Sad but true, “Chimpanzees are on the endangered list. At the beginning of the 20th century, nearly 2 million chimpanzees populated African forests. Today, that number has dwindled to around 150,000. The current rate of decline, the chimpanzee could be extinct in less than 10 years”

The main threat to chimpanzees in the wild are humans. Humans have created this significant threat by habitat loss, the hunting of adults for bushmeat, the capture of infants used to supply the local pet trade, the international biomedical trade, and the entertainment industry, as well as the lack of awareness and education to the public about Chimps. The relative severity of these threats differs from region to region.

Conservation of free living chimpanzees suffers because the North American public sees chimpanzees on tv and in the movies. This leads to a false perception that chimpanzees are not endangered. We must get those "smiling" chimpanzees off TV and out of the movies and we will have a much easier time convincing the public that there is an imminent extinction threat and that action must be taken. In order to get them off the TV we must first create more sustainable sanctuary space. That can be accomplished by expanding existing sanctuaries and or creating new sanctuaries. All the existing sanctuaries are at full or over capacity today, a few may be able to expand in a few years, but they cannot provide open and awaiting space that advocates need today to take legal action to rescue chimpanzees.

This is the problems the United Way is assisting and we need your help. “Save Chimps” is a project all about saving those captive genetic siblings of ours.