SUBMISSION: African Ape in the Sunset by Thurston 'Cleve' Hicks

"'I painted this portrait of an unknown chimpanzee in Northern DR Congo to reflect the uncertain future faced by Africa's great apes. I have spent the last 10 years working on a research and conservation project near the town of Bili, studying a large population of hitherto undocumented chimpanzees. I imagine this to be a young male Bili chimpanzee, who has ventured out onto the savanna's edge as dusk approaches, only to be startled by something he has seen or heard on the horizon. The glow of a human-lit bushfire? The retort of a military gun fired at an elephant? Loud celebrations at a gold mining camp? A lion's roar? I don't know, but this chimpanzee senses that something is amiss. Given today's situation, as the bushmeat trade expands in tandem with massive human incursion into formerly pristine chimpanzee habitat, he is wise to be wary." To learn more about Thurston's work in the Congo Basin please go to http://www.eva.mpg.de/primat/staff/cleve_hicks/