Stolen Apes

EASTERN LOWLAND GORILLA

WESTERN LOWLAND GORILLA

MOUNTAIN GORILLA

CROSS RIVER GORILLA

threats to the bonobo include poaching for bushmeat, pets and medicines, human population movements and growth, as well as changes in habitat due to timber extraction, mining and war.

Cross River gorilla The Cross River gorilla ( Gorilla gorilla diehli ) is found in 11 pockets of forest on either side of the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. It is believed between 200 and 300 individuals exist (A.P.E.S Portal 2013), making it the world’s rarest great ape. In fact, no film footage or photographs of the Cross River gorilla existed for years, and the only living specimen was taken to the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon in 1994 after being captured by poachers. Finally, in 2012, a camera trap in Cam- eroon recorded almost two minutes of footage of a Cross River gorilla family passing through the forest. Bonobo Since 1996, bonobos ( Pan paniscus ) have been designated an Endangered Species by the IUCN Red List. The species is only found in the low-lying central Congo Basin of DR Con- go, where small groups are found south of the Congo River. There is no complete data on bonobo populations; however, some estimates suggest a population of between 29,500 (My- ers Thompson 1997) and 50,000 (Dupain and Van Elsacker 2001), with more recent estimates suggesting a minimum population of 15,000–20,000 (IUCN/ICCN 2012). Major

Chimpanzee

The chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) is found in 21 countries across Equatorial Africa, yet has been classified Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996. The four sub-species of the chimpanzee include the Eastern chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii ); the Central chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes troglo- dytes ); the Cameroon – Nigeria chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes el- lioti ); and the West African chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes verus ). Combined, these four sub-species are distributed across the African continent from southern Senegal and Guinea in West Africa, across the Congo Basin to western Uganda and western Tanzania in East Africa. As with all the other great apes species, the chimpanzee population is in decline, and is recently be- lieved to have become extinct in four countries: Gambia, Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo (IUCN Red List 2012; Ginn et al. 2013). Estimates indicate that the total chimpanzee population is be- tween 294,800 and 431,100 (Oates et al. 2008; Plumptre et al.

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