Chimpanzees Endangered, No Longer Eligible For Most Research

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that chimpanzees in captivity are now considered endangered and ineligible for certain biomedical research.

Chimps are the closely related to humans and are the preferred animal for testing. Some research will continue, but only if it's beneficial to the chimps.

Vicki Croke of WBUR’s The Wild Life blog speaks with Here & Now's Robin Young about why chimpanzees are used for biomedical testing, and what this new ruling means for chimps and humans.