These sub-groups can be very flexible, with members changing quickly and regularly.ĥ) After humans, chimpanzees are the most intelligent of our planet’s primates (an animal group which includes apes and monkeys, too), and they’ve developed impressive ways of communicating. Within their communities, chimps sleep, travel and feed in smaller sub-groups of up to ten. We also show similar behaviours, and like us chimps laugh when playing, hug to show affection and are able to walk upright.Ĥ) In the wild, chimpanzees live in ‘communities’ made up of around 15 to 80 members led by a dominant, alpha male. Today, populations are fragmented, with the largest groups found in Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.ģ) Did you know the DNA (the material that determines how a living thing will look and function) of chimps and humans is 98.5% the same? That’s how closely related we are! As a result, we share many similar features, such as expressive faces, big toes and hands that can grasp. Their faces are flat with big eyes, a small nose and a wide mouth.Ģ) These amazing animals live in the tropical forests and woodland savannahs of West and Central Africa. They have long arms that extend below their knees, short legs and black hair covering almost their entire body. Habitat: Tropical forests and woodland savannahsġ) Chimpanzees are one of our planet’s ‘ great apes’, along with gorillas and orangutans. ![]() That might help us to understand one of these things that we thought was a real difference between chimps and humans-and help us to understand why that difference might have come about.Pack your bags for a family trip, gang – because we’re off to the tropical forests of Africa to catch up with one of our closest relatives! Check out our ten top chimpanzee facts… "These long-distance signals give the chimps a way to check in with one another. "The chimps might not need to say goodbye, because they're effectively able to keep in touch while they're away," Hobaiter tells the BBC. This new understanding could help solve a long-standing mystery: why chimps greet each other but don’t seem to say goodbye when parting, the authors say. Michael Wilson, a chimpanzee researcher at the University of Minnesota who was not involved with this paper, tells the Agence France-Presse that the study's methodology was sound, but he isn’t “completely convinced” the animals’ drumming is distinctive enough to consistently differentiate between all individuals, saying further research is needed. ![]() This could be useful for avoiding confrontation from higher-ranking individuals or competitors who may approach and challenge them. Likewise, the chimps hid their signature sounds when they weren’t traveling and didn’t want to share their identity, per the study. This means that they drum to know where others are and decide whether to join them or not.” “Indeed, we also found that chimpanzees drum more often when they’re alone or in small groups. In short, the behavior works “like chimp social media,” says lead author Vesta Eleuteri, a cognitive biologist at the University of Vienna in Austria, in a statement. Drumming produced during travel showed differences between individuals, suggesting that the sounds “might serve to recruit or maintain contact with distant group members,” write the authors. They found that the chimps drummed most frequently while traveling and when in smaller groups. They examined the acoustic structure of the animals’ drumming bouts, noting aspects like duration, number of beats, time between beats and timing of accompanying vocalizations-also called pant-hoots. The research team recorded 273 long-distance communications between eight chimpanzees. “If we could do it, we were sure they could, too.” “We could often recognize who was drumming when we heard them it was a fantastic way to find the different chimpanzees we were looking for,” Hobaiter, the paper’s senior author, tells the BBC. But now, research published last week in Animal Behaviour suggests that each individual male has a unique drumming pattern he uses to broadcast information-such as where he is and what he’s doing-across long distances while traveling. Scientists have known about this drumming behavior for years. Andrews in Scotland says to BBC Inside Science’s Victoria Gill. “If you hit really hard, with a hand or a foot, it resonates and makes this big deep, booming sound that travels through the forest,” Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist from the University of St. It grabs the large root and bangs its feet rhythmically against the flat wooden surface. In a rainforest in Uganda, a male chimpanzee runs toward a tree, letting out loud, grating screeches.
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