Pan Troglodytes: The Common Chimpanzee
Introduction:
The Common Chimpanzees are the non-human primates that were given scientific name Pan troglodytes. The chimpanzee’s geographic distribution can be found across equatorial Africa, from Senegal in the west to Tanzania in the east. They can be found in moist and dry forests and savannas. There are four subspecies: the eastern chimpanzee, the central African chimp, the western chimpanzee, and the Nigeria-Cameroon subspecies. Chimpanzees live in communities of about 20 to 120 individuals. Males are somewhat larger and heavier than females. A Male chimpanzee may weigh up to 150 pounds and is up to 5.5 feet high when upright. Chimpanzees are both arboreal and terrestrial. On the ground they practice a knuckle walking but can also walk …show more content…
During her first year at Gombe she saw how male chimpanzee named David Greybeard stripped off the leaves of the vine, made a hole with his index finger in the termite nest and pushed the vine into the nest. He then withdrew the vine and ate the termites that had attached onto it (82).
In 2007 Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University who studied chimpanzees at Fongoli in the Senegal savannah reported a female chimp named Tumbo sharpening the branch with her teeth and using it as a spear to hunt bush babies (squirrel size nocturnal primates that hide in tree-trunk hollows). “Over a span of 17 days at the start of the 2006 rainy season, Pruetz saw the chimps hunt bush babies 13 times. There were 18 sightings in 2007” …show more content…
It reports studies on two neighboring groups of wild chimps in Uganda; Kibale Forest chimpanzees which often use sticks as tools and Budongo chimps that never use sticks as tools. Both groups use leaf sponges to access water from tree holes. In order to rule out “habitat influences” both groups were exposed to the same problem, such as to extract honey trapped within a fallen log. They were also tested in order to prove that they are the same subspecies. To extract the honey Kibole group used sticks, but Bundogo group used leaf sponges. Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who participated in the study says, "The most reasonable explanation for this difference in tool use was that chimpanzees resorted to preexisting cultural knowledge in trying to solve the novel task"
The Common Chimpanzees are the non-human primates that were given scientific name Pan troglodytes. The chimpanzee’s geographic distribution can be found across equatorial Africa, from Senegal in the west to Tanzania in the east. They can be found in moist and dry forests and savannas. There are four subspecies: the eastern chimpanzee, the central African chimp, the western chimpanzee, and the Nigeria-Cameroon subspecies. Chimpanzees live in communities of about 20 to 120 individuals. Males are somewhat larger and heavier than females. A Male chimpanzee may weigh up to 150 pounds and is up to 5.5 feet high when upright. Chimpanzees are both arboreal and terrestrial. On the ground they practice a knuckle walking but can also walk …show more content…
During her first year at Gombe she saw how male chimpanzee named David Greybeard stripped off the leaves of the vine, made a hole with his index finger in the termite nest and pushed the vine into the nest. He then withdrew the vine and ate the termites that had attached onto it (82).
In 2007 Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University who studied chimpanzees at Fongoli in the Senegal savannah reported a female chimp named Tumbo sharpening the branch with her teeth and using it as a spear to hunt bush babies (squirrel size nocturnal primates that hide in tree-trunk hollows). “Over a span of 17 days at the start of the 2006 rainy season, Pruetz saw the chimps hunt bush babies 13 times. There were 18 sightings in 2007” …show more content…
It reports studies on two neighboring groups of wild chimps in Uganda; Kibale Forest chimpanzees which often use sticks as tools and Budongo chimps that never use sticks as tools. Both groups use leaf sponges to access water from tree holes. In order to rule out “habitat influences” both groups were exposed to the same problem, such as to extract honey trapped within a fallen log. They were also tested in order to prove that they are the same subspecies. To extract the honey Kibole group used sticks, but Bundogo group used leaf sponges. Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who participated in the study says, "The most reasonable explanation for this difference in tool use was that chimpanzees resorted to preexisting cultural knowledge in trying to solve the novel task"