Some of Africa’s great apes — humanity’s closest cousins — face death and disruption as the planet warms, according to new research.
The findings, published today in the academic journal PLOS Climate, suggest climate change will create dangerous conditions in hundreds of ape habitats across the continent.
“They’re facing a lot of threats that are much more imminent than climate change,” said Stefanie Heinicke, a postdoctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
“But this will add an additional stressor — and in some habitats, it already has.”
Heinicke, alongside African climate researchers, looked at 333 sites where African apes
