Pygmy populations, scientists have speculated, may owe their abbreviated stature to natural selection pressures that allowed them to better adapt to dense tropical forests where heat is oppressive and food is scarce.

What is the problem with the pygmies?

This population is rapidly decreasing as poverty, intermarriage with Bantu peoples, Westernization, and deforestation gradually destroy their way of life and culture. The greatest environmental problem the Pygmies face is the loss of their traditional homeland, the tropical forests of Central Africa.

What is the average height of pygmies?

Researchers have traditionally defined pygmies as populations with an average adult male height of no more than 155 centimeters, or about 5 feet, 1 inch.