The Evolution Of Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees are categorized in the order primates; suborder Catarrhini and family Hominidae.They are the closet living relatives. Today, there are two species of chimpanzees: Common Chimpanzee (Pan Troglodytes) and bonobo (Pan Paniscus), both are in the same category as humans, monkeys, and gorillas. Humans share with them 98% of the genetic code and according to experts “believe our common ancestor existed 5 to 8 million years ago. Then two species broke off into separate lineages, one ultimately evolving into gorillas and chimps, the other evolving into early humans called hominids.”(Barss) and in order to obtain more protection and diversity in food, they moved to the trees. This migration could explain the changes in their body including
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the longer legs than arms. They have very strong shoulders, with an incredible range of motion. This is something that may have developed over time so that they could spend part of their time moving in trees rather than on earth. Chimpanzees are one of the most abundant of the primates, besides humans, with a huge distribution and numerous populations in protected areas.However, the species is classified critically endangered, their populations are drastically decreasing and is expected that they continue decreasing in the future years.
“In 2003, the International Union for Conservation of Nature made a very rough estimate of 172,700–299,700”(Vaidyanathan) chimpanzees are left in nature Recently, chimpanzees are protect by law in most of the countries, and many parks have been created even though many communities of chimpanzees are still outside the reserves. Due to their arboreal nature, the only predator they have, appear when they go on the ground.Leopards, snakes and humans are their most common …show more content…
predator.
Groups of Chimpanzees vary in composition 15-150 individuals including females and males.
The ontogeny development of the chimpanzees is similar to the humans, divided in long periods of time: infancy, adolescency, and adulthood. They have black hair that covers their body except their face, feet and palms. Their fur protects them from the cold and the UV rays. They rely on their color vision through their facing forward eyes which gives them a 3-dimentional vision necessary to jump. They have opposite big toes. Their arms are longer than their legs. They have grasping hands and no tail. They have 32 teeth like humans do. Their life expectancy can reach a maximum of 50-60 years in captivity. “Males and females have an average height of 816 mm”(Cawthon) There are noticeable social hierarchies among male chimpanzees, esencially in the access to the food and the access to the sexually active females. They are quadrupeds, terrestrial and arboreal. Many believe that Knuckle-walking is primitive.However; chimpanzees are also bipeds, which mean that they can walk with two legs to save energy and have more speed when
moving. Chimpanzees can be found in mountains, savannas, and rainforests of Africa. They are facing many challenges to coexist with humans in their territories. Chimpanzees are threatened by hunters who traffic with their meat, contamination and destruction of their habitats. Humans use their regions to plant and exploit minery which decreases the space that chimpanzees can use to move. The habitat of the chimpanzee is diverse; rainforests are the most common zones where they live, they can easily find access to fruits, plants, stems, leaves, and seeds. Their diet consists mainly of leaves, insects, honey, termites, ants, nuts eggs, and sometimes meat from other smaller primates. Also, primates are able to adapt to new environments easily, migration allows them to reach areas where season fruits grow. They also need an easy access to water supply. “Even though chimpanzees’ habitat is often near water, chimps cannot swim, due to the structure and density of their bodies.”(Save the Chimps) People do not realize that chimpanzees maintain the populations of other monkeys’ species under control. They also help to disperse seeds to grow plants when they move.
The chimpanzees are better adapted to their environment than us, and we are better adapted to our environment than they, but no one is better than the other. Chimpanzees are very intelligent animals with a slow pace in its evolution. They have been able to use their brains to solve problems and planned for the future. They have used their intelligence to use various tools in your environment to survive. The intelligence of the chimpanzee is among the most exceptional of the animal kingdom. Chimpanzees are very curious creatures and have surprising abilities to understand what is happening in their surroundings a characteristic that questions the belief that humans are the most intelligent in the world. They can learn certain things easily than others, just like humans. Especially, they have developed characteristics and abilities that were only attributed to humans such as emphaty, altruism, self awareness, cooperation to solve problems and learning through observation and experience.
