Where are they found?
They are found in Western and Central Africa, north of river Zaire, from Senegal to Tanzania, from 14 degrees north to 10 degrees south. Humid forest, deciduous woodland or mixed savannah suit them. Their presence in open areas depends on access to evergreen fruit-producing forests. Chimps are found from sea level to 6500 feet above!

What are they?
They are a primate mammal.

What do they look like?
The Chimpanzee's head and body length ranges from 28 - 38 inches in females and 30 - 36 inches in males. Their height ranges from about 3 - 1/4 feet to 5 - 1/2 feet. Their weight is from 99 pounds - 176 pounds. Captive Chimps may be heavier. They have an arm-spread 50% greater than their height! Chimpanzees have no tail and the skin on its face is pink in infancy, darkening to black in adulthood. Baldness is frequent in adults, typically a triangle on the forehead of a male, more extensive in females. Their hair colour is black. The infants have a white tail tuft and older males may develop a grey back patch.

How long do they live?
The maximum life span in the wild may be 60 years.

What do they eat? Chimpanzees feed on a wide variety of foodstuffs (over 80 different varieties) with the largest proportion consisting of fruit and young leaves. In long dry seasons, buds and blossoms, honey, bark and resin, seeds and nuts are eaten. Animal prey makes up as much as five percent of the diet, with insects, such as ants and termites, providing the largest amounts. On rare occasions small game animals such as monkeys, pigs, and antelope are hunted. Feeding is essentially an individual activity, but after a co-operative hunt they may share out morsels. There seems to be cultural differences between groups of Chimpanzees in the variety of food taken and the techniques for processing it. (West African chimps use wood and stone tools as hammers to open nuts.)

Breeding
Females raised in captivity begin mating at eight to nine years and give birth for the first time at 10-11 years old. Wild females mature three to four years later than their counterparts in captivity. Reproductive capability in the female may last at least until the age of 40. The new-born is helpless with only a weak grasping reflex and needs support from the mother's hand during travel. By four years, the infant travels mostly by walking, but stays with its mother until at least five to seven years old. Males seldom leave the community into which they were born, whereas most females migrate to a new community during an adolescent period.

Are they rare?
Although there may be as many as 35,000 Chimps in the wild, Chimp populations have been reduced and fragmented by human encroachment into their habitats. In addition, hunting by people for food or to protect crops, and commercial exportation for the animal trade, has led to placing them on the endangered species list.

Did you know?
Chimps travel mostly on the ground where they "knuckle-walk". They are one of the few mammals that manufacture and use tools to help them eat. They often feed by poking a twig or vine into a termite nest hole. When the twig has become covered with insects, they pull it out and nibble them off.

For sleeping at night, each Chimp (except infants who nest with their mothers) constructs a nest of vegetation 9-12 metres high in a tree!