HENRY

This week in Science - The inappropriate use and protrayal of Chimpanzees:

In 2005, a survey (see the table, left side) was conducted at the Regenstein Center for African Apes (RCAA) at the Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago, IL). (…) The final question of the survey asked respondents to select which of three great ape species (chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans) were considered endangered in the wild. Of those choices, 95% of respondents thought gorillas were endangered, 91% thought orangutans were endangered, but only 66% believed chimpanzees to be endangered. (…) Respondents were informed that, in fact, all three great apes were classified as endangered and then asked for a reason why they thought a particular ape was not considered in this category. No prompting with answers was provided, and all responses were recorded by the interviewer. Of the 250 respondents who were willing to provide explanations for their choice, the most common reason for the category chosen (35%) was that chimpanzees were commonly seen on television, advertisements, and movies and, therefore, must not be in jeopardy.

Posted on March 20th, 2008 by Simon Greenhill