Coronavirus risk to great apes threatens Africa’s Chinese tourist income

Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo face the loss of millions in tourism dollars as they race to protect endangered species

It is so far unknown whether primates are susceptible to Covid-19 but past experience suggests it may be lethal

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Experts warn the new coronavirus could pose a significant threat to Segasira, a silverback mountain gorilla in Rwanda, and other great apes which share about 98 per cent of human DNA. Photo: AP

Published: 8:30am, 11 Apr 2020Updated: 8:30am, 11 Apr 2020

Great apes and other endangered species could be at risk from the coronavirus pandemic, with serious implications for Africa’s multimillion-dollar tourism industry.

It has been widely reported that the new coronavirus may have first infected humans through wildlife on sale at a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of the outbreak. Since then, the virus has been detected in dogs, cats and, recently, a tiger at New York’s Bronx Zoo.

But experts are warning that the virus could be a lethal threat to chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans – our closest cousins in the animal kingdom, which share about 98 per cent of our DNA.

The risk of these endangered species contracting Covid-19 – the disease caused by the new coronavirus – could kill great ape tourism, a growing source of income for a number of African countries which has been gaining traction among China’s elite travellers in recent years.

The Great Ape Health Consortium, a group of 25 conservation experts from around the world, is pushing for the suspension of great ape tourism until the pandemic has been contained.

“Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the current Covid-19 pandemic, is also a threat to our closest living relatives, the great apes,” the consortium said in the journal Nature.