Transcript:

Heres a program from our archives.It's unlikely that any other animal has taught man as much about himself as the chimpanzee has. Yet today, in many parts of the world, chimps are nearly extinct. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.ambience, chimpanzees, Gombe ReserveGoodall: Chimpanzees are highly endangered in Africa today. They're disappearing fast. They were in 25 countries. They're already gone from four. They're on the very verge of extinction in five others.For the past 30 years, Jane Goodall has pioneered a study of chimpanzees in the wild. In 1977, she founded an institute to insure that chimps will survive.Goodall: From a population of something over a million at the turn of the century, there's now at most, 175,000 left in the wild. They're disappearing because the habitat is being destroyed. They're disappearing because they are hunted. And they're hunted for food in many African countries. Even if they're not hunted for food, today there is a tendency to kill mothers, to steal their infants to sell them as pets in Africa, to sell them to dealers who export them, often illegally, to the international entertainment or biomedical research industry.The Jane Goodall Institute is trying to work with African governments to set aside more land for forest and trying to help the local people to become part of any conservation effort. And we're trying to help these economically poor countries with reforestation programs, rural development, medical health family planning, and so on. We're trying to build sanctuaries for chimpanzee infants who've been confiscated by the government and have nowhere to go. We're trying to work with laboratories in this country and Europe to get better conditions for the chimps.This archival program is part of our thirtieth anniversary celebration. If you want hear more, check out our podcast.