By Obiabin Onukwugha
The chimpanzee, also simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet.
The chimpanzee lives in groups that range in size from 15 to 150 members, although individuals travel and forage in much smaller groups during the day. The species lives in a strict male-dominated hierarchy, where disputes are generally settled without the need for violence.
The chimpanzee that can either be domesticated or live in the wild, has been listed on the IUCN Red List as an endangered species. Between 170,000 and 300,000 individuals are estimated across its range. The biggest threats to the chimpanzee are habitat loss, poaching, and disease.
It is called “Adaka-ebu” in Igbo, “Osa” or “Elegbede” in Yoruba and “biri” in Hausa.
Studies reveal that chimpanzees display numerous signs of intelligence, from the ability to remember symbols, to cooperation, tool use, and varied language capabilities. They are also among species that have passed the mirror test, suggesting self-awareness.
Females chimpanzees can give birth at any time of year, typically to a single infant that clings to its mother’s fur and later rides on her back until the time of weaning between ages three and five. Females reach reproductive age at 13, while males are not considered adults until they are 15.
Like humans, chimpanzees are omnivores. That means they eat all sorts of vegetarian food as well as animals. The list of food items is long: fruits, nuts, leaves, plants, mushrooms, flowers, insects, meat and more.
Chimpanzees play a vital role in maintaining the diversity of Central Africa’s forests. The large seeds they eat and disperse are too big for most other animals. Researchers believe without them, their fellow great apes and elephants, African forests would be irreversibly changed.
Chimpanzees and humans share a surprising number of similarities. For starters, chimpanzees and people share nearly identical genetic DNA. More recently, another similarity has been discovered: the presence of culture in chimpanzees.
The ritualized behavioural display and collection of artefacts at particular locations observed in chimpanzee accumulative stone throwing may have implications for the inferences that can be drawn from archaeological stone assemblages and the origins of ritual sites.