Anthro: Human and Great Apes Essay

Primate Conservation
1. In Gretchen Vogel’s article, Tracking Ebola’s Deadly March Among Wild Apes, she gives us a look into the viral disease, Ebola on how it is being transmitted and killing vast majorities of gorillas and chimpanzees in sanctuaries and national parks in West Africa. It is not known specifically how the disease is being transmitted but some of the top theories are that the virus is being carried by bats or birds, which the disease is not deadly to, or the apes are coming in contact with other apes that are infected. To support the contact theory, researchers conducted a study from October 2003 to January 2004, and of the 94 animals that they were study 91 of them had died. Results showed that the lag time between the deaths in neighboring groups was around 11 days, similar to the 12 day human incubation period. In finding a solution, researchers have found that human vaccines have cured monkeys from the virus but aren’t optimistic about slowing the disease or the spread of it.
1. In the article, The Ethics of Research on Great Apes, it describes how closely chimps and humans are genetically the same and what we could learn by using them as test subjects for diseases that are fatal to humans. Even though there is a great opportunity to further medical research with the help of chimps, there is a division of how chimps should be treated. Since they are so close to humans, it would be reasonable to believe that they have “equal” rights just as us. Even though there are those that think that it is unethical to keep chimps as test subjects, research facilities are taking care of the needs of the chimps. With keeping chimps in research facilities, humans are able to do research to help the human race and with the decline of the population of apes we are giving a better chance for ape survival.
2. I was absolutely shocked when I heard about how many gorillas and chimps were being killed over a disease that I haven’t even heard of. I had always thought that poaching and land destruction would be the only thing to cause a huge number loss, but 5000 already lost to a disease is mindboggling. I was glad to hear that there is at least ideas about getting a vaccine, it doesn’t make sense that an entire species should be wiped out by a disease that shouldn’t have been introduced to a species that has no way of fighting it off.
2. I thought it was interesting to hear about how humane chimpanzees are being treated in research labs. When I think about research labs I get this mental picture of some mad scientist keeping chimps in cages and doing everything inhumane as possible, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Reading that chimps are being taken care of, as an example being euthanized if being tested with irreversible damage so that the chimp isn’t put through pain or torture.
3. After view a few of the websites it was easy to see the what they all were trying to do, which was preserving the great ape

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