OUT OF TREES

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Zimbabwe, in addition to claiming
an overpopulation of elephants and the
fastest-growing timber industry in Africa,
also argues that it also has too many
baboons. “The industry is currently losing
millions due to the big baboon population,”
Forestry Commission general manager
Edward Mutsvairo recently told Agence
France Presse. “We are currently looking at
ways to keep them from destroying the trees.
Maybe we will settle for the use of birth control
injections.”

Logging is closely associated with
the slaughter of nonhuman primates for meat
in much of Africa, and with outbreaks of the
lethal Ebola virus, which generally infects
humans through consumption of monkey
meat. But logging also causes chimpanzees
to kill each other, Wildlife Conservation
Society biologist Lee White reports from
Gabon. About four out of every five chimps
die whenever one displaced tribe invades
another’s territory, New York Times science
writer William K. Stevens explained May 13,
citing White’s research.
Gabon recently had about 50,000
wild chimps, according to White––a third to
half of the world population. Current logging
plans, White predicted, will cut the
number to 10,000.