Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are great apes that live in tropical forests and woodland savannahs across central and west Africa. The Eastern chimpanzee (P.t. schweinfurthii / common chimpanzee) is the only subspecies that occurs in Uganda. Other countries where it occurs include Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

Uganda’s chimpanzees have also been well studied, with long-term research in Budongo Forest Reserve (1960–61 and 1991–present), Kibale National Park at Kanyawara (1982–present) and Ngogo (1992–present), in Kalinzu Forest Reserve (1995–present), and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (1995–2001). These studies have focused on the ecology and behaviour of chimpanzees in their respective environments.

Uganda is home to a sizeable population of common chimpanzees with an estimate of about 5,000 individuals according to the IUCN Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan 2010–2020.

The four largest populations are in Kibale and the Rwenzori Mountains National Parks and Budongo and Bugoma Forest Reserves (each having more than 500 individuals). Kibale National Park alone contains about 25% of Uganda’s chimpanzees.

The chimp populations in Maramagambo, Kalinzu and Kasyoha-Kitomi forests are less than 500 individuals in each forest. Still, these three reserves are interconnected and form a single population, numbering around 900 chimpanzees.

The common Chimpanzee is a distinctive black-coated ape that’s more closely related to man than any other living creature, sharing 98.7 per cent of our genetic blueprint. Science research also strongly suggests we share a common ancestor.

A chimp has long arms with opposable thumbs; hair colour brown to black; adults similar in size to adolescent humans. At standing height, a male chimp grows up to 1.2 m (4 ft.) and weighs 60 kg (132 lbs.), and a female grows up to 1.1 m (3.5 ft.) and weighs 47 kg (103.6 lbs.).

Social Structure of Chimpanzee

Chimpanzees live in a large, loosely bonded ‘community’ (called a band or troop) based around a core of related males with an internal hierarchy topped by an alpha male. Females are generally less strongly bonded to their core group than are males, which means emigration between communities is very common.

Chimpanzee troops are made up of around 15 to 80 members. Chimps sleep, travel, and feed in smaller sub-groups of up to ten individuals within their communities. These sub-groups can be very flexible, with members changing quickly and regularly.

Mother-child bonds are strong. Daughters typically leave their mother only after they reach maturity, at which they may break relations between them. Mother—son relations have survived for over 40 years.

A troop has a well-defined core territory fiercely defended by regular boundary patrols.

Chimpanzees are experts at grooming and spend a lot of their time running their fingers through each other’s hair to remove dirt, pesky parasites, and dead skin. Grooming is an important activity for social bonding because it keeps them clean and helps them build friendships and strengthen bonds with each other.

Intelligence

After humans, chimpanzees are the most intelligent of our planet’s primates (an animal group that includes apes and monkeys, too), and they’ve developed remarkable ways of communicating. These clever critters “talk” to each other using different gestures, facial expressions, and numerous vocalizations, too, such as hoots, grunts, and screams.

In language studies in the USA, researchers have taught the chimps to communicate in American sign language. They’ve demonstrated their understanding, in some instances, by even creating compound words for new objects (such as rock-berry to describe a nut).

Primatologists have recorded chimpanzees using modified tools like sticks to ‘fish’ in termite mounds. In other instances, researchers have observed chimps cracking nuts open using a stone and anvil.

Diet

When it comes to food, chimpanzees aren’t exactly fussy! Fruit is at the top of their menu, but they also munch on leaves, flowers, seeds, bird eggs, insects, and even other animals, too, such as monkeys and wild pigs. Some groups of chimps eat up to 200 different kinds of food.

In Tanzania’s Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains national parks, Primatologists have recorded chimpanzees regularly hunting red colobus monkeys.

Researchers in Kalinzu Forest in Uganda have observed chimps eating blue and red-tailed monkeys, as well as unsuccessful attempts to hunt black-and-white colobus.

Chimpanzees are typical animals of the rainforest and woodlands from Guinea to western Uganda. Their behavior has been studied since 1960 by Jane Goodall and others at Gombe Stream and other sites across Africa, including the Budongo and Kibale forests in Uganda.

References

• Maternal Behavior by Birth Order in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
  Increased Investment by First-Time Mothers
  Margaret A. Stanton, Elizabeth V. Lonsdorf, Anne E. Pusey, Jane Goodall, Ph.D., and Carson M. Murray
• THE UNIQUE AND FASCINATING LIVES OF CHIMPANZEE MOMS 
• Chimpanzee Communication: Insight Into the Origin of Language
• The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes
  Kay Prüfer, Kasper Munch, Ines Hellmann, Keiko Akagi, Jason R. Miller, Brian Walenz, Sergey Koren, Granger Sutton, Chinnappa Kodira, Roger Winer, James R. Knight, James C. Mullikin, Stephen J. Meader, Chris P. Ponting, Gerton Lunter, Saneyuki Higashino, Asger Hobolth, Julien Dutheil, Emre Karakoç, Can Alkan, Saba Sajjadian, Claudia Rita Catacchio, Mario Ventura, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Evan E. Eichler, Claudine André, Rebeca Atencia, Lawrence Mugisha, Jörg Junhold, Nick Patterson, Michael Siebauer, Jeffrey M. Good, Anne Fischer, Susan E. Ptak, Michael Lachmann, David E. Symer, Thomas Mailund, Mikkel H. Schierup, Aida M. Andrés, Janet Kelso & Svante Pääbo. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11128