--- title: Chimpanzee Endangered Species: New Rule Protects Captive Chimpanzees description: Captive chimpanzees will soon considered endangered species by the U.S. federal government like their wild counterparts. canonical: https://time.com/3919270/chimpanzee-endangered-species/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-12T19:33:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:10:09.679Z article:section: Science og:title: Captive Chimps to Receive Endangered Species Protections og:description: Approximately 2,000 chimpanzees live in captivity in the U.S. og:url: https://time.com/3919270/chimpanzee-endangered-species/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc05017932c0b66d3/69885453a988ca70616b2ffa/chimpanzee1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2408 og:image:height: 1355 og:image:alt: Germany Zoo chimpanzee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Captive Chimps to Receive Endangered Species Protections twitter:description: Approximately 2,000 chimpanzees live in captivity in the U.S. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc05017932c0b66d3/69885453a988ca70616b2ffa/chimpanzee1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Captive Chimps to Receive Endangered Species Protections > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=f716a442-aa9a-4d6d-9b74-bc70fe83ae96&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life [Watch (HLS stream): Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7mURxfr4.m3u8) (4:03)  _Published 2014-03-12. Conservationists and scientists have a saying, "extinction is forever." But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to "DE-extinction is forever."_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 12, 2015 7:33 PM UTC  A baby chimpanzee relaxes on its mother Swela at the Leipzig Zoo in Leipzig, central Germany, April 23, 2015. A baby chimpanzee relaxes on its mother Swela at the Leipzig Zoo in Leipzig, central Germany, April 23, 2015. Jens Meyer—AP  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 12, 2015 7:33 PM UTC Captive chimpanzees will soon be considered endangered species by the U.S. federal government just like their wild counterparts, federal authorities announced Friday. The designation creates new restrictions on the trade of the animal and has the potential to curb some scientific research that relies on chimpanzees. The decision comes in response to the increasing threats facing chimpanzees since they were first listed as endangered in 1990, including growing deforestation and expanded poaching and pet trade, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). An estimated 300,000 to 400,000 wild chimpanzees live across 22 countries in Africa. Approximately 2,000 chimpanzees live in captivity in the U.S. “This change shows that many people are finally beginning to understand that it is not appropriate to subject our closest relatives to disrespectful, stressful or harmful procedures,” said famed chimpanzee advocate Jane Goodall in a statement. The rule, rooted in the Endangered Species Act, will prohibit the import or export of chimpanzees into and out of the U.S. without a permit. The rule also bans the trade of chimpanzees in interstate commerce without permission. Chimpanzee use for scientific purposes will still be allowed but will be restricted to purposes that “benefit the species in the wild,” and will be subject to oversight from the USFWS. The new rule is set to be published on June 16 and will go into effect on Sept. 14. Scientific experiments involving chimpanzees have [come under intense criticism](http://science.time.com/2013/04/24/as-harvard-closes-a-primate-research-center-are-lab-chimps-becoming-a-thing-of-the-past/) in recent years after a number of cases of alleged abuse. The New England Primate Research Center, which housed 2,000 primates, was ordered closed in 2013 after the death of four monkeys. And, that same year, the National Institutes of Health said it would largely curtail its use of chimpanzees for research and rely on them only in special circumstances. “Their likeness to humans has made them uniquely valuable for certain types of research, but also demands greater justification for their use,” NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins said at the time. ## Transcript [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] My name is Stuart Brand and I was trained as an ecologist. Conservation is about to take a turn because the technology was gonna allow us to use the DNA that's in the museum specimens and fossils to bring back extinct species [ MUSIC ] The passenger pigeon was around for 6 million years. And people remembered how amazing it was that these animals darkened the sky for hours at a time. There's these stories about these giant flocks blocking out the sun. And their wings sounding louder than thunder. We developed the techniques to hunt and net these birds and basically killed them all. And then it was really gone. When I was growing up, my mother said when the last one died in 1914 it broke America's heart. It was one of the prideful things that America had to show the world, and it was gone. This book. This is essentially the bible of passenger pigeon. I am currently the lead researcher for the deextinction project to bring the extinct passenger pigeon back to life. When I say, oh, we'll bring back a passenger pigeon, everyone goes, oh, my god, that's like Jurassic Park. And no, no, it's not. Not at all. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before. Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. I don't think a pigeon is going to, you know, pluck lawyers off of toilets. No. [ SOUND ]. Aah! [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So how we're actually going to go about deextinction. Every organism has a unique code in their genes. This one would be good I think. So these are actual DNA codes. From a chunk of a passenger pigeon foot. Now, if you can get DNA, then we can actually make it into a living cell. We're going to sequence its whole genome. We're gonna build from scratch the code that is a passenger pigeon, one gene at a time. Compare it to its closest relative. [ MUSIC ] Then we're gonna introduce DNA into the living cell of a band- tailed pigeon. And when you introduce an extinct animal's egg cell into a new mother, then you've changed the game. [ MUSIC ] Which has been done. The extinct Iranian Ibex was successfully cloned. That was the first deextinction. In this particular case, the animal only lived about ten minutes, but it was a proof of concept, and with further efforts, we hope, followed by everything from the passenger pigeon to the Tasmanian tiger. It's one of the most famous human- caused extinctions in the world. Benjamin, the last Tasmanian tiger, died in 1936. It was our direct activity that caused that extinction. For me, biotech is the future of conservation because our meddling is not unnatural. It is what species do. One of the things that gotten used to is the horrifying realization that extinction is forever. 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