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Chimpanzee Isolation
Humans and Chimpanzees
naturally move and roam about large areas of land. We humans do not
simply sit in our house all day long; we move around. We can go
outside or go to a friend’s house and even travel to other cities,
states, and countries. Chimpanzees naturally move around their
habitats as well. They cover long distances in the rainforests of
Africa where they live. When moving about, chimpanzees will spend
time in both the trees and on the ground with a large portion of
travel being spent on the ground. A main difference between our
ability to move around to new land areas and chimps’ abilities to
move around their habitat is that chimps can run into huge
obstacles; ones that are created by the roads and other elements of
human civilization that we humans insert into the land.
Think about how we often move
from one area to another. We can use roads, sidewalks, and other
types of paths to get about. The creation of roads for human use in
Africa has led to deforestation in many areas. This deforestation,
due to a rise in the human population, has taken a toll on the
chimpanzee population. Originally there had been 25 countries that
contained chimpanzees; unfortunately only 21 of these countries
still have chimpanzees. Areas of rainforest that chimps use to move
from one location to the next or compose the land area used by
chimps to travel have disappeared and are continually disappearing,
causing a great impact on the chimpanzee population. The
deforestation is not only due to the creation of roads, but is
also due to the general increase in the human population in regions
of Africa. As the human population in Africa increases there is a
demand for more land for homes, farms, and industry such as
logging. Logging not only physically removes the trees from land
chimpanzees use but we once again find roads created for large
trucks to carry out the trees disrupting the habitats that
chimpanzees utilize.
With such deforestation
chimpanzees have been separated from sections of land of which they
once were free to make use and are now in isolated “pockets”. To get
a clearer picture of these “pockets” imagine yourself on a small
island surrounded by water where the only way to the next island is
by a connecting strip of land. Now imagine that a bulldozer comes
through and removes the land that connected the two islands. You are
now stuck on the island with no way of leaving. This is exactly what
is happening with the chimps’ forests. They are being caught on
islands of forest because we are surrounding them with “water” such
as roads and farm land.
Although the chimps are being
caught on these islands, there are ways that can help them once
again move from one area of land to the next. For example, imagine
yourself back on your small island that is fully surrounded by
water. Now imagine there is a bridge that has been built between the
two islands. Even though the bridge is not the original connection
between the two areas of land it looks similar to the original land
strip as well as serves the original purpose. It allows you to move
freely between the two islands. In Africa, trees can be planted
between two isolated pockets of chimpanzees to create a “bridge” of
habitat known as a corridor which allows free movement between
areas of habitat. The corridors may not be the original lands that
once connected the vast habitat of chimpanzees, but they provide
passage ways between areas of habitat that, without, would be
separated from chimpanzees forever. Corridors provide hope that
there is something that can be done to help chimpanzees from being
lost from our world due to isolation!
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Message from CAC'ers
When we visited Gombe National Park we saw
the effects of the surrounding human population on
chimpanzee rainforest habitat. The clear, distinct forest
edge and the beginning of villages were striking. The last
few trees seemed to be lined up in a straight line as the
land seemed to drastically change from lush rainforest
mountains to rolling hills of green grass. It was apparent
that the only way for these Gombe chimps to cover larger
habitat ranges was by the creation of corridors between
existing pockets of chimpanzees.
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