The Apes King : Chimpanjee

 

Chimpanjee is one of the great apes and the nearest in intelligence to man. Scientists have examined its mental capacities and sent it into space in anticipation of man. Chimpanjees need little description. Being apes and not monkeys, they have no tail. Their arms are longer than their legs and they normally run on all fours. They can also walk upright, with toes turned outwards. When erect they stand 3-5 ft high. The hair is long and coarse, black except for a white patch near the rump. The face , ears, hands, and feet are bare and, except for the black face, flesh is coloured. 

          The single species of Chimpanzee lives in the tropical rain forests of Africa, roughly from the Niger Basin to Angola. They are at home in the trees, making nests of branches and vines each night to sleep in, but they often come down to the ground to search for food, whereas their normal gait on the ground is all fours, they will run on three legs, leaving one free to hold food.

            Chimpanjees live in small parties, occasionally numbering to 40, but bonds between the party are weak. There is no fixed social structure like that found in baboon troops. Sometimes the number in a group is as small as 3-6.

            Within a party, the males are arranged in a social order, the inferior ones respecting the superior ones. Dominance is related to age and powerful strength display. But Chimpanjees have amazing social discipline, the dominant male is not allowed to wrest food from one of his inferiors.

           Chimpanjees exhibit great concern for each other. When Chimpanjees meet after having been apart they greet each other in a very human way, by touching each other or even clasping hands. When a dominant male arrives, the rest of the Chimpanjees hurry to pay respect to it. The members of a party also spend considerable amount of time grooming each other and themselves. Mothers go through the fur of their babies for any foreign particles,dirt, and ticks and they aid each other when they are injured.

           Chimpanjees spend about 7 hours a day feeding either up trees or on the ground. They investigate any source likely to produce food. They scratch crevices on logs for insects and rob eggs and chicks from the nests. But their usual food consists of fruits, leaves and roots.

           Chimpanjees normally give birth to a single baby- twins are rare. The young depends on its mother for about two years. In the rearing of the babies, the female chimpanjees resemble humans. The young obey the parents' orders instantly.

           Chimpanjees are the best tool-users apart from man. Sticks 2-3 ft long are picked off the ground or broken from branches and pushed into nests, then withdrawn and the honey or insects licked off. Stones are used to crack nuts or as missiles to drive humans and baboons away from its food. Another material used for tools is leaves, chew them up, and use the resultant mass as a sponge. They soak up water into the sponge , and squeeze out into their mouth. They use whole leaves also to wipe sticky lips, and hands after eating food.

           Chimpanjees are not only tool-users but also tool-makers. They make their own rods by stripping the leaves off a grass stem. Baby chimpanjees learn all this by observing the older chimpanjees making and using them. So man is not the only tool-maker, merely better at it than his relatives.