MY FAVOURITE SILLIES!! - Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
The Chimpanzee is a great ape that’s native to the tropics of Africa, ranging from west to east, and can also be found in the savannahs of central and western Africa. They’re known most for their complex history alongside humans, and pioneering studies into what it means to be sentient.
Why are they my favourite?
The front of education!
Chimpanzees have been the pioneers for great ape education in and outside of zoos, and continue to this day to be one of the primary faces of anti-extinction campaigns due to their human-like qualities, allowing even the most stonehearted, cold bastards to sympathize. Hopefully.
Tools, toys, and teachers!
While many primates use tools, not many make toys out of objects from their habitat past throwing things. Adult Chimps will use sticks to fish termites from termite mounds, and others might use rocks to hunt small animals for protein. Baby chimps might use sticks as dolls to play with, or rocks to throw into water to make splashes. This is extremely advanced behavior that is taught to the children of the society by the adults, being passed down often from parents and mentors. This creates different cultures of tool use in different areas of chimpanzee societies, which is fascinating to observe.
IM SUCH A BIG MAN!
Male Chimpanzees will use dominance displays to help establish where they are in the hierarchy of their community over others. And while this is very serious work, and can sometimes be scary, for other chimps, I just think they look like they’re doing parkour a little bit, and it makes it so incredibly funny.
How I fell in love <3
This one is entirely personal, but when I was in college, in my animal behaviour class, I at the time only had a special interest in the Planet of the Apes remake franchise, and that was the reason I chose to do Chimpanzees as my behavioural research study. But through doing this research, I quickly found a love for the animal itself, and found myself deviating to tangents on other apes, as well as going on tangents learning about Chimps themselves. These guys are where it all started for me, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.