US EditionIn Remote Senegal, Chimp Researchers Escape Gold Mines' Perils
The project employs five local workers, offering an alternative to gold mining for 30,000 people and aiding conservation of 35 unique savannah chimpanzees.
- In 2025, Michel Tama Sadiakhou left artisanal gold mining and now leads research at the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project in southeast Senegal.
- A post-2010s gold-mining boom increased water pollution, deforestation, and disease risks for chimps, while Nazaire Bonnag recalled, `I saw someone go down there and he never came back up`.
- Field teams document vocalisations, food intake and buttress drumming every five minutes while following one of the group's 10 adult males among Fongoli chimpanzees.
- Hiring five local staff from Bedik and Bassari communities offers paid alternatives to mining and builds local support, while masks and biosafety measures limit disease transfer to chimps.
- Rising mining activity across Kedougou suggests growing conservation challenges for the Fongoli chimps, as more than 30,000 people work in Senegal's traditional gold mining, intensifying habitat pressure.
27 Articles
27 Articles
In Senegal, observing chimpanzees saves some from working in the mines
In Senegal's Kedougou region, a group of locals have had their lives changed - thanks to a community of chimpanzees. From working in precarious conditions in the many gold mines of the region, the men have become researchers and observers of the primates as part of a 15-year-old scientific project.
In remote Senegal, chimp researchers escape gold mines' perils
Michel Tama Sadiakhou's future dramatically changed course some 15 years ago thanks to a clan of spear-wielding apes: instead of the dangerous work in informal gold mines that is the fate of many in Senegal's far southeast, he now researches rare chimpanzees.
Savannah chimps wield spears, soak in pools as Senegal study sheds light on human evolution
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