Chimpanzees and gorillas are both critically endangered species, and believe it or not, one of the contributing factors to these primates’ ongoing struggle is the smartphone that you use every day, one conversation expert told National Geographic during a recent interview.
In the interview, author and conservationist Nancy Merrick explained that the capacitors used in cell phones typically contain Columbite-tantalite or Coltan, a black tar-like material that is found in the Congo and can be refined into a powder than holds an electric charge.
Coltan, which is also used in laptops and some other types of electronic devices, has reportedly caused a considerable amount of illegal militia activity related to its mining and seeing, Merrick explained. This activity has also helped spur on deforestation in the Congo basin, one of the main reasons why the chimp and gorilla populations are on the decline.
“We’re already seeing that where chimps and gorillas live near human habitats their forests are being rapidly converted to agriculture,” Merrick, who was being interviewed to promote her new book ChimpSaver.org, told Nat Geo on Wednesday.
Deforestation one of the main threats to the chimps
Merrick, who worked along with well-known conservationist Jane Goodall during the 1970s and went on to create the website ChimpSaver.org, added that chimps and gorillas are currently faced with “many challenges,” and that while it was “essential” for Congo Basin forests to be protected that the “biggest challenge is unchecked population growth.”
Human population is currently around seven billion, and will likely be close to nine billion by 2050, she explained. Many of those new people will live in Africa, “which is probably the continent least able to accommodate such an increase,” Merrick said. Along with deforestation and the rise in human population, hunting for bush meat and illegal pet trade are also risk factors.
So what can people do to help out the primates? Merrick told Nat Geo that “the first thing is to learn more about the situation” through organizations, newsletters, social media and other means. She noted that chimps are currently “extinct in four African countries and severely threatened in ten others,” and that it was essential to “create a groundswell of interest in saving biodiversity if we’re going to save man’s closest relatives.”
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Image credit: Thinkstock
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