Research on chimpanzees in the Taï National Park
As West Africa's largest - and last - track of pristine rainforest, the 5,000 sq. km. Taï National Park obviously attracts the scientific community. Apes, especially chimpanzees, are the focus of most researchers visiting the park.
Swiss researcher Christophe Boesch has been studying chimps in the park for more than twenty years. Initially supported by WWF, he is now leading his own conservation group, the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation.
A theatre group to promote the chimps
Currently he works in his field station with eleven other staff (six biologists and five assistants). "I'm fascinated by chimps, they are the mirror of our past, a link to mankind's history", he says. "It would be a tragedy to lose them."
Threatened by the bushmeat trade but also affected by diseases, the chimpanzees of Taï National Park are vulnerable. The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation is about to launch an awareness campaign in the villages bordering the park.
The message will be conveyed by a theatre troop that will go from village to village. As Christophe Boesch points it out, this initiative will be complementary to WWF's educational programme in the schools.
"Almost every day we hear gun shots"
Not far away from Boesch's camp there is another research station, where scientists study other monkey species. Cécile Fruteau, a French biologist, tells us how these are threatened by poachers. "Almost every day we hear gun shots," she says.
