Tanzania soon to add new tourist attraction

Famous for chimpanzee communities in Eastern and Southern Africa, Tanzania will soon add new ape species in its tourist attractions after researchers found new primate species along the shores of Lake Tanganyika on western tourist corridor.

Discovery of the new ape species, now under study, has been a landmark achievement by nature scientists after prominent British primatologist Dr.
Jane Goodall launched an international research project on chimpanzees in the area.
Dr. Tim Davenport from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Tanzania said the new ape species have been discovered inside the thick forests on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia.
The study showed that other than chimpanzees, the area is occupied by other big apes which were not exactly known by researchers working in the area.
Chimpanzee distribution is mainly observed on the remote forests on the shores of Lake Tanganyika including Mahale Mountains and Gombe Stream national parks which harbor most known chimpanzee communities.
“Given chimpanzees’ rarity, their global significance and their great importance on Tanzania’s tourism, the first national census on chimpanzee population is currently taking place,” Dr. Davenport said.
The first national census on chimpanzee population is currently taking place to determine their actual number and considerable threats facing these closest human relatives and the urgent need to better manage their forest habitats in western Tanzania.
It is estimated that Tanzania has a listed population of up to 2,000 and 4,000 chimpanzees living in scattered families inside the tropical, dense forests in western zones.
Threatened by bush-meat hunters and trophy dealers in Congo, chimpanzee population had dropped to the extent that prompted 15 African governments to sign last month, the “Kinshasa Declaration on Great Apes” which pledges a working together  initiative to protect all great apes within territorial borders.
African great apes’ countries– Cameroon, DRC, Cote D’ivore, Congo, Rwanda and Uganda– are well known for illegal hunting of gorillas and chimpanzees, whose meat fetch high prices in restaurants and local bars, with some exported to overseas zoos.
In Tanzania, chimpanzees are highly protected and counted as unique tourist attractions though threatened by the influx of refugees from warring neighbors of DRC, Burundi and Rwanda.
Dr. Goodall, whose chimpanzee research project earned her an international recognition as the United Nations Messenger of Peace, had opened Tanzania’s chimpanzee families to the outside world after spending more than 40 years studying their communities.

By Apolinari Tairo

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTurboNews)

October 18, 2005   Posted in: Africa