick demonstrates that the best hope for chimps and other great apes lies in connecting conservation to humanitarian efforts, ensuring a healthy future for animals and humans alike.
Among Chimpanzees is at once an inspiring chronicle of Merrick’s personal search to learn how chimps are faring across Africa and in captivity, a crucial eyewitness account of a very critical period in their existence, and a rousing call for us to join the efforts to be a voice for the chimpanzees, before it’s too late.
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
match a story like that, and none of us tried. The equatorial stars were out in force, and life in this international group of campfire soul mates felt rich. We simply relaxed there on the beach, exchanging stories and enjoying the sounds of nesting hamerkops (wading birds) and chirping frogs. Amos told jokes while Dr. Fred tried unsuccessfully to get us to sing. The South Africans told of elephant safaris, and the Austrians taught us about Texas. It felt like a small, very connected planet.
many illegally traded animals, 189; hazards of private ownership of exotic animals, 186–87; international crime rings involvement, 189–90 Pintea, Lilian, 74, 195 Plooij, Frans, 59, 74 polio epidemic, 72 Pongo sp. See orangutans President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, 211 Preventing Genocide: Pioneers in the Prevention of Mass Violence (Hamburg and Hamburg), 162 Preventing Genocide: Practical Steps Toward Early Detection and Effective Action (Hamburg), 161 Primate Foundation of
psychological problems as a result of social deprivation and boredom. But good zoos now provide plenty of activity and keep chimpanzees in social groups so they have more normal lives and relationships. Zoos today also play a key role in educating the public about critical conservation issues, and several are even involved in supporting chimps in the wild. An editor once suggested that the opening chapter of this book must explain why chimps matter so much to me. She was hardly the first reader
She bristles at the thought that bad zoos might leave people thinking that chimpanzees are feces-throwing monsters that sit in boredom. A good zoo must provide what the animals need to be normal and healthy—and in the case of chimps, that means plenty of activity and a social group. Today’s zoos may be increasingly taking on other responsibilities that go far beyond education and animal care. As wild populations are increasingly pushed to the brink, zoos could one day be a critical link in