![]() In the 1950s, the US Air Force and NASA captured 65 wild chimpanzees from Africa for use in early space research and testing. In the USA during the 1920s, chimpanzees were first used for medical and behavioural research. Chimpanzees have long existed as scientific curiosities and have been viewed as “lesser” reflections of humankind, leading to their use in many experiments and studies over the 20th Century – the term “chimpanzee” actually originates from the local Angolan term for “mock man”. Since the first European discovery of chimpanzees, our fascination of these animals has remained central to many religious and evolutionary debates. ![]() In 1698, Edward Tyson, a British scientist and physician commonly regarded as the founder of modern comparative anatomy, dissected a chimpanzee that died upon arrival from Angola, beginning a long scientific and philosophical discourse of the connection between chimpanzees and humans. Soon after, chimpanzees became an object of curiosity and were brought back to continental Europe as gifts to royalty and elites. Other cultures viewed the chimpanzees’ close physical resemblance to people as uncomfortable and left them alone as a sign of fear and respect.Įuropeans first encountered chimpanzees on scouting missions in Angola during the seventeenth century. Some cultures saw chimpanzees as parts of the broader ecosystem and hunted them for food, as they did other animals they encountered. Many African cultures have lived near chimpanzees for millennia and have had a wide range of interactions with them. The conservation efforts now dedicated to protecting them from habitat loss, hunting, medical testing and disease, are recent developments in our long relationship with our closest living non-human relatives.Ĭhimpanzees have existed alongside humans ever since our lineages split between 5 to 8 million years ago. Chimpanzees haven’t always been a protected species.
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