– researchers like us are on the frontline protecting them October 2, 2019 6.58am EDT

On a sunny day in early August 2019, screams broke the calm of a national park in East Africa. Researchers ran to find Kidman – an adult female chimpanzee – and her child being attacked by the dogs of poachers. In their desperate attempt to save them, the researchers fought off the dogs and removed a spear that poachers had lodged in Kidman’s back. She died shortly after the researchers had arrived, her infant a few days later.

Primatologists around the world were in awe of the researchers’ heroic efforts, but we were also shocked that such a vicious attack could happen on the Ngogo apes of Kibale Forest in Uganda – one of the world’s best-known community of chimpanzees in one of Africa’s most famous national parks.

Less than two months later, tragedy struck…