Photo by: Melissa Batson

And how they put a snare in the plan for chimps and humans to live together.

In the Budongo Forests of Uganda, a large group of Chimpanzees, named by researchers The Sonso Group, attempt to thrive in their natural habitat, eating plants and small prey. At the same time, humans who live around the forest are also trying to survive, working at places like the local sugarcane plantation and living in straw and mud houses. For food, they set out into the forest with small snares and aim for duiker and or pig.

Most of these snares are made from wire. As chimpanzees walk through the forest, their hands or feet may become trapped in the snare. In two of the forests where chimpanzees are studied, researchers have observed up to 25 percent of chimpanzees are maimed due to snare injuries. More die.

This problem is typical all over the world. How do the chimps and people live together? How do elephants and people live together? Wolves and people? Mountain Lions and Bay Area people? Though solutions seem impossible at times, I am impressed by many of the solutions, one being that of the Budongo Snare Removal Project.

In January 2000, the Jane Goodall Institute in collaboration with the Budongo Forest Project initiated a snare removal program in the Budongo Forest Reserve. The objective is to reduce the number of snares set, reduce the number of animals caught in snares and traps, and increase the number of local people who obey wildlife laws and understand the need for protecting wildlife.

Teams of two men locate and remove snares. After the first year of operation, they found that the number of snares being set within the grid system of the research area dropped. The census teams found heavy poaching and illegal activities were being carried out in the southern end of the forest reserve, so the team near the research site extended their range.

A new education center reaches out to the local community and provides education around ecology, wildlife and the treasure that is the chimpanzees.

The Oakland Zoo adopted this project in 2001 and the support covers the salaries for four field assistants, two educators, two eco-guards, and allowances for transportation and bike repair, gum boots, rain gear, backpacks, and compasses.

Funds raised at an annual fall lecture and silent auction and on Primate Discovery Day go toward this project.This year’s Primate Day is September 27^th and the lecture, featuring Shirley McGreal, is on October 2^nd.

The Oakland Zoo also supports connection and awareness of this project by visiting the site in Uganda. Teens will be traveling there in July and adults will embark on the journey (including gorilla trecking) in October.

More spots are available on this once in a lifetime adventure. For details, email: amy@oaklandzoo.org.

Human and chimpanzee chromosomes are very similar.
Note that human chromosome 2 is very similar to a
fusion of two chimpanzee chromosomes.

For the last few weeks I have been corresponding with someone about intelligent design (ID). More specifically, we have been chatting about why humans have 46 chromosomes and most of the great apes have 48.

To me, this is great evidence for evolution. Why? Because if you look at the chromosomes closely, you can see that human chromosome 2 is really just a fusion of two great ape chromosomes.

The idea is that a few million years ago, a common human-chimpanzee ancestor of ours had two of his or her chromosomes fused together. This sort of thing happens all the time even today. Around 1 in 1000 live births has one of these kinds of fusions.

Then, probably through chance,this ancestor with the fused chromosomes went on to found the human race. Now people have 46 chromosomes and chimpanzees have 48.

An alternative explanation is that the designers fused the two chromosomes together when they created humans. The idea would be that the designer wouldn’t create every plant, animal, bacteria, and virus from scratch–why reinvent the wheel every time? Instead the designers would mix and match parts that worked.

So as part of the process of designing a human, the designer fused two ape chromosomes together. This would presumably be simpler than creating a human chromosome 2 the way the other chromosomes were made.

The difficulty with this idea is that there is no obvious advantage to having 46 chromosomes instead of 48. What matters is our DNA, not how it happens to be packaged.

It is possible that there was some advantage to fusing the chromosomes together. For example, maybe a new gene was created at the fusion point. Or maybe genes that were shut off before were now turned on in the new fused chromosomes.

There isn’t any evidence of these kinds of things. And even if there were, a designer who can easily put in the 60 million or so differences between humans and chimpanzees should be able to accomplish whatever results a chromosome fusion gives more elegantly than sticking two ape chromosomes together.

Also, when you look at the fusion point, you can see that the DNA isn’t exactly what you would expect if a fusion happened in the last 10,000 or even 100,000 years. The results look more like an event that happened millions of years ago.

The ends of a chromosome have a defined sequence of DNA repeats called a telomere. The DNA at the fusion point looks very similar to a string of telomeres (as we would expect from a fusion) but it isn’t perfect. This is just what you would expect if the fusion happened millions of years ago. Because our DNA gets changed a little all of the time.

The environment or even our own cells can cause the wrong letter to end up in our DNA. Our cells are pretty good at fixing these mistakes but they don’t catch them all. What this means is that our DNA builds up mutations over time.

When an unfixed change happens in a sperm or egg, then it is passed down to the next generation. If the changes that aren’t fixed happen somewhere important, then they are selected for or against. But if they’re neutral, then they just build up over time. Scientists can even use these sorts of errors to predict how long ago something happened. Or to trace human migration patterns.

These DNA changes at the fusion point do not fit with ID if they don’t serve a purpose. Otherwise, why put them there? It will be interesting to see the results of experiments that might show if these sequences matter or not.

Dr. Barry Starr is a Geneticist-in-Residence at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA.

A tribute to the talking chimp who opened minds more than ears.

Photo credit: Hi Pandian, flickr: Original photoIn some realm, Dr. Doolittle is taking a moment of silence.

And though his delightful character may have been make believe, thanks to a certain chimpanzee, talking to animals is not.

However, on October 30th the world lost the 42 year old female chimp, Washoe, who had taken us to the mysterious and magical world of human-animal communication. She was the first animal to speak the human language of American Sign Language.

Washoe was born in Africa in about 1965, and came to the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI), located on the campus of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, in 1880 with Roger and Deborah Fouts. Over her time there she worked with Roger, Deborah, and other researchers to learn about 250 words which she used to answer questions, describe objects and activities, and make requests. Washoe went on to teach her own son and her two other research mates the language. She said “sweet-girl,” “hug-friend,” and loved shoes, often signing for visitors to show her theirs.

The ability to communicate with this animal opened doors researchers had previously only dreamed of. In Roger Fouts’ book Next of Kin, primate researcher, Jane Goodall, noted the importance of the work with Washoe saying, “Roger, through ongoing conversations with Washoe and her extended family, has opened a window into the cognitive workings of a chimpanzee’s mind that adds new dimension to our understanding.”

The work with Washoe has offered even more than cognitive understanding. It seems to have allowed us to enter a place where we understand, on a very deep level, that we are simply one species in a beautiful and complex world of many and that all of us can experience, feel, and possibly connect with each other.

What does it mean to be able to talk to and hear from another species? I often want to ask my new kitten why she insists on doing certain things on my bed, but can’t. I want to ask polar bears and orangutans what they need, but can’t. Gee, I can’t even communicate well with other humans.

In reading tributes to Washoe, I begin to understand what it means. It means that, thanks to Washoe, there exists a path to a genuine connection to animals — and to that other realm. A path that can enlighten, teach, inspire, and offer what make believe can: pure delight.

To learn more about Washoe, read the tributes, and support the work of chimp communication, visit www.friendsofwashoe.org.

Amy Gotliffe is Conservation Manager at The Oakland Zoo.

latitude: 37.7502, longitude: -122.148