Chimpanzees

Do you know the animal that is our closest living relative? It is difficult to believe, but a female of this species can lift an 154 pound man with just one hand! This fascinating animal would be the Pan Troglodyte, also known as the chimpanzee! The chimpanzee is an endangered and incredible animal that is widespread throughout the world, has a wholesome appetite, and astonishingly, live about 50 healthy years! It is sad, but due to poaching, loss of habitat from agriculture, and illegal logging, these creatures are on the endangered list. You may find that a chimpanzees characteristics are both humorous and adorable. When they are still juvenile, a chimpanzees body is mostly covered in long black hair, and its face, toes, and ears are bare. Their body is thickset with long arms, short legs and no tail. A chimpanzees arms are slightly longer than its legs to make their climbing habits a little easier. Also, for all the swinging they perform, their shoulder joints are highly mobile. Their hands can grip extremely firm, allowing them to pick up large objects, plus they have opposable big toes to hang from branches or to grasp branches when swinging. But before they start swinging through the trees, they have fingers that are much longer than humans to assist them when climbing tree trunks. A chimpanzee cannot stand up for very long but when they do, females stand at about 3-5.5 feet tall although males are usually 1020 percent taller than that. Male chimpanzees weigh 75-154 pounds but females weigh from 57-110 pounds. It may be interesting to note that chimpanzees have large stomachs, long guts, and are exceptionally efficient at digesting. Also, chimpanzees are the mammals most like humans and have a brain size of 300-400 cubic centimeters. Even though the characteristics of chimpanzees are interesting wait until you hear about all of their amazing behavioral adaptations!

A chimpanzees lifestyle makes them even more incredible. Surprisingly, chimpanzees travel mostly on the ground, but do most of their feeding in trees. Male chimpanzees usually form large parties of 3-10 individuals, and it is pretty funny that males kiss 20 times more than females, and have many friendly interactions. Although males also fight and groom more than females. Competition between males for dominance is always going on, and getting to the top of the rank is a difficult challenge. Sometimes males even construct alliances against others in a higher rank. It may be better that females play no role in the males competition, but since males are all dominant to females, highest ranked males get first choice on fertile females. In a funny sort of way, males and females patrol the range of their community 2-3 times a week, and while they are on their weekly patrol they are quiet, calm, cautious, and surprisingly avoid stepping on dry leaves to prevent any trespassing chimpanzees from getting away. They also may use many vocal and visual signals. Chimpanzees use leaves as a sponge to wipe fruit juice, urine, blood, mud, mucus, or feces off themselves. They also use sticks to protect themselves from thorns or to clean their nostrils. It is amazing to learn that each and every night chimpanzees construct a new nest by breaking and folding branches, but definitely have the time because they are usually active from dawn to dusk. Also during that time, on average females cover 1.25-2 miles but males cover double that. Although, if accompanied by a male, a female will travel more widely inside the extent of its community. Would you believe that only chimpanzees at Gombe (which is a national park in Tanzania) use objects to tickle themselves? Also, if males get into a fight they may charge by hurling sticks, branches, or even rocks, and during these battles as many as 100 rocks may be thrown. No one will argue that chimpanzees are very intelligent animals and have many interesting behaviors!

Chimpanzees also have many efficient diet habits that go along with some of their behaviors! They are omnivorous foragers and amazing hunters. Hunting occurs in all chimpanzee populations and includes monkeys, bushpigs, forest antelope, deer, and their most favorite, the Colobus Monkey. Occasionally, they might hunt some species of birds but not a lot. Also for safety, they usually hunt in groups. If a chimpanzee wants a fruit with a hard shell or nuts they will spend up to 3 hours smashing their food with rocks to break the hard outer covering. They also eat small amounts of leaves, seeds, flowers, pith (a substance that is found in vascular plants), bark, and other plant parts. Chimpanzees enjoy eating insects and termites. To catch them, they lower a stick into an open nest and wait for the insects to crawl on the stick. They then lick them off. It is pretty gross, but when they finish off all the insects they will occasionally eat the dirt from the mound. All the different plants a chimp eats in one day adds up to 60% of their food supply. All the animal protein, termites, and insects they eat equal to 10% of their diet, and everything else chimps eat equals the last 30%. Would you believe that if a chimpanzee in Tai (a national park in West Africa) comes across a bone filled with marrow, they will use a stick to scrape it out? Females usually forage alone or with their young offspring. Feeding partys average about 3-6 individuals. Normally, the most dominant chimpanzee will lead the way when looking for food. Males sometimes share food with females to entice them. Surprisingly, a chimps main predators are only humans and leopards. Isnt it amazing what chimpanzees eat and how they obtain their food! Youll be excited to learn that chimpanzees live all around the world. They live in West and Central Africa, and mainly in rainforests, but can also live in forests with hilly areas, dry flat savannas, and patches of woodlands. However, it all depends if the area has enough food to provide for a whole community. Many chimpanzees are endangered because of loss to their habitat, from agriculture, illegal logging, and other human enroachment. Sadly chimps may become extinct within 40 years. Although, a girl named Jane Goodall has done many things to protect chimpanzees. You can also help by donating to any chimpanzees national park. So, now that you know all that wonderful information about chimpanzees, you will understand how important it is to preserve these amazing creatures!