Classification

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Primates
• Family: Hominidae
• Genus: Pan
• Species: Pan troglodytes

Geographic Range

Ethiopian: Western and Central equatorial Africa north of the Zaire river; ranging from Senegal to Tanzania.

Physical Characteristics

Mass: 40 to 50 kg.

The female chimpanzee has a head and body length ranging from 28-38 inches and can weigh up to 176 pounds. The larger male has a head and body length that ranges from 30-36 inches and weighs up to 196 pounds. Overall height ranges from 3.25-5.5 feet, similar to adolescent humans, and the arm spread is 50% greater than the height. This monkey-like ape lacks a tail and facial hair. Infants are born with pinkish skin, which blackens with maturity. The body hair is black or brown. These mammals have opposable thumbs. Baldness is quite frequent in adulthood, being more extensive in females, and often restricted to a bald triangle on the forehead in males. The chimp has large external ears. The elastic skin around the eyebrow and below the eyes is heavily wrinkled. The nasal root and bridge of the nose is depressed rather than elevated, as in humans, and the tip of the nose is flat and v-shaped. The eyes are recessed under bulging and continuous eyebrows, and the lips are mobile and protrusive. The round, low-vaulted braincase provides the chimp with little to no backward projection above the nape of the neck.

Natural History

Food Habits
Chimpanzees consume a large variety of foods, with over 80 different items having been catalogued to date. 60% of their diet consists of fruits and leaves, 30% consists of other vegetation, such as seeds, stems, bark, insects, honey, buds, and blossoms. Animal matter makes up the last 10% of their diet, consisting mainly of ants and termites. An occasional small monkey , pig, or antelope is hunted by the chimps, and although feeding is usually an individual activity, sharing morsels of meat in response to begging is common after a successful hunt. Cultural differences between groups of chimpanzees can be observed in the variety of food that is gathered and the techniques used for processing it.

Reproduction
Puberty in both sexes occurs at about seven years of age. Females raised in captivity begin mating at eight to nine years and give birth for the first time at ten to eleven years. Wild chimpanzee females mature three to four years later. Females are not receptive for three to four years after giving birth, and then resume sexual activities for one to six months until conception. Gestation lasts 230 to 240 days.

There is no regular breeding season, but females only mate during heat, which lasts two to three weeks or more and occurs every four to six weeks. During this time females have prominent swelling of the pink perineal skin, and, for the first week or more, they are quite promiscuous and mate on an average of six times a day. During the final week of the female's heat, high ranking males may compete for mating rights. Sometimes an exclusive "courtship" is formed when a male and female elude the other members of the community for days or weeks.

The helpless newborn needs support from the mother's hand during travel and possesses only a weak grasping reflex. Given a few days of experience in the world, the baby is able to cling to its mother's ventral surface without assistance, and spends the next five to seven months riding "jockey-style." Four years later, the infant is walking. It remains by the mother's side until at least five to seven years old. Weaning begins during the third year.

Behavior
Chimps are well known for "knuckle-walking," which is their main method of travel. These mammals are some of the few that manufacture and use "tools." For example, twigs and vines are used to extract termites from nests. A twig is stripped of leaves, thrust into a termite hole where the termites latch on to it, and removed. They also use sticks to enlarge holes in order to facilitate the recovery of ants. Many use leaves to clean the body, and some populations chew on leaves to make them more absorbent so that they can be used to dip for water in holes in trees. Every night, each chimp constructs a nest of vegetation nine to twelve meters high in a tree in which to sleep.

Chimps are very social animals and use many different ways to communicate with other members of their group, such as facial expressions, vocalizations, body language, grooming, kissing and pats. These mammals are more gregarious and noisy than other apes, and they frequently engage in rhythmic stamping, hand-clapping, and beating or kicking a hollow tree or the iron door of a cage. Their chorus of "hoots and hollers" carries farther than a mile.

Chimpanzee communities are made up of 15 to 120 animals. Lacking definite leaders, the communities are split into numerous temporary subgroups that change in composition within a matter of hours or days. Adults wander off continuously from these groups and join other groups for varying periods. Infants and juveniles make up close to one half of the total population. Young chimps learn by watching others. Mother chimps often develop lifelong relationships with their offspring and usually travel with them. Although males rarely leave the community in which they were born, females migrate to new communities during their adolescent heat period. Males form a loose dominance hierarchy, although tension is commonly expressed in interactions when different parties meet. Males spend much time grooming each other.

Habitat
Chimpanzees live up to 3048 meters high in tropical, humid forests of deciduous woodland or mixed savanna. Their appearance in open areas depends on access to evergreen fruit-producing forests.

Biomes: tropical rainforest, tropical deciduous forest, tropical savanna & grasslands

Economic Importance for Humans

Positive
Chimps help insure a healthy plant diversity within their habitat because they feed on a variety of fruits and help disperse their seeds.

Biochemical studies have shown that chimps and humans share all but 2% of their genes. Because chimps so closely resemble humans, studying their behavior and biology provides great insights into our own ancestry and social/biological development.

Conservation

Status: endangered

Even though there are as many as 35,000 chimps in the wild, these populations have been reduced and fragmented by human interference with their habitats. People hunt these chimps for food or to protect their crops, and they are exported by commercial animal traders. The USFWS list this species as endangered, and they are protected by CITES.

Other Comments
Chimpanzees have been observed using medical plants to treat themselves and others for illness and injury.

Chimps avoid water at all costs and are usually unable to swim, unless extremely excited.

References
http://www.bev.net/education/SeaWorld/

http://www.oaklandzoo.org/oz/zoo/

Schultz, Adolph H. 1969. The Life of Primates, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Great Britain.

Seth, P.K. And Seth, S. 1986. The Primates, Northern Book Centre, New Dehli.

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