Academic Writing

Mark Peneff

Writing 39C

Dr Lynda Haas

06/07/2020

The Dangerous Threat Facing the Intelligent Chimpanzee Population

Did you know that chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with humans? Chimpanzees all over the world have shown their remarkable abilities to socialize with one another and form social bonds. I will first review three scientific studies linking chimpanzees and their social intelligence with respect to the other animals in the primate tree of life that have shown similar capacities. Then I will dive into the factors behind their endangerment and how humans can help protect them better. What will it take for people to realize that chimpanzees are worth saving?

People may not realize just how smart chimpanzees can be. With their ability to problem solve and communicate with each other, they show similar traits to human beings. We see that in past history the orthodox researcher would believe that only humans had a conscience and were able to possess feelings. This belief that everything in the world revolves around humans is called anthropocentrism. In Carl Safina's book Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel, he mentions how back in the 1970's "Suggesting that other animals can feel anything was not only a conversation stopper; it was a career killer” (27). Eventually this way of thinking passed as a new wave of scientific research ‘emerged; in the last decades, several studies have’ proven that chimpanzees possess social intelligence. We see this when Jorg Massen states how his "results show that similar to humans, chimpanzees' friendships are related to homophily in certain personality characteristics, particularly those relevant for socio-positive and cooperative behavior” (1). With these animals facing pressure from hunters, the sad reality is that there may not be many friend groups left for chimpanzees to form.

A Summary of the Scientific Articles on Chimpanzee Intelligence

My review begins with behaviors exhibited by chimpanzees when put in front of a mirror. The study goes into whether these chimpanzees will be able to self recognize themselves and how it contributes to their social cognition. Next it will address a social grooming technique called the grooming handclasp and how it is learned throughout different chimpanzee tribes. I will then lead into Edwin J.C. van Leeuwen's study of the possibility of a grieving process being performed by chimpanzees after the death of a well-known group member. My review's purpose is to advocate a better life for these highly intelligent animals. Throughout all of the studies done on chimpanzees we have seen that they are not so much different than human beings and that maybe we humans should consider treating these animals like how we would want to be treated. As overpopulation becomes a looming threat to our world, we must ask ourselves how much longer will these animals be able to survive if we continue to neglect their existence?

The Mirror Test

Scientists who have studied different animals have used the mirror self recognition test to determine whether an animal is capable of self awareness. First I will look into the study of chimpanzees and their ability to self recognize themselves in a mirror and what this means in connection with their social cognition abilities. In a study entitled Mirror self-recognition and its relationship to social cognition in chimpanzees, Carla Krachun observed chimpanzees behavior during the mirror test. The methods involved marking the chimpanzees with kool-aid and observing their actions for ten minutes. There were 4 different ways the researchers measured the chimpanzee's social cognition which was "including comprehension of pointing, initiation of pointing, use of attention-getting behaviors, and gaze following (1176 )".

Results from this study show that chimpanzees able to recognize themselves in the mirror scored higher on social cognition tasks than the chimpanzees who were not able to. Another interesting result showed that "With regard to age differences, we found that in the Primate Cognition Test battery, older subjects performed more poorly than younger individuals, a finding that is consistent with previous reports in this sample of chimpanzees (1181)". While the reasons for the significance of age are unknown it is an important variable to consider in a chimpanzee's social intelligence. Krachun wanted to understand the reasons why chimpanzees developed the ability to recognize themselves, whether it was advantageous for survival or social purposes. Although they were not able to find an answer to this question, it is a fascinating topic to explore and one that the researchers stated needed more research to find an answer. Overall, the younger chimpanzees were able to recognize themselves in a mirror, which suggests they are self-aware--a trait of highly intelligent animals.

The Grooming Handclasp (GHC)

Like humans, not all chimpanzees are the same, and different groups have different practices among one another. The second study I will be reviewing concerns a social grooming technique observed in some chimpanzee tribes over the past few years. The lead researcher in this study is Edward J.C. van Leeuwen who is a postdoctoral chimpanzee researcher with over 10 years of research experience. He is also the chair of the Chimfunshi Research Advisory Board and is a guest teacher at several universities. At the start of the study it is stated that the "Grooming handclasp (GHC) behavior was originally advocated as the ﬁrst evidence of social culture in chimpanzees owing to the ﬁnding that some populations engaged in the behavior and others do not(4362) ". It is significant to note that this social behavior is not performed by all chimpanzee groups and that researchers in this study look to find a reason for this. The methods involved observing 4 different groups of chimpanzees in 2010 to 2011. Researchers also studied different variations of the grooming handclasp which means that the chimpanzees can groom each other in different parts of their hands. The main findings of this study showed that 2 out of the 4 groups engaged in the grooming handclasp. Another interesting finding of the study showed that the grooming handclasp technique was taught by mothers to their offspring and that it is not a behavior that chimpanzees are born with.

