For example, for species like the koala, which was just listed under the Endangered Species Act, such flexibility may have had a significant impact on the conservation of the species prior to the necessity for listing. The Great Ape Conservation Act would concentrate attention on four specific forms of primates. Most recently, the plight of the great apes has alerted world-wide attention and organized a large and active constituency for their conservation. This constituency would form a base for partnership, cooperation, and support. Modeled after the existing species-specific bills, administration of a grants program for great apes could begin promptly.
Great apes inhabit areas where their study and conservation is an enormous challenge.
Once protected by the isolation of densely forested and sometimes unexplored habitat, great apes experience increased pressure from human populations invading and changing their world. In many places where commercial bushmeat operations are taking place, the meat from apes is the most prized and fetches the highest prices in far-flung markets, where some urban dwellers can afford to buy such luxury commodities as gorilla and chimpanzee. Apes are by their biological nature extremely vulnerable species. They have complex social grouping, low reproductive rates and grow relatively slowly. In 1960, more than 1 million chimpanzees populated the dense forests of Africa.