A savage territorial
has been sparked off
between chimpanzees in the
tropical forests of this central
African country. Apparently,
logging in Gabon's forested
area, is responsible for this
incident, informed Lee
White, a field biologist for
one Wildlife Conservation
society recently. Gabon,
which has an estimated
50,000 chimpanzees, has
until recently, accounted for
a third to a half of the total
African chimpanzee population estimated at 100,000 to
150,000. The recent chimpanzee wars have reduced
population to about
30,000 and there is wide-
spread apprehension that it
will further fall to 10,000 if
most of the country's forest
areas are logged, said White.
This has, however, come
as a surprise because logging
is done selectively in Gabon
with an aim to minimise
damage to habitats of chimpanzees and other animals.
White opines that as mechanised logging operations
advance on a continuous
front 4.8 km to 9.65 kin wide,
their approach frightens the
chimpanzees who are not
used to humans and have
never encountered big noisy
machines before. As a result, they flee right into the territory of the next chimp community, thus spurring a warfare.
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