Chester Zoo 

Chimpanzee

Closely related to humans, chimpanzees are highly intelligent and have expressive facial features. Their short-haired coats are brownish to black and they have bare faces. Their skin colour varies from pinkish to black on their ears, palms and soles of their feet. They have longer arms than legs and flexible shoulder joints which give them a high level of agility when moving through tall trees. On the ground they walk mostly on all fours, using their knuckles to lever themselves along. They communicate through facial posturing using their prominent eyebrows and lips, and through a range of loud and often complex calling sounds.

What they eat

Fruit, leaves, flowers, seeds, insects, and some meat, including other monkeys.

How long they live

An average of 40 years in the wild.

Biology

Chimpanzees live in hierarchal communities in which males are dominant over females. Males remain for life in the community group they were born into. These groups can range in size from 15 to 150, although smaller sub-groups often develop within the larger communities, for foraging and travelling purposes. Each community is presided over by a dominant alpha male. Chimpanzees reach sexual maturity at about 10 years old and females give birth about every five years with close bonds between parent and infant. Young chimps are not weaned until about four years and retain strong ties with their mother into adulthood.

Did you know?

Chimpanzees share about 98 per cent of human genes and are our closest relative in the animal kingdom.