Chimpanzee

About the Chimpanzee

Chimpanzees are, with bonobos, our closest living relatives, and much of what unsettles people about them is how legible their behaviour is. They live across a broad band of equatorial Africa in rainforest, woodland and savanna mosaic, and they are far more omnivorous and far more political than their reputation as fruit-eaters suggests.

How it lives

Chimp societies are fission-fusion: a community of dozens splits into small parties that change composition through the day and reassemble. Males stay in their natal group and form shifting alliances; females usually transfer out. They make and use tools with real sophistication — stripping stems to fish termites, cracking nuts with stone hammers, folding leaves to sponge water — and different communities use different toolkits, learned socially. They hunt monkeys cooperatively and share the meat strategically. Territorial patrols can turn lethal.

Where it lives

Lives in noisy social communities in forest and woodland. Its main habitat is the African Rainforest, where the climate is hot, humid and rainy almost every day, around 25°C.

Notable facts

• They make and use tools, like sticks to fish for termites.
• Our closest living relatives along with bonobos.
• Each chimp has a unique face and personality.

Conservation

Chimpanzees are endangered and declining nearly everywhere. Habitat conversion for agriculture, logging and mining is the background pressure; hunting for meat and the capture of infants for the pet trade are the acute ones. Because they are so closely related to us, they are also susceptible to human respiratory diseases, which has made disease control a serious part of protecting habituated groups.

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