Leading expert warns of grave danger for chimpanzees

Keepers at Edinburgh Zoo are taking extra precautions to prevent the potential spread of coronavirus to its primates, as a leading expert warned that Covid-19 could wipe out local populations in the wild.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) closed the zoo and Highland Wildlife Park (HWP) near Kingussie last week.

Staff at both sites are continuing to look after the animals in their care but keeping direct contact to a minimum.

Those required to go near primates are also wearing masks.

The moves have been revealed as St Andrews University primatologist Dr Cat Hobaiter warned Covid-19 could be fatal to chimpanzees, particularly in the wild in Africa.

Edinburgh Zoo houses 16 chimpanzees, the closest living primates to humans.

Dr Hobaiter, a lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, who runs a primate research programme in Uganda, said: “We know that chimpanzees definitely, and probably all apes, are very vulnerable to coronavirus.

“Not only do we know they can catch the same ones we get, but when they get it it’s worse for them. It is very probably lethal for chimps if they get it.

“A very mild coronavirus occurred two or three years ago, that was almost non-symptomatic for humans, but when it transferred to chimps at a site in west Africa they were very sick.

“Because apes are so vulnerable to respiratory infections – a regular cough or cold for me is lethal for them – we have all gone into full lockdown.

“Normally I would say that if humans are susceptible then the apes are very likely to be able to get it and maybe also the other primates. But we do know from testing in China that macaques, a type of old world monkey, can get it, so this does look like all primates are going to be vulnerable to it.

“What we don’t know is, like with humans, some of them might be nonsymptomatic or get a very mild version.

“But, given how infectious it is and how quickly it spreads through a group, we can’t ask the chimps to socially isolate from each other. We just need to make sure it doesn’t get into these groups in the first place.

“We really are quite worried that if this gets into the wild populations we could lose thousands or hundreds of thousands of apes in the next six months.

“We are on full scramble to make sure we are doing everything we can.”

Chimpanzees are known to be “very vulnerable to coronavirus”.