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| Chimpanzee Facts | | Date Created: Mar 04, 2005, 09:35 PM |
Chimpanzee Facts - Did you know?
· Chimpanzees are “Apes”, not monkeys. The other apes include gorillas, orang-utans, bonobos (or pygmy chimpanzees) and gibbons.
· Chimpanzees share 98.4% DNA with humans, which makes them closer to humans than gorillas.
· There are two species of Chimpanzee
- Common Chimpanzee (Pan Troglodytes) – which are found in 21 African countries
- Bonobo or Pygmy Chimpanzee (Pan paniscus) which is found in DR Congo
· There are four subspecies of Common Chimpanzee:
- Pan troglodytes verus (West Africa)
- Pan troglodytes troglodytes (Central Africa)
- Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii (East Africa)
- Pan troglodytes velerosus (Cameroon)
· There are thought to be 175,000 chimpanzees remaining in the wild but their numbers are reducing at an alarming rate as their habitats are being destroyed and the “bushmeat” trade increases.
· There are 17 sanctuaries in Africa caring for orphaned and/or confiscated chimpanzees. In 2000, an association of sanctuaries was formed, called the “Pan African Sanctuary Alliance”, to help conserve chimpanzees and their habitats through education and political lobbying.
· Chimpanzees are highly social animals and can live in communities of 20-100 individuals. Each community has a dominant male called the “alpha” male. The community lives in a home range that covers approximately 1 sq km per individual in the group.
· They can live to 50 years of age and they have an elaborate communication system.
· Chimpanzees use tools to catch termites, to open nuts and for drinking water.
· Chimpanzees eat mostly fruit, e.g., figs and sometimes insects, eggs and nestlings. Occasionally they will stalk, attack, kill and eat monkeys; red colobus monkeys being their favourite. They feed mostly in the morning and evening and rest during the heat of the day.
· At the sanctuary, the chimpanzees are fed a variety of foodstuffs including fruit and vegetables, posho and millet porridge. They are fed four times a day.
· At dusk, wild chimpanzees build nests 6-25 metres above the ground (by pulling over branches to make a soft bed).
· Female chimpanzees become sexually active in captivity from 8-9 years of age when they start to develop a very large swelling of the ano-genital region.
· “Menarche”, the time when female chimpanzees first menstruate, occurs when they are 7 - 9 years of age in captivity and 11 –12 years of age. From this stage the heats may become fertile.
· The oestrous cycle is 34-36 day. Females can cycle until 45 years of age.
· On average, chimpanzees in the wild have their first babies when they are approximately 11-12 years of age.
· Males become fertile when they are approximately 10 years of age in the wild, earlier in captivity.
· Mating occurs when the females are in oestrus, which is only 10 days each month. Some females continue to cycle during pregnancy.
· The gestation period is 225-240 days. Normally labour is only 40 minutes long.
· A nursing female will start cycling again after 14 months to 4 years. The average time between babies is approximately 3 – 5 years.
· For the first six months of life, the offspring is in constant contact with their mother and then for many months after, is within arms reach. For the first four months, the juvenile will suckle three times per hour.
· Independent travel occurs fulltime at about five years of age when weaning also occurs.
· Solid food consumption starts from 4 – 6 months of age and increases as the suckling reduces.
· The chimpanzees at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary are not allowed to breed at this stage. Birth control is provided by a contraceptive implant “ImplanonTM” or Norplant, a silicon plastic rod containing a progesterone compound. It is inserted under the skin of the inner aspect of the upper arm. It lasts for three years.
· Chimpanzees are susceptible to many human diseases like measles, influenza, hepatitis B, ringworm and cold sores. They may also suffer from giardia, amoebic dysentery and hookworms.
· When orphan chimpanzees are first confiscated, they are quarantined for 3 months, which means they are separated from other chimps and people other than the primary caregiver. They are tested for tuberculosis on three occasions, one month apart, and are vaccinated against tetanus and polio. Once they have undergone their quarantine period, they are then transferred to Ngamba Island and introduced to the other chimpanzees.
Social Structure
Chimpanzees live in social groups called ‘communities’ and typically range from between 20-60 individuals. Communities may be larger in other areas, or may be reduced to very small remnant groups.
Chimpanzees' social structure can be categorized as "fusion-fission." This means they travel around in small groups of up to six, the membership of which is always changing as individuals wander off on their own for period of time, or join other groups. At times many of a community's members come together in large excited gatherings, usually when fruit is available in one part of the range, or when a sexually popular female come into estrus. Mothers and dependent young up to age seven or so are always together. And some individuals travel together more often than others - such as siblings and pairs of male friends. Contact is maintained between members of the scattered groups by means of the distance call… the ‘pant hoot’.
ithin the community a male hierarchy, ordered more or less in linear fashion, establishes social standing, with one male as the alpha. Females have their own, somewhat confused, hierarchy. All adult males dominate all females. Most disputes within a community can, therefore, be solved by threats rather than actual attacks. However, the males of a community regularly patrol their boundaries, and if they encounter individuals of a neighboring community they may attack with extreme brutality. The only individuals who can move freely between communities are adolescent females who have not yet given birth. They may transfer to a new community permanently or, having become pregnant, move back to their own natal group.
When a female is in estrus and sexually attractive and receptive to the males, the skin around her rump swells considerably and is clear pink. Females show their first very small sexual swellings at age eight or nine, but are not sexually attractive to the older males until they reach age 10 or 11. There is usually a two-year period of adolescent sterility before the female finally conceives. Spacing between births, provided the previous infant lives, is about five years.
Some females in estrus are more attractive to the males than others. A popular female may be accompanied by many or all the adult males of her community, with adolescents and juveniles tagging along. Or, the dominant male of the group may show possessive behavior toward her, trying to prevent other males from mating with her. A third observed mating pattern is the consortship, during which a male persuades a female to accompany him to some peripheral part of the community range. If he can keep her there, away from other males, until the time of ovulation, he has a good chance of siring her child. Even low-ranking males can become fathers if they have the skill to lead a female away at a time in her reproductive cycle when she is not interesting to the high-ranking males, and keep her there until her fertile period.
http://www.ngambaisland.org/chimps_fact_sheet.htm
http://www.ngambaisland.org/chimps_social_structure.htm
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