From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:
A study of the efficacy of the Endangered
Species Act by wildlife biologists with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and the University of Idaho at Moscow
reported November 12 in Science that, “Few species have
actually recovered,” because population goals are set too
low in 60% of the cases where vertebrate populations can
be counted. “Even if population goals were achieved”
they added, “60% of the ESA’s threatened or endangered
vertebrate species would remain in peril, with roughly a
20% probability of extinction within 20 years or 10 gener-
ations, whichever is longer.”
The wild population of bonobo apes, or
pygmy chimpanzees, who are the closest relatives of
humans after the common chimpanzee, has fallen from
50,000 to under 10,000 in two decades; extinction is pro-
jected within seven years. Native to Zaire, bonobos are
threatened by habitat loss, meat poachers, and pet traders
who traffic in the orphaned infants. Young bonobos typi-
cally die within days when apart from their mothers. The
usual customers are visiting non-Africans, who buy
bonobo babies in misguided hopes of saving them, says to
primatologist Jo Thompson. But this encourages the
poachers to capture more. The human and bonobo DNA
sequences differ by only 2-3%.
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