Monday, Nov 01, 2004
Monday, Nov 01, 2004 |
| International | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | International
-
Globescan
Douala (Cameroon): Chained by the neck to a concrete outhouse for 12 years, it was not much of a life. But given the alternative, Julie was lucky. Bought for £60 as an infant, this suburban yard in Douala, Cameroon's commercial capital, was the only home she knew. Slamming her hands on the ground, screaming, the family pet was evidently in distress but at least she had survived, unlike most great apes in central Africa. After being captured with her in the jungle Julie's parents almost certainly ended up in a cooking pot as bushmeat, a trade which is driving chimpanzees and gorillas towards extinction. Young chimps like Julie are more valuable as pets but as they grow strong and wild they can also end up as bushmeat or as prisoners, chained to a wall. In the past decade the number of eastern lowland gorillas has plunged from 17,000 to 5,000, according to Conservation International. Western chimpanzees have disappeared from Benin, Gambia and Togo and fewer than 1,000 remain in Senegal, Ghana and Guinea-Bissau. The U.N. environmental agency has warned that we are destroying a bridge to our origins — humans share more than 96 per cent of their DNA with great apes. Hunting and eating great apes has been illegal for a decade but it is only recently that the trade went underground, because since last year any restaurant caught serving meat from endangered animals faces up to three years in prison and a $16,000 fine. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2004, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
