Chimps

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Chimps

• By Cailyn Connelly

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Description

• Length 2.5-3 feet
• Weight 125-175 pounds
• Males are slightly larger
• There coat is mostly black
• Short white beard in adults of both sexes
• Baldness also occurs in adults, more so in
  females.

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Basics
Western and central Africa, north of River Zaire,
from Senegal to Tanzania.

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Life History

Mating non-seasonal single young born after
about 9 months gestation. Young cling within a
few days, ride mother at 5-7 months, are weaned
at about 3 years. Mature at about 10-11 years,
earlier in captivity. Females promiscuous,
migrating to a new community during an adolescent
estrous period. Life span 40-45 years.  
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Habitat

• Humid forest, deciduous woodland or mixed
  savanna presence in open areas depends on access
  to evergreen, fruit-producing trees.

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Niche

• Omnivorous mainly eats fruit and
  leaves, but during dry season will eat seeds,
  flowers, bark, insects, birds and mammals.
  Diurnal sleeping nests built fresh each night.
  Mainly terrestrial, walking on soles of hind feet
  and knuckles of forelimbs, but will spend time or
  build nests in trees (especially young), using
  brachiation to travel.

• Communities number 15-120, but feeding is
  usually an individual activity, especially among
  females. Males are gregarious and form a loose
  dominance hierarchy. Neighboring community ranges
  overlap

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? Pictures ?
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Special Adaptations

• Long fingers and opposable thumb allow for both
  gross and fine manipulation of objects, big toe
  also opposable for grasping.

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More Special Adaptations

• Hairless face capable of a wide range of
  expressions these expressions, when combined
  with vocalizations, communicate a variety of
  messages.
• High degree of intelligence enables the animal to
  solve a greater range of problems than any animal
  except human, particularly problems associated
  with food gathering.

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More Special Adaptations

• Tool use chimps will make a reed tool for
  extracting insects from their mound nests or use
  rocks to smash the hard shells of various fruits.
  Males will also hurl objects to elaborate their
  charging displays.
• Chimps are so cute!!!!

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Diet

• Chimps are diurnal (but often active on
  moonlit nights) and begin their activities at
  dawn. After descending from their night nests
  they hungrily feed on fruits, their principal
  diet, and on leaves, buds and blossoms. After a
  while their feeding becomes more selective, and
  they will choose only the ripest fruit. They
  usually pick fruit with their hands, but they eat
  berries and seeds directly off the stem with
  their lips. Their diet consists of up to 80
  different plant foods.

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Predators

• The number of chimps in the wild is steadily
  decreasing. The wilderness areas necessary to
  their survival are disappearing at an alarming
  rate as more forests are cut down for farming and
  other activities. As the human's closest relative
  the chimp is vulnerable to many of the same
  diseases, and their capture for medical research
  contributes to their decline, especially in West
  Africa. as more forests are cut down for farm
  activities. In addition, recent outbreaks of the
  incurable disease Ebola hemorrhagic fever,
  threaten to decimate important chimpanzee
  populations in the Republic of Congo and Gabon.

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Extinction

• Chimps in the wild are on the brink of
  extinction. At the turn of the last century,
  chimpanzees living across West and Central Africa
  numbered around one million. Today their total
  number is less than 200,000.

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?Cuteness?

• There so cute!!!!!!

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Human and chimps

• Chimpanzees are great apes that are closely
  related to humans. These intelligent primates
  live in a variety of environments in western and
  central Africa. Because of the rapid
  deforestation of their habitats, chimpanzees are
  an endangered species.