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Back of chimpanzee hand1/10/2024 ![]() Male and female chimpanzees mate with multiple partners throughout the year. Related: Chimps are naturally violent, study suggests This warlike behavior, documented by famed primatologist Jane Goodall, among others, challenged the notion that warfare is a development of modern humans. Chimpanzees are the only species other than humans to carry out coordinated attacks on each other, Live Science previously reported. Male chimpanzees defend their community's territory against neighboring chimp communities and will kill members of other groups. Males will stay in their birth community, while females can move into neighboring communities once they are old enough to breed. They live in fusion-fission societies where the community breaks up into small subgroups (fission) that travel separately and sometimes come together (fusion). Chimpanzee societyĬhimpanzees are highly social animals and live in communities of between 10 and 180 individuals, according to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. The Jane Goodall Institute UK noted that pet chimpanzees are destructive and too dangerous to be kept as part of the family, and that it is difficult to keep them stimulated and satisfied in a human environment. During attacks, chimps will target a person's face, hands, feet and genitals. Most of the time these are isolated and seemingly reckless attacks by individual chimps, but one chimpanzee in the 1990s killed seven children before he was killed by humans, National Geographic reported.Ĭaptive or pet chimpanzees attack people far more often than their wild kin, because they can lose their fear of people altogether. Chimps have also snatched and killed human babies. Chimpanzees typically direct their aggressive and sometimes predatory behavior toward children because the animals are more fearful of larger human adults, especially men, according to National Geographic. Chimpanzees may then take to stealing unprotected human food, such as crops, and in the process become more confident around humans.Ĭhimpanzees have attacked more than 20 people in the Western Region of Uganda over the past 20 years and killed at least three human infants since 2014, National Geographic reported (opens in new tab) in 2019. This usually happens when humans move into and destroy chimpanzee habitats, reducing their access to food. However, there have been recorded incidents of chimpanzees attacking and killing people. Wild chimpanzees are usually fearful of humans and will keep their distance. It is believed that each individual has his or her own distinctive pant-hoot, so that they can be easily identified.(Image credit: Anup Shah via Getty Images) (opens in new tab) One well-known chimpanzee vocalisation is called the ‘pant-hoot’. They have a range of vocalisations including barks, hoots and grunts. CommunicationĪ chimpanzee will sometimes hug, pat or brush the face of another chimpanzee to try to reassure them or calm them down. ReflectionsĬhimpanzees are one of the few species that can recognise themselves in a mirror. Don't smile.Ĭhimpanzees use facial expressions to show emotions, but a human smile that shows all your teeth is seen as a threatening expression to chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are capable of eating much larger seeds than most animals in their ecosystem, so many plant species depend on large animals such as chimps to spread their seeds. The seeds then grow into trees in other locations, leading to a healthier tree population. When they eat fruit, they spread the seeds of that fruit through their poo. Seed dispersalĬhimpanzees play an important role in their environment as seed dispersers. Because of the bitter taste of the plant the chimpanzees’ grimace when they are eating it, it is thought that it is eaten mostly for medicinal reasons rather than taste. An example of this with chimpanzees is when they eat the bitter Vernonia plant, a plant species known to have medicinal benefits. Zoopharmacognosy is the name given a type of ‘animal self-medication’, referring to the phenomenon of animal species knowing the things in their natural environment they can eat to prevent disease, kill viruses or aid digestion. They also use stones to open nuts, and leaves to scoop up drinking water. Different groups of chimpanzees use tools in different ways including using sticks to retrieve termites from their mounds and dig insects out of logs. ToolsĬhimpanzees are one of the few species we know to use tools. Humans and chimps are believed to share a common ancestor who lived 7 to 13 million years ago. Chimpanzees share over 98% of their genetic material with humans, and along with bonobos, are our closest living relatives.
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