The federal Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Tuesday to list captive chimpanzees as endangered, a move that would require permits for future use of chimps in invasive medical research. Wild chimpanzees have been on the endangered species list since 1990.
Chimps in captivity are now listed as threatened, a status that offers less protection.
The move came in response to a petition filed in 2010 by the Humane Society of the United States and a number of other groups with concerns about biomedical research on chimpanzees and the use of the animals as pets and in advertisements and entertainment. The proposed rule does not require permits for keeping chimpanzees as pets, nor does it address the use of chimps in entertainment, although that use will be considered during a 60-day comment period, said Daniel M. Ashe, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
About 2,000 chimps are held in captivity in the United States, about half of those for medical research.
The proposal comes in the context of other moves to limit invasive research on chimpanzees.
A decision is pending on a recommendation by a National Institutes of Health committee to retire most of the 350 chimps the agency owns in laboratories.
