How to protect Chimpanzees

How to protect Chimpanzees: Chimpanzees are second to mountain gorillas in being the most sought after mammals in the wild by tourists and wildlife enthusiasts; and as fate would have it, the chimpanzees have similar traits and characteristic with the mountain gorillas and like they mountain gorillas they also share 98% of their DNA with humans.

Like the mountain gorillas, the chimpanzees live groups, are herbivorous and they make their habitats in forests, in fact you are safe to say chimpanzees and mountain gorillas are cousins.

Though the chimpanzee’s population in the world is not as low as that of the mountain gorillas, the chimpanzees are also listed as an endangered animals because of several factors that include but not limited to destructions of their habitats, killer diseases, predators and many more factors.

These factors are and more are the reasons the chimpanzee population in the wild is decreasing and it’s the reason chimpanzees need to be protected or rather preserved in their natural habitats.

So how do you protect chimpanzees?

Chimpanzees are wild creatures so you cannot capture them and put them in one place to protect them, because their survival is mainly based on their habitat. However, that doesn’t mean we cannot protect the chimpanzees; we surely can protect the chimpanzees in the wild and below are some of the ways we can protect the chimpanzees.

Habitat protection

The best way to protect the chimpanzees is to protect their habitats, as stated the chimpanzee survival is highly dependent on their habitat being alive and well kept. So all efforts to protect the forests where the chimpanzees live are efforts to protect the chimpanzees. The efforts to protect forests include but not limited to: – sensitising the communities surrounding the forests about afforestation and the dangers of deforestation so that they don’t cut down the trees, enforcing laws that support afforestation and punish acts of deforestation, helping the neighbouring communities get land away from the forest so that they are not forced to encroach on the forest, gazetting the chimpanzee forests as wildlife properties among other things.

These different strategies can be very helpful in protecting the chimpanzee habitat hence protecting the chimpanzees.

Protecting the chimpanzees from diseases

Protecting the chimpanzees from diseases may be tricky because you never know when a disease is coming or how it’s going to catch the chimpanzees; however this does not mean it can’t happen. The best way to protect chimpanzees from diseases is to carry out continuous research on the different chimpanzees’ diseases and medicines. These studies on chimpanzee diseases will help to inform early detection of the diseases, which early detection will be a great help in administering early treatment. Early treatment almost 90% of the time saves the lives of animals.

Another way to prevent diseases in chimpanzees is reducing constant human contact with the chimpanzees. Since the chimpanzees share about 98% DNA with humans, chances are usually high that humans can spread communicable diseases to the chimpanzees; so reduced human contact can help reduce chances of spread.

Abating chimpanzee predators

Chimpanzees don’t have a lot of predators; the main known predators of chimpanzees are humans and leopards. Humans hunt chimpanzees for meat, spiritual reasons and other factors. Leopards hunt the chimpanzees for food.

Abating these predators will protect the lives of the chimpanzees. Humans can be sensitised about the lives of chimpanzees and the importance of conserving them.

Chimpanzee trekking

Chimpanzee trekking is another way to protect the lives of the chimpanzees. Through chimpanzee trekking, moneys can be raised that facilitate chimpanzee conservation activities in the different chimpanzee habitats. Chimpanzee trekking is the activity of trekking into the chimpanzee habitat to search for the famous chimpanzees; when you find the chimpanzees you will spend one hour with the chimpanzees observing them and enjoying their company.

Law enforcement and wildlife sensitization

Enforcement of wildlife laws against primate poaching and other activities that affect the lives of chimpanzees helps in stopping activities against chimpanzees lives hence their protection. Also sensitising people about primates and wildlife and the importance of preserving their lives helps people is cooperating with the relevant authorities to preserve and protect the lives of chimpanzees.