Chimpanzees are one of mankind’s closest relatives and yet little or almost nothing was documented about their exceptional behavior in their natural habitats until famous conservationists like Jane Goodall (a British Ethologist) began groundbreaking studies of these great apes and their outstanding behavior. These behaviors are complex given their high level of intelligence brought about by their developed mental capacity. Through years of effortless research, a number of mental characteristics that were once thought to be unique to humans have surprisingly been displayed by these endangered great apes like abstraction, logical thinking, generalization, grief over the loss of loved ones and symbolic portrayal.
Chimpanzees are sub-divided into four significant species that include central chimpanzees, Nigeria-Cameroon, Western and Eastern chimpanzees that each exhibit almost similar behavior with few discrepancies. Generally, chimpanzees are interestingly communal creatures that live in troops or communities of 30-150 individuals although most of their travelling time is spent in smaller and temporary groups with few members comprising of any age and sex. These communities or troops are usually headed by an Alpha male assisted by a number of male associates, although the top ranking male chimpanzees tend to be more aggressive. While the Alpha male maintains and improves his social rank by forming coalitions, it is usually marked by exploitation and based on the ally’s influence in argumentative interactions. In so doing, the dominant males can control a third individual when it possibly became difficult by themselves.
Studies by Jane Goodall discovered that male and female chimpanzees exhibit independent personalities with the latter being more unsuspicious, naïve and humble. At the heart of these troops are males who are in charge of patrolling their territory, offering protection to other members and finding food. The smaller groups that are formed usually perform different tasks, for instance the all-male group can be in charge of hunting for meat whereas the one consisting all-females can be in charge of nursing young ones.
The act of grooming members of a chimpanzee community is a significant part of their diverse and riveting social life and this greatly helps in bonding, given the fact that they can learn to remove ticks, dust and dirt from each other’s bodies.
Additionally, you will be surprised to learn that culture in chimpanzees is not different from cultures in human beings because chimpanzee troops in different areas share varying cultures and this is done depending on their surroundings. This exceptional troop culture is usually transmitted as learned behavior and these include the use of tools to perform different tasks.
During Jane Goodall research and studies in the 1960s, it was discovered that these intelligent creatures are some of the few Great Ape species that can effectively use tools such as shaping and using sticks to get insects from their nests, long twigs to fish out termites from anthills or even unearth grubs out of tree logs. Not only that, chimpanzees can make good use of big tree branches and stones especially to crush sweet nuts in addition to using leaves as sponges to soak up drinking water.
They are also some of the primates that were taught to use simple human sign language. Since chimpanzee studies were pioneered by Jane Goodall, it was discovered that these creatures can show as many as 39 learned behaviors such as copulating, use of tools, feeding and grooming among others and these are usually learned from infancy by copying, mimicking or seeing others.
When it comes to copulating and parenting, chimpanzees breed all year round much as the number of females in oestrus cycle differs seasonally within the troop. In most cases, oestrus is greatly affected by food availability whereby female display a number of signs such as sexual swellings. Surprisingly, female chimpanzees are promiscuous during the oestrus cycle in that they can mate with different males in the troop.