Mourning The Death Of A Group Member

A controversial topic among the science world is whether animals can feel and experience the same emotions as us humans. The final study concerns chimpanzees' responses to the death of a 9-year-old group member. The researcher of the study named Chimpanzees' responses to the dead body of a 9‐year‐old group member by Edwin J.C. van Leeuwen the same researcher regarding the study of the grooming handclasp among different chimpanzee groups. The study's methods show that only group members that have interacted with each other over 10 years were involved in the experiment. Data was gathered by how close the chimpanzees would stand by the body and whether they would hit the body or groom it. The results of the study stated, "We observed individuals peering (watching the body closely from within 35cm, see ethogram), inspecting, and hitting the body, yet most frequently, the group members sat quietly around the body (917)". A fascinating part of the study shows that at least 9 of the chimpanzees interacted with the dead body physically. Another important fact to note in the findings was based on other studies, chimpanzees who were older and more socially active in the group had more group members respond to his or her death. The mind and emotions of the chimpanzee tribe are seen here as there is an obvious response to the death of a close group member. While some group members exhibited more physical contact than others, most of the chimpanzees came to acknowledge the group member's death. This is significant due to the fact that in previous history, it was believed that only humans can mourn deaths. If chimpanzees have the ability to mourn and observe the situations around them they should be treated as intelligent beings.

The work of these three studies is connected: they all increase our awareness of the highly complex cognitive ability and social intelligence of chimpanzees. Social intelligence is one of the most important factors when studying an animal's mind. The mirror study investigates self-awareness within a chimpanzee, which proves how intelligent these animals are. In conclusion, if chimpanzees are as socially adept as the studies above have shown then there must be additional variables that need to be researched regarding their social intelligence. Even though in the mid-19th-century scientists were opposed to animals being able to express feelings, articles from researchers as early as 1939 state that "So likewise in this address, I am assuming that personality is the correct and adequate term for what is known considering the integrated behavior of the chimpanzee (Yerkes, 97)". The human definition of social intelligence is the ability to form relationships and understand and adapt to social environments. If chimpanzees share these abilities with humans we must ask ourselves how long these intelligent animals will survive if the human race neglects their existence? Acts like the bushmeat trade are unjust and cruel due to how intelligent these animals are. According to Peter Andrew Lindsey "The bushmeat trade, or the illegal acquisition and exchange of wild meat, has long been recognized as a severe problem in forest biomes (1)". These animal habitats are also being destroyed due to large scale logging in the forests of Africa. If chimpanzees can maintain a social hierarchy similar to humans shouldn't we evaluate the conditions and treatment of their population? If we accept their social intelligence, we must take action to save these chimpanzees from becoming endangered and losing their homes.

Philosophical Questions about Human-Animal Relationships

When we observe the relationship between humans and animals in an unbiased way, we see that humans have no respect for animals or their towards animal’s intelligence. Human’s often disregard the quality of life toward the beings they share this earth with. We can see this when psychologist Richard Ryder explains his theory of speciesism that since humans are known as the most intelligent beings, we have moral superiority over non human animals. Another question t is if animals are intelligent enough to know they will suffer, then the abuse of them should stop. Arguments supporting the killing of animals state that they are not smart enough to plan ahead, thus giving humans an excuse to murder them.

Defining The Bushmeat Crisis

The fate of the chimpanzee population across the world is in the hands of human’s actions on their environment. Chimpanzee’s face issues including disease, climate change, habitat destruction, and hunters using them as meat to trade or sell. Many scholars have shown their distaste in these actions often citing how humans downplay their responsibilities towards animals. Humans can be just as immoral and irrational as Carl Safina states, “Humans are rational beings, is probably our most half-true assertion about ourselves. There is in nature an overriding sanity and often, in humankind, an undermining insanity”( 271). As I delve deeper into the actions done by human beings to put chimpanzee’s in this position, people must see that there are many people profiting from the trade of chimpanzee’s who will always be putting the lives of these animals at risk in return for a payday.

Below is an infographic I have created summarizing the main issues of the trade.

