Ape Field Studies

Abstract

While field reports and specimen collections for museums have been ongoing for centuries, systematic studies of wild apes began in the late 1950s. Long‐term observational studies of wild apes began with the pioneering fieldwork on chimpanzees by Imanishi and Itani at Mahale, Tanzania, in 1958. Two years later, Jane Goodall would begin her study of chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania. Since then, many chimpanzee sites have been initiated across their range. Field study of wild gorillas began with Schaller's fieldwork in 1959 and would continue with Fossey in 1967. It was not until the 1970s that wild bonobos would be studied at Wamba and Lomako Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1971, Biruté Galdikas established Camp Leakey in Borneo and Herman Rijksen in Sumatra to study wild orangutans. Whereas habituation of great apes for field studies and tourism may facilitate the survival of these endangered ape populations in some circumstances, precautions must be taken to ensure that the associated risks of disease transmission and disturbance do not negatively impact wild apes.