Gombe’s Team
The Ecosystem Health Project in Gombe National Park, exemplifies the many-heads method of conservation work. Zoo scientists, in cooperation with the Jane Goodall Institute and Tanzania National Parks, are conducting a baseline health-monitoring study of chimpanzees in Gombe National Park. Since the 1960s, when Goodall first began her research at Gombe, the population has declined from approximately 150 to around 100 chimpanzees, with disease being the leading cause of mortality.

Over a dozen scientists are involved in the Ecosystem Health Project, making the venture unique in its comprehensive approach to improving chimpanzee health. “There are,” says Elizabeth Lonsdorf, Ph.D., the project’s coordinator and director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, “simply a lot of great people, inside and outside of the zoo, involved.”

Like disease in human populations, disease in apes is a complicated affair with many contributing factors. So it isn’t surprising that project researchers are proceeding much the same way researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) do when faced with a disease outbreak in humans. The project researchers may be using similar tactics but they face challenges even the CDC doesn’t. That’s because wild chimps don’t tell you their symptoms, nor do they give blood samples or readily submit to X-rays.

“We can’t just go in there with dart guns and start anesthetizing wild animals, for two reasons,” explains Lonsdorf. “First, Jane Goodall and her staff have spent 40 years getting the animals accustomed to being watched by humans. Going in with dart guns would make them fear us and that would destroy our ability to observe the chimpanzees behaving naturally. Second, without knowing what made the animal ill, we don’t know what the effects of the anesthetic would be, possibly endangering the animal further.”

The project researchers must use non-invasive sampling techniques and their skills as biological sleuths to confront what threatens the Gombe apes. “By ‘non-invasive sampling,’” says Travis, “we mean following the chimpanzees around, observing and writing down everything they do and collecting urine and fecal samples. It’s not exactly glamorous work.”

But once the observational data and samples are collected, the real hunt for the chimpanzee’s killer can begin. At the zoo, seven scientists participate in the data analysis. In the Davee Center Travis studies different diseases the population might be vulnerable to while veterinary technicians from the veterinary department investigate dangerous parasites. Down the hall, at the Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology, the center’s director, Joanne Earnhardt, Ph.D., conducts population-viability analyses to project the impact of disease outbreaks on the chimpanzee population. A mathematical modeler, Landscape Ecologist Eric Lonsdorf, Ph.D., then creates a complex computer model of how diseases are transmitted through the community. Meanwhile, the zoo’s director of veterinary services, Kathryn Gamble, D.V.M., helps coordinate medical assistance and develop emergency-response procedures at Gombe. If an ape falls ill, or natural disaster strikes the park, knowing the emergency procedures and acting quickly may save chimpanzee and human lives.

For the many-heads approach to work, listening is as important as conducting any scientific analysis. “As much as you may want to help, you can’t just walk into a foreign country and try to impose your conservation agenda,” explains Lonsdorf. “The people living there know which problems are the priorities. For instance, our collaborators in Gombe told us that ape health had to be the top priority. So now we’ve put new measures into place to ensure that ape health comes first. The more you work with your collaborators, the more appropriate and effective your conservation action is.”

Next: Gombe Players

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