Researcher Walks Among Dying Baby Chimps

Baby chimps in Tanzania’s Mahale Mountains National Park are at an especially high mortality risk if they develop an upper respiratory infection. Researchers in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine have discovered the animals are likely becoming sick from human visitors to the park.

(Image credit: Brian Szekely, Virginia Tech)

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

As the sun rises, my commute to work begins. There is no traffic at all to speak of except for a few baboons frolicking about and a couple warthogs at their favorite grazing spot for breakfast.

I am at 6 degrees south of the equator and 30 degrees east of the prime meridian, where there is an enchanted forest, called Mahale Mountains. It is situated along the shores of a vast lake, Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. Mahale Mountains National Park is a foot-walking Park. It stretches across 623 square miles in a remote location in western Tanzania, East Africa. Mahale is very remote. The nearest town is between 10 – 12 hours by steamship.

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Using samples collected from sick chimpanzees, I can do forensics of sorts. Following this approach, I was able to detect a virus in the feces. After doing further molecular analysis on this virus, I was able to tell that this virus was closely related to a human virus called the metapneumovirus. Metapneumovirus in humans causes acute respiratory disease. It can sometimes lead to death, most often in young children. Looking at my data, it was very clear that most of the chimpanzees that were getting sick and dying were the younger ones, as is the case with humans.

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