The WHO in collaboration with several other organizations is currently conducting a search for the natural reservoir species of the Ebola virus in the Tai National Park, Cote d'Ivoire. The death of several habituated chimpanzees there in 1992 and 1994, and the subsequent infection of a Swiss researchers have alerted the medical community. People could all too suddenly decide that killing as many chimpanzees as possible is a way of getting rid ooof dangerous diseases. Pleading for the protection of chimpanzees based on the fact that they are our close relatives seems rather futile considering the lack of compassion that we regularly show even towards our fellow humans. Studies of natural chimpanzee communities across Africa have profoundly changed our views on human nature and human evolution.
Chimpanzees have great potential value for attracting ecotourism.
Finally, there is the fact that chimpanzees in their natural habitat may harbor the solution to several medical problems of global importance. The very different ways in which our closest living relative is coping with diseases affecting our species, ranging from malaria and cholera to HIV, could teach us much about those diseases. Efforts to organize a Population and Habitat Viability Assessment workshop in west Africa are being made and there will not be many more opportunities for such a project. References Gagneux, P., Woodruff. Gagneux, P., Woodruff.