The many issues facing chimpanzee’s stems from the actions of human beings. Habitat destruction plays a key part in destroying vital chimpanzee communities. Another problem chimpanzees face is susceptibility to diseases like Ebola which has affected the mortality rate of young chimpanzees. A common practice during habitat destruction is called logging. Logging is where lumber companies build roads deep into a forest which divides chimpanzee territory forcing them to scatter all over the place. Not only does logging play a part in dividing chimpanzee territory, it puts chimpanzees in grave danger of being hunted by bushmeat hunters. The bushmeat trade is the illegal hunting of non game animals. This includes chimpanzees which are traded all over Africa and other countries for meat in various markets. The bushmeat trade is the main threat to the chimpanzee population and the numbers have risen over time to a dangerous amount.

Chimpanzee populations easily surpassed several millions in Africa, while in our current day there are an estimated 200,000 wild chimpanzees left. These numbers show the significantly large role the bushmeat trade plays in the declining number of chimpanzees in Africa. Reports show that if this amount of illegal hunting continues, chimpanzee’s are in great danger of becoming extinct (Mark 1). If humans are more intelligent than animals, then it should be expected that they have a moral responsibility to the welfare of the animals who are living in this world among them. The saddening reality is that the bushmeat business is booming more than ever. “In a single bushmeat market in West Africa, over 9,000 primates were murdered in a single year alone” (Mark 1). After all of the evidence proving how highly intelligent these animals can be, these animals are being taken advantage of in a cruel way for money. Studies have also shown chimpanzees maintaining the ability to mourn deaths over group members. If humans were to view this from a chimpanzee’s perspective there would be much more considerations regarding the treatment of these animals.

But the sad fact is that most humans are reluctant to acknowledge that this practice is immoral and evil and tend to do nothing towards making a change to it. As stated in an article by Martine Peeters named, Risk to Human Health from a Plethora of Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses in Primate Bushmeat mentions that “The closest simian relatives of HIV-1 and HIV-2 have been found in the common chimpanzee( Peeters 1).” A crucial factor of the bushmeat trade is that it not only affects the chimpanzee population, it also affects the human population due to the risk of transmitting diseases when people eat chimpanzees. There is a reason why they are non game animals and this is exactly why. A scholarly article by Thurston Hicks named Trade in Orphans and Bushmeat Threatens One of The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Most Important Populations of Eastern Chimpanzees, recorded that 34 carcasses and 42 orphans of chimpanzees were found in markets, houses, and roadside south of the Uele River. Research also states that from interviews with the local villagers shows that there has been a significant increase in the hunting of chimpanzees over the past 15 years. These private corporations who are profiting off of the bushmeat trade are the ones to blame for this treatment.

The governments in Africa are also partially to blame since they have not found a way to ban this immoral practice on these innocent animals. Over the past 50 years we have seen a decline in the population of chimpanzees due to this practice, although it was common to hunt them way before this time period, it only started to become a real problem in the past 50 years. It is a concern that the government has not found an alternative food source for some of these people who rely on bushmeat. This glaring reality must be solved to protect our chimpanzees. Why protect chimpanzees? Because chimpanzees are our close relatives, and play a vital part in keeping our forests diverse. The whole forest ecosystem will be changed if the chimpanzees become endangered. We must protect these animals because they play a crucial part in maintaining the health and diversity of the earth.

Solutions To The Bushmeat Crisis

When we observe all the harm being created by the illegal hunting and trading of chimpanzees, solutions must be created by governments and the people to combat this practice. As the bushmeat trade has been getting worse over the past years, few has been done to stop it’s growth especially in African countries. On the Worldwide Wildlife Fund’s website the global solutions to the bushmeat crisis mention a community wildlife management, increasing the rate of mini-livestock which include cane rats on small farms, and supporting sustainable harvesting without the use of logging. The search for an alternative to the bushmeat trade has been a long and difficult route for policymakers. Due to the traditional ways of hunting being a second option as opposed to the profitable market of the bushmeat trade, monitoring the illegal hunting has become difficult for local governments and communities.

One of the best possible solutions can be increasing funds in anti poaching security and law enforcement. By reducing the profits, and increasing the costs of bushmeat hunting, law enforcement in these countries can have an easier time locating these illegal activities. “There is abundant evidence that elevated anti-poaching security can be effective at reducing bushmeat hunting (Lindey 92)” . Bushmeat hunting has been far too easy in the past decade, mainly due to the lack of security and funding towards the cause. Communities who are eating these chimpanzee’s meat are not well educated on the bushmeat trade and are unaware of the diseases that they can contract from eating this kind of meat. Although it is an attractive thought to desire a complete end to the bushmeat practice, the reality of the situation is that we must first work to slow the trade before we can end it completely.

