Ebola has devastated gorilla, chimpanzee populations

(Image credit: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Over time, Ebola has wiped out an estimated one-third of the world's gorillas and almost the same amount of chimpanzees, and a PhD student warns that something needs to be done — and fast — to ensure they don't soon become extinct.

"At this moment in time Ebola is the single greatest threat to the survival of gorillas and chimpanzees," Meera Inglis, at England's University of Sheffield, writes at The Conversation. Outbreaks in human and non-human primate populations often happen in tandem, CBS News reports, and researcher Peter Walsh has tried to stop the spread of Ebola among great apes by creating a vaccine. He published the results of successful trials last year, but apes in the wild have not yet received the vaccine.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.