How much do you know about chimps? Test your knowledge on WORLD CHIMPANZEE DAY.
Over 70 years ago, on July 14, 1960, the world-renown primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist, Dr. Jane Goodall, first stepped foot in what is now known as Gombe Stream National Park. There she studied wild chimpanzees, opening a window to the world of our closet relatives for the first time, further changing the way we understand ourselves and animals. Now every July 14, the world recognizes WORLD CHIMPANZEE DAY to commemorate Goodall's research and the continued hardships chimpanzees face in the wild.
Test your knowledge — how much do you know about chimpanzees?
- There are 4 subspecies of chimp: Western chimps (found near the Ivory Coast), Central chimps (from Gabon), the Nigeria-Cameroon chimps, and the Eastern chimps (from Tanzania). There are approximately 170,000 — 300,000 chimps left in the wild, of which only 6,000 are the Nigeria-Cameroon subspecies.
- Bonobos were once thought to be chimpanzees, but the two species diverged nearly one million years ago. Unlike chimpanzees, and unique among great apes, bonobos are matriarchal in nature.
- Our lineage with chimpanzees split nearly 5-8 million years ago, but we share 98.8% of the same DNA. This accounts for why we also have big toes and graspable hands. But we share more than that. A 2018 study found that chimps and humans may share an ancient body language — including facial expressions, hand gestures, and body postures — which allows us to understand each other. Human infants were found to use more than 50 gestures used by great apes.
- Through Dr. Jane Goodall’s observations and studies, we first learned chimpanzees create and use tools. Since then, we have learned just how much humans and chimpanzees are akin. Like humans, chimpanzees are highly social beings, living and hunting in groups, headed by an alpha male, approximately 20-30 individuals strong. They also engage in play (their games being more cooperative in nature when they are younger, and become more competitive as they grow older), cultivate friendships, show comfort, indicate a morality complex, and express a range of emotions through laughing, smiling and hugging.
- Chimpanzees display various behavioral tendencies to indicate they have one of the more advanced cultures in the animal kingdom. For example, chimps are gourmands — taking a particular liking for certain foods and going out of their way to source them. Research even indicates they have the cognitive capabilities to be able to cook. More so, chimps pass along multi-generational learning and customs, including nest building, grooming, and courtship rituals. These shared cultures vary from one group of chimps to the next.
- Chimpanzees are also highly intelligent. They are capable of metacognition (thinking about their own thoughts), adjusting their behaviors based on these thoughts — and not simply by instinct. They are good problem solvers, and make decisions based on what they know and what they do not know. Many chimps have been able to learn sign language and languages based on symbols. Studies also indicate they may actually have a better working memory than humans; a young chimpanzee can remember numbers at a higher rate than that of an adult human. Chimps have an ability to recall the past, which is why some illustrate intense emotional responses when meeting other kin or caregivers, such as the dying chimp, Mama, who recalled her caregiver, Jan van Hooff, years after being apart.
- Unlike other mammals, female chimpanzees leave their groups around maturity (11.5 — 14.5 years of age) to find a new community.
- Female chimpanzees give birth once every five years. A mother chimpanzee sacrifices a lot to care for her child, providing round-the-clock supervision and teaching their young how to find food, build nests and use tools — doing so for the first seven to 10 years of a chimp’s life.
- They are highly highly protective over their young, and this is the unfortunate reason why many adults are killed during trafficking hunts. New research indicates mother chimpanzees form strong relationships with their sons, playing a critical role in defending them during conflicts with other males.
Leaps and bounds have been made in chimpanzee research since Jane Goodall began her studies — and there is still more to discover. Chimpanzee conservation efforts need our attention as all four chimpanzee species are classified as ENDANGERED.
Be a chimp champion. Donate to VAKOVAKO, supporting research and those organizations working to protect chimpanzees and other RAINFOREST species from habitat loss, poaching, and disease.
