Habitat
General Description of Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees look like tailless monkeys. Black or brown hair
covers their entire body, except for the face, palms, and areas such as the
buttocks.
Their faces are flat and they have large external ears, long arms, and opposable
thumbs. Long arms allow the diurnal chimps rapid movement through trees by
swinging and also facilitate “knuckle walking” on the ground,
which is characterized by using the long arms to form a tripod with the legs
(theBIGzoo.com, 2004).
Chimps are very similar to humans, sharing all but 1.6% of
DNA (Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, 2004). They communicate like humans as well,
using vocalizations,
facial expressions, and even gestures (theBIGzoo.com, 2004). These vocalizations
can be called “rapid ohoh,” “pant-grunting,” “bobbing
pants,” or even “submissive greeting” in some cases (de
Waal, 1986). This pant-hoot is used at fruiting trees, reunions, hunts, and
intergroup encounters (Wilson, et. al., 2001). Noises also include screeching,
crying, screaming, and drumming. Drumming indicates the position of males
each evening so the entire group can build the nightly nest together (Wild
Chimpanzee Foundation, 2004).
The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (2004) reveals that humans near Taï, one of the chimpanzee study sites, believe chimps to be our “Brothers of the Forest,” and assume them capable of extremely sophisticated behavior. They believe that chimps kill the red colobus monkey not for meat, but to use their fur as a backpack to collect and carry nuts. This is not true, although chimps do often carry nuts to other parts of the forest to pry them open with tools. The colobus furs are not actually used as backpacks, but rather given to young chimps to suckle.
Food and Tool Use
Chimpanzees feed on fruits and leaves in trees (Reynolds, 1990). Food also includes nuts, plants, mushrooms, flowers, insects, and meat (World Chimpanzee Foundation, 2004), as well as bark, seeds, and honey (theBIGzoo.com, 2004). Most days, chimpanzees eat no meat, perhaps a few insects, and the rest is vegetable matter (Reynolds, 1990). Hunting can provide up to 1000 kg of meat per year (Stanford, 1996). Chimpanzees hunt by stalking, driving, pursuing, and encircling their prey, but hunting is not as sophisticated in all chimp communities (Reynolds, 1990). Chimps also show complexity by preparing some of their food, especially in the form of wadges. Chewed fruit or leaf balls are dipped in water to form a wadge. Also, chimpanzees show great skill in their use of tools. Nuts can be opened using stones and branches like a hammer and anvil. The nut is placed on a branch or root and beaten with a stone until it opens. Sticks are used as ant or termite rods by placing the stick into an insect nest and accumulating ants or termites, then slurping the bugs off the stick (Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, 2004).
Habitat and Predation Pressure
Chimpanzees are an endangered species. However, they inhabit a wide range
of habitats across equatorial Africa (Stanford, 1998). They live in central
and eastern Africa in forest regions (Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, 2004).
The largest threat to chimpanzee populations is humans. Poachers catch baby
chimps by shooting its mother, and then sell the infant on the black market.
More devastating though, are the human population explosions all over Africa
that reduce forest habitat (Reynolds, 1990). Predators of the chimpanzee
are man, leopards, baboons, and large snakes (theBIGzoo.com, 2004).