Chimps live in complex social communities varying from 20 to 100 members. They are opportunistic omnivores, eating over 300 items including fruit, vegetation, eggs, insects and mammals up to the size of a bush pig. They use a variety of tools to obtain these foods, such as stone ‘hammers’ to crack nuts, and appear to use certain plants medicinally to expel diseases and endoparasites. Standing at around 1-1.2m tall, they can swing between branches but use knuckle walking to move any significant distances.
Fun Fact – Chimpanzee behaviour is highly complex – they make trades, cooperate, manipulate or deceive each other and show self-recognition and grief.
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Ecology
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Threats
Illegal poaching is the key threat to chimps – they are shot for their meat, exported for the exotic pet trade and are poisoned in retaliation for crop damage. They also frequently become caught in non-specific snares. Their slow reproductive rate makes population recovery slower. Their habitat is also becoming more accessible to humans due to logging roads – this not only exacerbates the poaching risk, it also increases the rate of disease transmission. Due to our genetic similarity, human diseases passed on by this increasingly close contact often afflict chimps.
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Conservation
Chimpanzees are protected by national and international law, appear on Appendix I of CITES and occur in multiple national parks across Africa. However, enforcement of these protection laws is not strict enough to prevent poaching. Large captive populations exist, yet much more needs to be done to protect them in situ, from habitat protection to stricter law enforcement. The expanding industry of ecotourism presents a valuable opportunity to raise awareness for these highly intelligent primates.
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Preserved January 2024
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