Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Chimpanzee overview

The chimpanzee is a great ape of the forests and woodlands of equatorial Africa and, together with the bonobo, the closest living relative of humans, sharing roughly 98–99 percent of our DNA. Chimpanzees have black hair, bare faces, hands and feet, and arms longer than their legs; they walk on their knuckles and climb well. They live in communities of about 20 to 150 animals that split into smaller parties during the day. Chimpanzees make and use tools, hunt cooperatively, pass on local traditions and defend territories, sometimes violently. Four subspecies are recognized, and all are endangered.

How Long Do Chimpanzees Live?

Chimpanzees that reach adulthood typically live 30–40 years in the wild and 50–60 years in human care. Average life expectancy at birth is much lower in the wild, because many infants die. A handful of captive chimpanzees have lived into their late 60s or beyond.

How Much Does a Chimpanzee Weigh?

Adult chimpanzees weigh 27–70 kg (60–155 lb). Males weigh 40–70 kg and females 27–50 kg. Captive chimpanzees are often heavier than wild ones, and the eastern subspecies tends to be the smallest of the four.

How Tall Is a Chimpanzee?

A chimpanzee stands about 1.2–1.5 m (4–5 ft) tall when upright, and head-and-body length is 63–94 cm. The arms are longer than the legs, giving an arm span about one and a half times the animal's height, which suits climbing and knuckle-walking.

How Fast Can a Chimpanzee Run?

Chimpanzees can run at about 40 km/h (25 mph) over short distances, moving on all fours. The figure is an estimate rather than a carefully measured record. They are faster than most people over a sprint but tire quickly and spend most of their day walking and climbing.

How Long Is a Chimpanzee Pregnant?

A chimpanzee pregnancy lasts about 230 days, or roughly seven and a half to eight months. Females usually give birth to a single infant once every five to six years. The infant nurses for four to five years and stays close to its mother until about age ten.

What Do Chimpanzees Eat?

Chimpanzees are omnivores whose diet is dominated by fruit, which often makes up more than half of what they eat. They add leaves, seeds, flowers, bark, honey and insects, and they hunt mammals. Red colobus monkeys are the most common prey, and meat is shared.

Diet type: omnivore. Mostly ripe fruit, especially figs, along with leaves, seeds, flowers, pith and honey; chimpanzees also eat termites and ants and hunt monkeys, bushpigs and small antelopes for meat.

Where Do Chimpanzees Live?

Chimpanzees live in tropical rainforest, montane forest, woodland and dry savanna-forest mosaics across 21 African countries. They are the most adaptable of the great apes, living from sea level up to about 2,800 m. Every night each chimpanzee builds a sleeping nest in a tree.

Are Chimpanzees Endangered?

The chimpanzee is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with a decreasing population estimated at 170,000–300,000. The main threats are poaching for bushmeat and the pet trade, habitat loss to farming, logging and mining, and diseases, including Ebola and human respiratory infections. The western subspecies is Critically Endangered.

Endangered

Chimpanzee fun facts

• In 1960 Jane Goodall watched a chimpanzee at Gombe strip leaves from a twig to fish for termites, the first recorded case of a wild animal making a tool.
• West African chimpanzees crack nuts with stone and wooden hammers and anvils, a skill young chimps take years to master.
• Different chimpanzee communities have different customs, such as grooming styles and tool techniques, that are learned rather than inherited.
• Chimpanzees at Fongoli in Senegal sharpen sticks with their teeth and use them to jab bushbabies hiding in tree holes.
• Young chimpanzees have outperformed adult humans in tests of short-term memory for numbers flashed briefly on a screen.

Rankings and comparisons

Chimpanzee FAQ

Related animals

All mammals