# Chimp Facts

By [chimpy](https://paragraph.com/@chimpy) · 2021-12-21

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**Chimpanzees are one of four types of “great ape.”** The great apes are: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans.

**Wild chimpanzees only live in Africa.**

**Humans and chimpanzees share 95 to 98 percent of the same DNA**. Biologically, chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than they are to gorillas.

**Chimpanzees and other species, including some types of birds, make and use tools.** For a long time, scientists thought human beings were the only ones who made tools.

**Chimpanzees use more tools for more purposes than any other creatures except humans.**

**In captivity, chimpanzees can be taught human languages such as ASL (American Sign Language)**. A female chimp named Washoe knew more than 240 signs.

**Chimpanzees can catch or be infected with human diseases.**

**Chimpanzees in the wild rarely live longer than 50 years.** Captive chimps can live more than 60 years.

**Chimpanzees sometimes hunt and eat small mammals such as bushbuck or monkeys.**

**They also eat fruit, nuts, seeds, blossoms, leaves, and many kinds of insects.**

**Chimpanzees have a wide variety of tastes and are able to live in a wide variety of habitats,** unlike gorillas and orangutans who have narrower diets.

**Different chimpanzee groups use tools in different ways.** Chimpanzees of the Tai Forest in Cote d'Ivoire crack open nuts with rocks, for example, while the Gombe chimps have never been seen doing this.

**One of the chimpanzee calls is the "pant-hoot."** Each individual has his or her own distinctive pant-hoot, so that the chimp can be identified with precision.

**Chimpanzees laugh when they play.**

**Chimps groom each other.** Grooming helps relations within the community and calms nervous or tense chimps.

**When chimpanzees are angry or frightened their hair stands on-end.**

**Male chimpanzees show their power in "displays."** Their hair stands on end so they look bigger, they scream, stamp their feet, and go on a tear, dragging branches, or hurling rocks. This may scare other chimpanzees and keep them from picking a fight.

**Mothers and dependent young (up to age seven or so) are always together.**

**Chimpanzees communicate much like humans do** -- by kissing, embracing, patting on the back, touching hands, tickling.

**When a mother dies, her orphaned offspring may be unable to survive.** But older siblings often adopt their orphaned brothers or sisters, and occasionally infants are adopted by chimps not related to them.

**Infant chimpanzees have a white tail tuft that disappears after their childhood.**

**Chimpanzees walk on all fours and have longer arms than legs.** They are called “knuckle walkers” because they use their knuckles for support.

**Like humans, chimps have opposable thumbs and opposable big toes** which allow them to grip things with their feet.

**At Gombe National Park, site of Jane Goodall's research, adult males weigh between 90 and 115 pounds**. They are about four feet tall when standing upright. Females are slightly smaller. (Chimpanzees in West Africa and those in captivity may be larger.)

**Chimpanzees are not meant to be pets**; a full-grown chimpanzee has five or six times the strength of a human being.

**Chimpanzees are endangered**. There are probably between 172,000 and 300,000 chimpanzees remaining in the wild.

**Chimps can be found in about 21 African countries, mostly in central Africa.**

**Most chimps live in rainforest areas on what used to be the equatorial forest "belt."** Sadly, the rain forests in Africa are being cut down, leaving only patches of forest where the belt once stretched continuously.

**Another great threat to the continued existence of wild chimpanzees is commercial hunting for meat.**

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*Originally published on [chimpy](https://paragraph.com/@chimpy/chimp-facts)*