Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee | |
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Conservation status | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Family: | Hominidae |
Genus: | Pan |
Species: | P. troglodytes |
Subspecies: | P. t. ellioti |
Trinomial name | |
Pan troglodytes ellioti |
The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes vellerosus, now also known as Pan troglodytes ellioti) is a subspecies of the common chimpanzee which inhabits the rainforests along the border of Nigeria and Cameroon. Male Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees can weigh as much as 70 kilos with a body length of up to 1.2 metres. Females are significantly smaller.[1]
The Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee is recognised as the most threatened and least distributed of all the common chimpanzee subspecies, and without a dramatic change to human behaviour in the area, there is a likelihood of extinction in the coming decades.[2] A June 2008 report said the Edumanom Forest Reserve reserve was the last known site for chimpanzees in the Niger Delta.[3]