Culture, which is learned knowledge that is pass on from one generation to another, is also a key factor that differentiates them from other species, some of the observable knowledge is their ability to obtain food, hygienic habits, eating medicinal plants,communication,territorial aggression, strategies to hunt, and tools that they use to hunt. Chimpanzees are really emotional and social, just like humans, especially with the babies and their communities, if left alone or aisolated, they may get sick. It is important to remark that they are generous by nature because they reconcile after a fight and know to share their food when they go hunt together. They use rocks to open dry fruits and leaves to make sponges to collect water, these abilities were not learnt by observing humans, they figure that out by themselves long time ago. They can also create mental maps of their habitats to locate food. The ability that is most noticeable is learning the American Sign Language, where according to recent studies, chimpanzees raised by humans were able to learn up to 1000 signs and understand 2000 which depicts the greater intelligence than they possess when there is interaction with humans.
In recent studies, it has been shown that they can solve problems not base on their instinct but, intelligence. Chimpanzees have demonstrated how smart they can be and sometimes they overlap humans’ cognitive abilities. They have been compared with children of 2, 3, and 4 years old. They can appreciate similarity between figures and the things they represent in different tests where their abilities to identify certain objects and know what they are use for is tested. They can be able to improvise with creativity and perform mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, and fractions. They can remember the order of numbers that disappear in a screen and can repeat the sequence easily. The cognitive abilities can be modified by environmental factor such as being in captivity or in the wild.
Human babies develop prefrontal white matter in a more spectacular way than the baby chimpanzees which allows them to have a greater language development and social interaction, but it does not stop chimpanzees from communicating. Non verbal communication is common. The sounds that chimpanzees produce allow them to socially interact, learn from each other, and express emotions. A recognized characteristic is their laughter; it seems that they take their time to enjoy life. Their facial expression also expresses emotions as well as their postures; male adults can intimate other younger chimpanzees and control the other adults just by marking their territory with sounds or alerting others about imminent danger. They demonstrate deceptive behavior to get food, shelter, and in captivity they use it to try to escape or get more food which was thought to be a characteristic only of humans.
The most surprising ability that they have is using tools that they create to hunt. They shape sticks to make insects came out of their dens or to take out larvae from trunks. They also use these sticks to hunt smaller monkeys and other animals that hide in trunks. They know that with those sticks they can get their food easily. In order to rest, they build nests formed by leaves and branches which take them 5 to 10 minutes. Grooming is used not only to take out parasits, but it has a more important function which is the increasing of links among the individuals in the group. The reproductive cycle starts at the age of 13 for males and 16 for females. The pregnancy period lasts 8 months in average and they usually have only one infant. Once born, the baby chimpanzee remains in his mother’s fur for a few years until they get comfortable and feel more dependant to explore the environment by themselves with the information that their mother pass to them while on their backs such as eating,hunting,or drinking water. For their similarities there is controversy about giving them basic rights such as live, liberty, and not being physically or mentally mistreated.
the longer legs than arms. They have very strong shoulders, with an incredible range of motion. This is something that may have developed over time so that they could spend part of their time moving in trees rather than on earth. Chimpanzees are one of the most abundant of the primates, besides humans, with a huge distribution and numerous populations in protected areas.However, the species is classified critically endangered, their populations are drastically decreasing and is expected that they continue decreasing in the future years.
“In 2003, the International Union for Conservation of Nature made a very rough estimate of 172,700–299,700”(Vaidyanathan) chimpanzees are left in nature Recently, chimpanzees are protect by law in most of the countries, and many parks have been created even though many communities of chimpanzees are still outside the reserves. Due to their arboreal nature, the only predator they have, appear when they go on the ground.Leopards, snakes and humans are their most common …show more content…
predator.
Groups of Chimpanzees vary in composition 15-150 individuals including females and males.
The ontogeny development of the chimpanzees is similar to the humans, divided in long periods of time: infancy, adolescency, and adulthood. They have black hair that covers their body except their face, feet and palms. Their fur protects them from the cold and the UV rays. They rely on their color vision through their facing forward eyes which gives them a 3-dimentional vision necessary to jump. They have opposite big toes. Their arms are longer than their legs. They have grasping hands and no tail. They have 32 teeth like humans do. Their life expectancy can reach a maximum of 50-60 years in captivity. “Males and females have an average height of 816 mm”(Cawthon) There are noticeable social hierarchies among male chimpanzees, esencially in the access to the food and the access to the sexually active females. They are quadrupeds, terrestrial and arboreal. Many believe that Knuckle-walking is primitive.However; chimpanzees are also bipeds, which mean that they can walk with two legs to save energy and have more speed when
moving. Chimpanzees can be found in mountains, savannas, and rainforests of Africa. They are facing many challenges to coexist with humans in their territories. Chimpanzees are threatened by hunters who traffic with their meat, contamination and destruction of their habitats. Humans use their regions to plant and exploit minery which decreases the space that chimpanzees can use to move. The habitat of the chimpanzee is diverse; rainforests are the most common zones where they live, they can easily find access to fruits, plants, stems, leaves, and seeds. Their diet consists mainly of leaves, insects, honey, termites, ants, nuts eggs, and sometimes meat from other smaller primates. Also, primates are able to adapt to new environments easily, migration allows them to reach areas where season fruits grow. They also need an easy access to water supply. “Even though chimpanzees’ habitat is often near water, chimps cannot swim, due to the structure and density of their bodies.”(Save the Chimps) People do not realize that chimpanzees maintain the populations of other monkeys’ species under control. They also help to disperse seeds to grow plants when they move.
