- Fact 2 - Chimpanzees are part of the
great ape family and the largest of the living primates. There are four types of great apes:
Gorillas,
Chimpanzees, Gibbons
Bonobos and
Orangutans.
- Fact 3 - They are extremely
intelligent and are able to make use of a variety of tools and
understand aspects of human language
- Fact 4 - Chimpanzees are omnivores,
this means they eat both vegetables and meat. Chimpanzees live
in groups (or bands) of 40 - 60 (some even larger) where
grooming is a major pastime
- Fact 5 - The word "chimpanzee"
comes from the Bantu words 'Tshiluba Kivili-Chimpenze' which
loosely translates to "creature that looks something like a
human"
- Fact 6 - The Chimpanzee is of the
Species troglodytes. The sub-species are
- The western subspecies found in the
Ivory Coast with some small populations in Guinea, Nigeria,
Sierra Leone, and Liberia
- The central subspecies found mainly
in Gabon, the Congo also from eastern Nigeria to the Ubanghi
River and south to the Zaire River
- The eastern subspecies from
southern Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania and from there northwards
to Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and southern Sudan
- Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee in
Nigeria and Cameroon
- The Bonobo, formerly called the
pygmy chimp, from in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Fact 7 - Chimpanzees are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as
- Endangered Species
- Fact 8 - classification 'Endangered' (Status: Threatened) - In the
immediate probability of becoming extinct and require protection
to exist. Chimpanzees are threatened by poaching, hunting, loss
of habitat, and disease
- Fact 9 - The chimpanzee makes a
night nest in a tree in a new location every night
- Fact 10 - Chimpanzees standing
height: 1.7 metres (5.6 ft)
- Fact 11 - Chimpanzees weight: 70 kg
(150 lb)
- Fact 12 - Common Chimpanzees are
both arboreal and terrestrial, spending equal time in the trees
and on the ground
- Fact 13 - Arboreal refers to their
movement in trees which include moving on narrow branches,
moving up and down inclines, balancing, crossing gaps and
dealing with obstructions. Swinging from one branch to another
is called brachiating
- Fact 14 - Chimpanzees move around
by knuckle-walking (as do Gorillas and Bonobos)
- Fact 15 - They have approximately 3
offspring in their lifetime
- Fact 16 - Chimpanzees have opposable
thumbs meaning that they can touch each of their fingers with
their thumb
- Fact 17 - Chimpanzees Lifespan: 40 years
- Fact 18 - Chimpanzees have very
long arms (the arms are longer than the legs), and a short body
- Fact 19 - Chimpanzees have senses
very similar to humans including hearing, sight, smell, taste,
and touch
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