What is it like to study an endangered species like chimpanzees, knowing they may go extinct within your lifetime? Leakey Foundation grantee Dr. Zarin Machanda is a co-director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, a long-term field study in Uganda. This study was started by primatologist Richard Wrangham in 1987, and project members have collected daily records of the chimps there ever since. These notes hold the life stories of around 150 chimpanzees, and this long-term data is a powerful way for scientists to understand chimpanzees–and ourselves. The Leakey Foundation Origin Storiesis a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Support Long-Term Field Research The Leakey Foundation’s Primate Research Fund helps keep long-term primate studies going no matter what. We provide emergency funding to projects facing a gap in their usual funding - or other emergencies that threaten their ability to collect data. Du...