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Africa’s great ape sanctuaries are feeling the heat from climate change

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In April 2024, above-average rainfall caused Kenya’s Ewaso Nyiro River to burst its banks, flooding the area and wreaking havoc for residents, including more than two dozen rescued chimpanzees at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Recent research predicts that in the next three decades Africa’s apes will be increasingly affected by climate change, facing more extreme events like wildfires, floods and heat waves. However, it’s not just wild apes that are at risk when it comes to a warming world: great ape sanctuaries across the continent are feeling the heat too. “Climate change has had a huge impact on the sanctuaries,” says Kaitlyn Bock, head of programs for the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), a coalition of wildlife sanctuaries and centers across the continent. “All the markers of climate change have been affecting them and their operations. Everything from increased rainfall to exacerbated periods of drought.” Bock says these changes seem to be happening rapidly across PASA’s 23 member organizations, which care for gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and other primates. “I think climate change is something that happens over time, you know, we’re seeing this happen gradually over many years … but for the sanctuaries, it doesn’t feel very gradual.” Tourist facilities at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary flooded as water levels in Lake Victoria, which surrounds the facility, reached unprecedented levels. Image Courtesy of Chimpanzee Sanctuary & Wildlife Conservation Trust in Uganda. From extreme flooding to droughts While climate change is affecting ape sanctuaries across the continent, it manifests in different ways. For…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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