A key factor that should be looked into is the difference in hunting in savannas and forest biomes. It has been noted that most of the bushmeat hunting is being done in Savannas (Lindsey 92). The lack of research and funding towards learning more about this crisis also affects the ability for governments to efficiently deal with the bushmeat crisis. As stated by Lindsey, “Research is urgently needed to assess the scale, distribution, trends and patterns associated with bushmeat hunting and trade, and to quantify the ecological, economic and social impacts (Lindsey 93).” With more quality research being done on the patterns of these poachers, governments can face the issue head on rather than walking in blindly without knowing anything about the enemy. A great deal of concern should be placed on the research incentives and security fortifications in order to achieve any positive results in facing the bushmeat traders. Law enforcement must tighten up and focus on these environmental crimes, while governments should employ highly skilled and experienced staff members who can deal with all sorts of anti-poaching tasks. Not only do governments need to hire a good amount of skilled staff members, they must pay them well and supply them with adequate working conditions and equipment effective to combat poaching.

A big issue with solving the bushmeat problem is all of the combined interests involved in it. Counter-Arguments in support of bushmeat is “that it is an inexpensive source of protein and an economic opportunity (Karesh 431).” Another take on why the bushmeat trade is effective in these countries is due to the fact that it has been a custom throughout human history and it is pointed out that “it seems unlikely that tastes and habits will change dramatically in the near future. Thus, stopping the bushmeat trade on moral grounds is doubtful (Karesh 431). “ The reality is that governments have not been able to provide an effective alternative source of protein for the communities that eat the most bushmeat. The people in these communities are hungry and will eat anything that is provided to them, which is why the bushmeat trade has turned out to be such a successful and lucrative business in these African countries.

This leads me back to the solution of increased law enforcement against the bushmeat trade. In combination with more security patrols on deck, fines and regulations should be raised in order to slow down bushmeat hunters. In certain situations, fines and regulations have proven to be effective in handling bushmeat hunters if implemented correctly (Karesh). But in order for these governments to implement these regulations and fines properly they must have the appropriate information and data available and find an alternative source of food to feed these people with. The ways that a regular person can contribute to ending the bushmeat crisis is spreading awareness and educating people globally. The reason behind this is because the general public’s knowledge of the bushmeat crisis is generally low. Without a well informed population, communities will not be able to find ways to prevent the hunting of chimpanzees.

To conclude, governments allocate more of their resources towards the security of the savanna biomes that have been known to have the most bushmeat hunting. There has been a lack of effort in protecting chimpanzees extending from the government to the people who stand by and watch as these animals slowly become extinct. Overall, there must be a stronger effort to obtain data and impose security from all governments in these African countries where bushmeat hunting is taking place. If humans aim for a sustainable world for the future, they must take action and take a look at the unfair treatment of the animals they are sharing this world with. We still have time to save the chimpanzee species, but we must act hard on it now more than ever.

Here is a link to my original google doc advocacy paper.

Works Cited Page

Hicks, T. C., et al. "Trade in orphans and bushmeat threatens one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s most important populations of Eastern Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)." African Primates 7.1 (2010): 1-18.

Karesh, William B., and Eric Noble. "The bushmeat trade: increased opportunities for transmission of zoonotic disease." Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine: A Journal of Translational and Personalized Medicine: A Journal of Translational and Personalized Medicine 76.5 (2009): 429-434.

Krachun, Carla, et al. "Mirror self-recognition and its relationship to social cognition in chimpanzees." Animal cognition 22.6 (2019): 1171-1183.

Lindsey, Peter Andrew, et al. "The bushmeat trade in African savannas: Impacts, drivers, and possible solutions." Biological conservation 160 (2013): 80-96.

Mark, Ariel. “Over 9,000 primates killed for single bushmeat market in West Africa every year.” Mongabay News & Inspiration From Nature’s Frontline. (2014)

Massen, Jorg JM, and Sonja E. Koski. "Chimps of a feather sit together: chimpanzee friendships are based on homophily in personality." Evolution and Human Behavior 35.1 (2014): 1-8.

Peeters, Martine, et al. "Risk to human health from a plethora of simian immunodeficiency viruses in primate bushmeat." Emerging infectious diseases 8.5 (2002): 451.

Van Leeuwen, Edwin JC, et al. "Chimpanzees' responses to the dead body of a 9‐year‐old group member." American Journal of Primatology 78.9 (2016): 914-922.

Van Leeuwen, Edwin JC, et al. "Neighbouring chimpanzee communities show different preferences in social grooming behaviour." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279.1746 (2012): 4362-4367.

Safina, Carl. Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel. Picador edition, 2016.

Yerkes, Robert M. "The life history and personality of the chimpanzee." The American Naturalist 73.745 (1939): 97-112.