Chimpanzees are adapting to living outside protected areas. A team of anthropologists, led by the University of Kent, observed their behaviour from hidden cameras during an eight-month study in Sierra Leone. The research showed they've successfully acclimatized to human developments in a number of ways—including how to cross roads safely and the best time to visit human habitats.Yet, despite this, their survival as a species is still threatened. This is because any further urbanization could affect their distribution.
The cameras captured images of chimpanzees crossing the roads and eating the fruits, such as mangos and pineapples that were planted close to human settlements. The research team suggests carefully-planned infrastructure development, as well as making agreements with farmers to allow there are enough free areas, would ensure their on-going survival. This is because they don't cope well with sudden and dramatic change. “If we want to secure their long-term survival, it is crucial that successful protection measures should benefit people and chimpanzees alike,” said study co-author Dr Tatyana Humle. “Conservation actions should focus on education and helping farmers to carry out the alternative agricultural methods to stop the burning in the farming so that they can begin with the environmentally-friendly activities to ensure coexistence between the two species.”
Currently, approximately 60 percent of all world's non-human primates are threatened with extinction and chimpanzees face serious threats in West Africa, including death from disease, habitat loss, illegal hunting and retaliation as a result of competition with people for resources. West Africa has one of the most fragmented tropical forest landscapes in the world due to high levels of the damage of the forests. Chimpanzees in the region are critically endangered with the majority living outside protected areas.
本时文内容由奇速英语国际教育研究院原创编写,未经书面授权,禁止复制和任何商业用途,版权所有,侵权必究!(作者投稿及时文阅读定制请联系微信:400-1000-028)