Pan Troglodytes Research Paper

Pan troglodytes also known as chimpanzees, are amazing great apes who share 96% of our DNA, making them our closest living relatives. They are very intelligent and display that they are closely related to humans by their tool making and use, cooperate and learn from each other, and learn in various forms of expression and communication. Today there are around 300 thousand chimpanzees in the wild and 2,000 captive in the United States; out of those 2000, 850 are in laboratories, 600 in sanctuaries and 250 in private hands. (savethechimps.org). That lists chimpanzees as endangered species, rapidly decreasing in numbers. Being that chimpanzees are wild animals, their natural instincts are wild. Yes they are gentle loving creatures but what us humans don’t seem to comprehend is that they are wild animals, like lions, sharks,
In 2008, a chimp named Kimie attacked a student who was cleaning an empty cage. According to Green, Kimie jumped on Howards back and repeatedly hit and bit her and attacked her again a short time later as she tried to return to her intern living quarters. So who is at fault for this event? The chimp, the intern and woman or the facility? And how can these events be prevented in the future? In this event, I blame the intern and the facility. With further research I will show how it wasn’t the chimps fault, but the interns. At the Central Oregons Chimp Inc. sancturary, only seven chimp attacks have accured from 1995-2009. This number shows that chimpanzees are inded not dangerous numbers. The most frustrating this about this story to me is that people cant seem to understand that the chimpanzee, at the end of the day, is a wild animal, and although it may seem like we know these animals really well, we don’t know what they are thinking or how they are feeling because we cant communicate with them. The chimpanzee attacking this young intern, might have felt threated by her because she was in her cage, and the chimpanzee