The chimpanzees are better adapted to their environment than us, and we are better adapted to our environment than they, but no one is better than the other. Chimpanzees are very intelligent animals with a slow pace in its evolution. They have been able to use their brains to solve problems and planned for the future. They have used their intelligence to use various tools in your environment to survive. The intelligence of the chimpanzee is among the most exceptional of the animal kingdom. Chimpanzees are very curious creatures and have surprising abilities to understand what is happening in their surroundings a characteristic that questions the belief that humans are the most intelligent in the world. They can learn certain things easily than others, just like humans. Especially, they have developed characteristics and abilities that were only attributed to humans such as emphaty, altruism, self awareness, cooperation to solve problems and learning through observation and experience.
Culture, which is learned knowledge that is pass on from one generation to another, is also a key factor that differentiates them from other species, some of the observable knowledge is their ability to obtain food, hygienic habits, eating medicinal plants,communication,territorial aggression, strategies to hunt, and tools that they use to hunt. Chimpanzees are really emotional and social, just like humans, especially with the babies and their communities, if left alone or aisolated, they may get sick. It is important to remark that they are generous by nature because they reconcile after a fight and know to share their food when they go hunt together. They use rocks to open dry fruits and leaves to make sponges to collect water, these abilities were not learnt by observing humans, they figure that out by themselves long time ago. They can also create mental maps of their habitats to locate food. The ability that is most noticeable is learning the American Sign Language, where according to recent studies, chimpanzees raised by humans were able to learn up to 1000 signs and understand 2000 which depicts the greater intelligence than they possess when there is interaction with humans.
In recent studies, it has been shown that they can solve problems not base on their instinct but, intelligence. Chimpanzees have demonstrated how smart they can be and sometimes they overlap humans’ cognitive abilities. They have been compared with children of 2, 3, and 4 years old. They can appreciate similarity between figures and the things they represent in different tests where their abilities to identify certain objects and know what they are use for is tested. They can be able to improvise with creativity and perform mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, and fractions. They can remember the order of numbers that disappear in a screen and can repeat the sequence easily. The cognitive abilities can be modified by environmental factor such as being in captivity or in the wild.
Human babies develop prefrontal white matter in a more spectacular way than the baby chimpanzees which allows them to have a greater language development and social interaction, but it does not stop chimpanzees from communicating. Non verbal communication is common. The sounds that chimpanzees produce allow them to socially interact, learn from each other, and express emotions. A recognized characteristic is their laughter; it seems that they take their time to enjoy life. Their facial expression also expresses emotions as well as their postures; male adults can intimate other younger chimpanzees and control the other adults just by marking their territory with sounds or alerting others about imminent danger. They demonstrate deceptive behavior to get food, shelter, and in captivity they use it to try to escape or get more food which was thought to be a characteristic only of humans.
The most surprising ability that they have is using tools that they create to hunt. They shape sticks to make insects came out of their dens or to take out larvae from trunks. They also use these sticks to hunt smaller monkeys and other animals that hide in trunks. They know that with those sticks they can get their food easily. In order to rest, they build nests formed by leaves and branches which take them 5 to 10 minutes. Grooming is used not only to take out parasits, but it has a more important function which is the increasing of links among the individuals in the group. The reproductive cycle starts at the age of 13 for males and 16 for females. The pregnancy period lasts 8 months in average and they usually have only one infant. Once born, the baby chimpanzee remains in his mother’s fur for a few years until they get comfortable and feel more dependant to explore the environment by themselves with the information that their mother pass to them while on their backs such as eating,hunting,or drinking water. For their similarities there is controversy about giving them basic rights such as live, liberty, and not being physically or mentally mistreated.