Ebola has devastated gorilla, chimpanzee populations

Over time, Ebola has wiped out an estimated one-third of the world's gorillas and almost the same amount of chimpanzees, and a PhD student warns that something needs to be done — and fast — to ensure they don't soon become extinct.

"At this moment in time Ebola is the single greatest threat to the survival of gorillas and chimpanzees," Meera Inglis, at England's University of Sheffield, writes at The Conversation. Outbreaks in human and non-human primate populations often happen in tandem, CBS News reports, and researcher Peter Walsh has tried to stop the spread of Ebola among great apes by creating a vaccine. He published the results of successful trials last year, but apes in the wild have not yet received the vaccine.

Inglis said that beyond vaccinations, forest habitats need to be restored in order to stop the spread of Ebola; if gorillas and chimps have a place to live, it will reduce the chances of infected primates moving to a new area. "If we do not act fast," Inglis wrote, "these may prove to be the last decades in which apes can continue to live in their natural habitat."

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