On the surface, the Republic of Congo appears to be making strides toward both conservation and economic development. But the process of becoming an emerging economy is not without its…
A state government in Nigeria has announced that it will scale back plans to create a buffer zone along its embattled 260-kilometer (162-mile) superhighway project, which conservation groups have warned…
The world’s most peace-loving apes will be getting a little love themselves this Valentine’s Day, as the California Senate recently passed a resolution to create the first World Bonobo Day…
The Lebialem Highlands, located in Cameroon’s southwest, is a global biodiversity hotspot, a place long protected from development by its ruggedness and small human populations, though that is no longer…
Great apes need intact, safe habitat to thrive. But deforestation and hunting have imperiled that safety, with four out of six species now Critically Endangered, including Eastern and Western gorillas,…
Gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans -- our great ape cousins teeter on the precipice of extinction. And it’s not much of a secret that we humans have had a lot to do…
Nests, footprints and dung have been leading primatologists to new gorilla populations in the Congo Basin nation of Cameroon for over a decade. In 2002, researchers discovered nearly 100 Western…
Ghaa’s life changed with the sound of a gunshot. The bullet likely killed his mother and shrapnel from the exploding shell struck Ghaa on the side of the head; a…
The governor of a province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo approved the boundaries of a 1,477-square-kilometer (570-square-mile) natural reserve on Wednesday. “This is the first protected area to…
Against all odds, a young illegally trafficked chimpanzee held in a tiny cage at a private zoo in war-torn Iraqi Kurdistan has been rescued, and has arrived safely at a…
Humans aren’t the only primates who jockey for higher social status and the rewards that go with it. Chimpanzees also compete for higher rank within their communities, and the accompanying…
It’s no secret that many mammals face a dire future, as we humans hunt them to satisfy our desire for protein, medicines and animal parts. But until now, scientists have…
ver the last four decades, industrial agriculture has been a boon to Southeast Asia, but it also helped destroy more than 30 percent of Borneo’s rainforest — one of the…
t’s no secret: one of the biggest threats facing the world’s great ape populations is industrial agricultural, now rapidly extending throughout their native home ranges in Africa and Southeast Asia…
frica is similar to other developing regions of the world in that agriculture is central to the continent’s economy, composing almost one quarter of its GNP and employing nearly two-thirds…
This is the second in a four-part series on palm oil in Cameroon. Read the first, third, and fourth parts for more discussion on the topic. n Cameroon’s 500,000-hectare (1,931-square mile)…
he countries of Gabon, Liberia, Indonesia and Myanmar may not seem to hold much in common, but each of these countries — two in West Africa and two in East…
s global markets increasingly clamor for palm oil, used in everything from soap to processed foods, companies are actively scouting out prime places to produce that oil, and governments are…
The Ugalla Primate Project uses several types of drones to map the movement patterns of western Tanzania’s elusive Issa Valley chimpanzees.
For scientists, not all species are equal. In tropical Asia and Africa, for example, scientists tend to focus on a handful of large national parks that are home to high-profile species…
In “Where Have All the Animals Gone?: My Travels with Karl Ammann,” author and natural historian Dale Peterson recounts his adventures with Karl Ammann, an eccentric award-winning wildlife photographer, as…
The chimpanzee research program at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is over. The NIH significantly curtailed the program in 2013, retiring more than 300 chimpanzees but keeping a…
In Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania, a team of Japanese scientists observed a mother chimpanzee taking care of her severely disabled baby in the wild. This is the first…
Think of it as trying to help the long-lost cousins who never left your home town. Researchers and friends at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) are doing just that for…
Society for Conservation Biology warns that Africa could follow Southeast Asia in losing substantial amounts of its forest Africa’s people, forests and wildlife are in trouble if the mostly unbridled…
Climate change could make life more difficult for the world’s rarest chimpanzee subspecies, reported a team of scientists in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology on Tuesday. The range of the…
Critically Endangered chimpanzees stand to lose home over giant iron mine in West Africa When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa decades ago well-laid plans often crumbled…
It all went to hell when Jane Goodall started handing out bananas. Within a few years, the previously peaceful chimpanzees she was studying split into two warring tribes. Gangs of…
su Dr. Jane Goodall with Freud, a chimpanzee from Gombe. Photograph © Michael Neugebauer Jane Goodall is not only arguably the most famous conservationist who ever lived, but also the…
Administrative maps show DRC's Luama Katanga Reserve in the wrong place, letting mining concessions and agriculture threaten the reserve's unique wildlife - including a new plant species. Scientists have discovered…