A former student and colleague of Jane Goodall shares stories of chimps and their heroes, and takes readers on a journey to save humankind's closest relative.

Unbeknownst to much of the public, chimps are in trouble: censuses show them to be extinct in four African countries and nearly so in ten others. A large percentage of the remaining populations live in unprotected, increasingly fragmented forests.

When Nancy Merrick learned these startling facts in 2009, she decided it was past time to discover the extent to which chimpanzees are at risk across Africa and what can be done. Merrick had begun working with primates in 1972 as a young field assistant in Jane Goodall’s famous Gombe camp. Like the rest of the world at the time, she was swept up in the excitement of discovering the remarkable world of chimpanzees—their ability to fashion tools, their dazzling intelligence, and their complex relationships and societies. From that moment on, her human-centered worldview shifted, and she became a devoted advocate for our closest genetic relatives.

When Merrick returns to Africa decades later, she’s alarmed by how much has changed. Human activity, such as agriculture and logging, has encroached on natural habitats throughout equatorial Africa, endangering chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos. In an effort to understand what we can do to save great apes, Merrick connects with primatologists and conservationists who are trying to protect the last great forests. Visits to some of Africa’s parks, sanctuaries, and expanding agricultural areas reveal the urgency of the problems and the inspiration of the people leading the search for solutions. Along the way, Merrick demonstrates that the best hope for chimps and other great apes lies in connecting conservation to humanitarian efforts, ensuring a healthy future for animals and humans alike.

Among Chimpanzees is at once an inspiring chronicle of Merrick’s personal search to learn how chimps are faring across Africa and in captivity, a crucial eyewitness account of a very critical period in their existence, and a rousing call for us to join the efforts to be a voice for the chimpanzees, before it’s too late.

Quotes

“The plight of wild chimpanzees is getting worse by the day, but no one seems to notice. If our closest relatives were to disappear, we'd be losing one of our most valuable connections to nature. Nancy Merrick brings home this message in an engaging first-hand account of the situation on the ground. The book is a must-read for anyone concerned, and comes with proposals that seek to harmonize conservation with human development.” —Frans de Waal, author of The Bonobo and the Atheist

“This is a fascinating book that presents many delightful and insightful tales about chimpanzees, with all their remarkable individuality, cleverness, intelligence, creativity—their bright flame of consciousness—on display. It is also a passionate book that explains why we are in danger of losing them forever. You will love this book, I know. You will also, I hope, be haunted by it—and perhaps inspired as well, as you learn what people are doing to reverse the trend and save our closest living relatives from extinction.” —Dale Peterson, author of Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man

“Among Chimpanzees is an important book, documenting the dedicated struggle to ensure our great ape cousins survive in the forests and woodlands of Africa. The author paints a vivid picture of the contrasts between the Africa she encountered when she joined Jane Goodall’s multi-national research team back in 1972, and today’s very different Africa and its growing human population whose needs are central to both the threats and solutions of conservation and sustainable living in the 21st Century.” —Ian Redmond, Chairman of the Ape Alliance and author of The Primate Family Tree

“Our close relatives, chimpanzees, are the poster animals for the destruction of other beings and their homes. Dr. Nancy Merrick’s outstanding and inspirational book shows clearly why we must all work together to save endangered and imperiled species so that future generations will inherit a planet that’s worth caring about. Those who work on behalf of other species are not ‘the radicals’ who should be silenced, but rather the compassionate people to whom we all must carefully listen and follow. Read and share this most important book.” —Marc Bekoff, author of Rewilding Our Hearts

“In Nancy Merrick's inspiring memoir the future of the apes is too precarious to leave to the professionals. Her story of how she became a lifelong activist for chimpanzee conservation is heart-rending, uplifting and ultimately important because it gives powerful evidence of her core conviction: one person really can make a difference.” —Richard Wrangham, co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, Professor of Biological Anthropology, Harvard University