- Home/
- Great Apes/
- Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees
Wild chimpanzees have demonstrated the most extensive tool manufacture and use of all the great apes, except for humans. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use a variety of techniques to manufacture and use tools, including modifying twigs or grassy stems to fish for termites, using an anvil and stone hammer to crack open nuts, and chewing a bunch of leaves to use as a sponge to obtain water.
Taxonomy
Family: Family Hominidae
Species: Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
There are four subspecies of chimpanzee:
- Western Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus)
- Nigerian Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes vellerosus)
- Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)
- Central Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes)
Location
Chimpanzees are found across a central band of the continent of Africa in the following countries:
- Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Cameroon, Angola, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Congo, Gabon, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo | View map
Habitat:
- Afrotropical
Physical Traits
- Infant chimpanzees have light faces and a white tuft of hair on their behinds to signal their special status as a youngster
- Adult male chimpanzees are moderately larger than adult females (contrast with the extreme size difference between adult male and female gorillas and orangutans)
Diets and Activities
- Chimpanzees have the most varied diet of all great apes in the wild. Diet includes fruit, vegetation, nuts, seeds, and insects
- Some chimpanzees regularly hunt and eat meat, such as the red colobus monkey
- Chimpanzees split their time between the ground and the trees; chimpanzees make nests in which to sleep
- Chimpanzees make and use tools
Population
Habitat destruction is the primary threat to the status of chimpanzees in the wild. The bushmeat trade (selling wild animals for food) is also a critical problem for all African great apes.
| Pan Troglodytes3 | Chimpanzee | 203,000 Est. |
|---|---|---|
| Pan t. schweinfurthii | Eastern chimpanzee | 76,400-119,600 Est. |
| Pan t. verus | Western chimpanzee | 21,300-55,600 Est. |
| Pan t. troglodytes | Central chimpanzee | 70,000-116,500 Est. |
| Pan t. vellerosus | Nigeria chimpanzee | 5,000-8,000 Est. |
Support Rwanda's
Forest of Hope
Support a unique and ambitious conservation effort in Africa.
Social Behaviors