HONG KONG: The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee is the most endangered of all chimpanzee sub-species in the world, with only about 6,000 estimated in the wild.
Dramatic habitat loss by 2020 due to climate change threatens the population of the planet’s most endangered chimp subspecies, according to new research.
The work suggests that climate change could do more harm to chimpanzee populations than previously realised.
The Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti) is the most endangered of all chimpanzee subspecies in the world, with only about 6,000 individuals estimated in the wild.
While their habitats are already threatened by logging, agriculture and illegal hunting, few studies have looked at the possible effects of climate change.
“The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee is perhaps the least studied of all chimpanzee subspecies,” first author Paul Sesink Clee, Graduate Research Fellow at Drexel University, said.
“This is the first time that their distribution and habitat has been studied in such detail, and the data used to predict how their habitats might alter under climate change.
