Conservationists say the dreaded Ebola virus, along with decades of hunting and logging, is putting some ape species on the brink of extinction in Central Africa.
Ebola, which kills through massive internal bleeding, has long been known to infect primates in Africa. It was first identified in 1976 and has since killed about 1 000 human victims, some of whom are believed to have contracted the disease by consuming or handling infected bush meat.
Most at risk are western lowland gorillas and the Central African chimpanzee, both of which inhabit the dense rainforests of Central Africa, Conservation International said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Christophe Boesch of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, who worked with Conservation International on a study, said on Wednesday that Ebola was reported in May for the first time in the Congo’s Odzala National Park, which contains the world’s largest concentration of western lowland gorillas.
“The fact that it has reached this important park is extremely worrying,” Boesch said by telephone from Leipzig, Germany. “Ebola has been around the region; it’s not something new. But it’s worsening.”
In May, the Washington-based Conservation International sponsored a conference of about 70 primatologists and other experts in the Congo’s capital, Brazzaville, to come up with a plan to prevent gorillas and chimpanzees in the region from being wiped out.
“While the experts were unable to establish precise population figures for the gorillas and chimpanzees, they determined that recent Ebola outbreaks, bush-meat hunting and logging have almost wiped out some populations,” Conservation International said in a statement.
“The continuing spread of the Ebola virus through the region is a particular threat, with devastating effects on ape populations.”
Conservation International spokesperson Tom Cohen said in an e-mail: “This is the first time that Ebola has been identified as a widespread threat to gorilla and chimp populations in the region.”
The group appealed for money to fund a $30-million plan aimed at protecting apes in five African countries by increasing security to protect against illegal hunting, easing logging and slowing the spread of Ebola with “improved monitoring and response to Ebola outbreaks”.
The five countries include Cameroon, Gabon, the Congo, the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea.
Ebola, believed one of the world’s most deadly diseases, is transmitted through direct contact with body fluids of infected persons or primates. There is no cure, and between 50% and 90% of victims die. Among humans, the disease often burns out before spreading far.
The last confirmed Ebola outbreak occurred in the north-western Congo in May, killing eight people.
Boesch said Ebola has been “moving from northern Gabon into Congo progressively over the years, and continues to decimate large numbers of apes in Central Africa”.
Wildlife experts have warned for years that poaching and logging are threatening ape species in the region.
Conservation International president Russell A Mittermeier said those threats, combined with Ebola, “leave us on the brink of losing some of our closest living relatives”.
“It’s a new kind of effort that’s required there,” Boesch said.
Conservationists “who have always been thinking in terms of poaching and habitat destruction need to start thinking in medical terms, too, and collaborate with scientists”. — Sapa-AP
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