Goodall urges changes to protect chimps

LONDON, July 9 (UPI) -- Modern technology must be exploited to stop the habitat losses threatening wild populations of chimpanzees, said British primatologist Jane Goodall.

She also called for a better understanding of the needs of African villagers living near the chimpanzees, the closest relative in the animal kingdom, The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

Without "dramatic changes" to how people view the world, chimpanzees could be extinct in 30 years, said Goodall, considered the world's leading expert on chimpanzees.

"The survival of chimpanzees requires a dramatic change to how we think about the natural world, as well as advances in science and technology," Goodall wrote in the latest edition of the journal Nature. "If we helped the local people improve their lives, they could become our partners in conservation."