Amazing Chimpanzee Facts and Information for Kids

Researchers have discovered that chimps are capable of self-awareness and predicting the consequences of their actions on the environment. The chimpanzee is one of the most interesting animals and largely resembles human behavior. Here are some cool facts about chimpanzees that would interest youngsters.

Physical Features of a Chimpanzee

The physical features of chimpanzees make them different from all other mammals. Here are some unique and essential characteristics of chimpanzees:

• Male chimpanzees may grow up to 1 meter (39 inches/90 cm) in height. An adult male chimpanzee weighs around 60 kg, while a female weighs between 30 and 87 kg
• Chimpanzees’ backs start to grey at the age of 20.
• They have black hands and feet, a pinkish-brown to black face, and a sizeable protruding jawline.
• Although chimpanzees have long, muscular fingers, their thumbs are little compared to those of humans.
• Chimpanzees usually walk on all fours, although they can travel up to a mile on their hind legs. They can use their knuckles as support to walk on the ground.
• They sleep in leaf and branch nests and have a long life expectancy of 40 to 45 years.

Chimpanzee Habitat

The habitat that chimps live in is also peculiar, making for further exciting information to enlighten your kids with.

• Chimpanzees have the most extensive geographic range of any great ape, spanning over 2.6 million km.
• They are distributed in dispersed populations from southern Senegal to western Uganda, Tanzania, and south Senegal.
• In their native environment in Central African woods, chimpanzees spend much of their time on tree branches.
• This includes savannas, grasslands, and tropical wet forests with elevations ranging from sea level to 3,000 meters.
• Chimps live in tropical rainforests, lowland and highland forests, and various environments throughout Africa.

Food Habits of Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees are omnivores, eating plants and animals. Here are some unique and interesting chimpanzee diet facts:

• Figs provide nearly half of the energy in a chimp’s diet.
• Chimpanzees love mangoes, bananas, watermelons, and apples.
• Chimps prefer the oil palm nut. They eat kola and panda nuts.
• They also eat seeds and leaves when the fruit is scarce.
• Ants and termites make up about 4% of a wild chimp’s diet.
• Chimpanzees enjoy honey and use sticks to open nests.
• Palm Wine is a sweet, slightly alcoholic beverage enjoyed by both humans and chimps.

How Long Does a Chimpanzee Live?

Compared to caged chimpanzees, wild chimpanzees have a shorter life expectancy, reflected in their lower birth weight. Chimpanzees are believed to live for an average of 33 years on the forest floor. Wild chimpanzees have 40 to 50 years, and those kept in captivity have 50 to 60 years, depending on their environment. You should note that numerous wild chimpanzees have survived for much more extended periods, with the oldest native chimpanzee believed to have been nearly 63 years old at the time of his death.

How Do Chimpanzees Communicate With Each Other?

Even though chimpanzees do not have a language like humans, they have sophisticated body language signals, facial expressions, vocalizations, grunts, and other noises. Pant-hoot, the distinctive call of chimpanzees, is an excellent way to spot them. It’s possible to divide the visual communication of primates into two categories. They may communicate via their actions, such as body language during an exhibition, or through their usual size, form, or color, known as a flag.

Why Are Chimpanzees Endangered?

In addition to human activity harming their natural habitat, the illegal pet and bushmeat trade is endangering wild populations of common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), which are already on the verge of extinction. There are several reasons why chimpanzees should be exterminated as soon as possible.

• Because of threats such as hunting, habitat loss, and degradation caused by industrial logging and agricultural development, as well as disease, wild chimpanzees are in grave danger of becoming extinct shortly.
• Canned bushmeat (the flesh of chimps) is a delicacy sought after due to its high nutrition. Two generations of women may be targeted for mutilation, and their infants will be abducted and sold for the exotic pet trade as a result.
• Deadly diseases like Ebola and anthrax have contributed to the decline in the number of chimpanzees on the planet.

Other Fun Facts About Chimpanzees for Children

The infamous African green monkey’s antics are probably more familiar to parents of young children. Let the chimps out! Here are some of the most fantastic chimpanzee intelligence facts for kids. Pack your belongings for a vacation with your family to the beautiful woods of Africa, where you’ll meet one of our distant relatives! Take a look at the following:

• Chimpanzees, like gorillas and orangutans, are large-sized apes. Their arms are long and extend past their knees. Their legs are short, covered in a dense layer of black hair. Their eyes are large, their noses are petite, and their mouths are expansive.
• These magnificent creatures make their home in Africa’s lush woods and forested savannahs. Populations have spread throughout the region, with the highest concentrations in Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon.
• Did you know that humans and chimps share 98.5 percent of their DNA? That sums up our proximity! We have expressive features, substantial toes, and grasping hands as a result. As with chimps, we laugh when we play, embrace to express affection, and even walk upright.
• Chimpanzees in the wild live in groups of 15 to 80 individuals, each led by a dominant alpha male. Chimpanzees live in small groups of up to ten and sleep, move, and eat in similar groups. The composition of these subgroups varies frequently.
• Chimpanzees, the most intelligent primates on our planet (including apes and monkeys), have developed remarkable communication abilities. These sentient creatures communicate via facial expressions, gestures, and vocalizations such as hoots, grunts, and screams.
• Chimpanzees are excellent groomers, spending considerable time brushing dirt, parasites, and dead skin from one another’s hair. While grooming may seem unpleasant to us, it is an integral part of these fascinating animals’ lives because it keeps them clean and aids in establishing friendships and relationships.
• Chimpanzees are omnivores. They eat fruit, but they also consume leaves, flowers, seeds, bird eggs, insects, and occasionally other animals such as monkeys and wild pigs. Certain monkey species consume up to 200 different types of food.
• These extraordinary primates are among the few animals capable of using tools. Chimpanzees have been observed cracking nuts with pebbles, catching insects with sticks from nests and logs, and sheltering under leaves from the rain.
• Every 5 or 6 years, females give birth to a stillborn chimp (sometimes twins). A baby monkey clings to its mother’s fur for the first six months and then rides on her back until it is two. After that, the infant spends seven to ten years with its mother, during which time they learn to hunt, use tools, and construct nests.
• Chimpanzees range in population size from 150,000 to 200,000 in West and Central Africa’s tropical woodlands. Population numbers have been declining since the early 1800s due to habitat destruction, illegal hunting, and encapsulation for zoos, circuses, and medical research.

Letting your child learn about animals and wildlife is an excellent way of getting them involved in different hobbies and activities. With these facts on chimpanzees, you will indeed be forced to visit the zoo more often with increased curiosity among your little ones. So, indulge your children as much as you can with these facts.

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