All chimpanzees will be designated as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday.
The move follows a petition filed in 2010 by Jane Goodall, the Humane Society of the United States and other groups to eliminate a long-standing distinction between the legal status of captive chimpanzees, which were previously listed as “threatened,” and their wild counterparts, which have been deemed “endangered” for decades. With the new designations, chimpanzees held in captivity in the United States will receive the same protections as wild chimps under the Endangered Species Act. Biomedical research, interstate trade, and export and import of captive chimpanzees will now require permits issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The new rules will become official Tuesday and will go into effect after a 90-day grace period on Sept. 14.
The regulations do not require that people who privately own chimpanzees obtain a permit to keep them, nor do they require permits to use chimpanzees in the entertainment industry, according to Dan Ashe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s director. He said that the previous distinctions sent a mixed signal to the public and created the impression that chimpanzees were not in dire need of help.
Chimpanzees once numbered about 1 million in the early 1900s. Currently, there are estimated to be between 172,000 and 300,000 worldwide.