Chimpanzee Safaris Africa
Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes
Size: 3 to 41/2 feet tall standing bipedal
Weight: 55 – 110 pounds
Life Span: 50 years
Habitat: Forest
Diet: Omnivorous Forager
Gestation: 8 months
Brief:
Chimpanzees not only resemble human beings but they are also intelligent and social, noisy and curious. There are approximately 5000 chimpanzees left in Uganda. Chimpanzees and other primates can be seen in Uganda more easily than anywhere else in the world. They share 98.4% of human genes making them our closest living relative. Chimpanzees use large sticks and branches as clubs. In Uganda, it is illegally to capture, keep or kill a chimpanzee.
Physical Characteristics:
The chimpanzee has a thick body with long arms, short legs and no tail. Much of the body is covered with long black hair, but the face, ears, fingers and toes are bare. They have hands that can grip firmly, allowing them to pick up objects. Chimpanzees can use tools, they use rocks to crack nuts, sticks to fish for termites, and make sponges from leaves to soak up water for drinking from hollows in trees. Of particular interest was the discovery of the chimpanzees using “tools” for certain purposes and this surprised the world.
Habitat:
Chimps are mainly found in rain forests and wet savannas. While they spend equal time on land and in trees, they do most of their feeding and sleeping in trees.
Behaviour:
Chimpanzees live in communities called troops. These troops range from 30 to 80 individuals. These large groups are made up of smaller, very flexible groups of just a few animals, perhaps all females, all males or a mixed group.
They are agile climbers, building nests high up in trees to rest in during midday and sleep in at night. They construct new nests in minutes by bending branches; intertwining them to form a platform and lining the edges with twigs though in some Uganda Safari areas chimps make nests on the ground. They use grass stems or twigs as tools, poking them into termite or ant nests and eating the insects that cling to them and are also able to wedge nuts between the roots of a tree and break the shells open with a stone.
Chimps are quadrupedal, walking quickly on all fours with the fingers half-flexed to support the weight of the forequarters on the knuckles. They occasionally walk erect for short distances. They sometimes chew leaves to make them absorbent and then use them as a sponge, dipping them in water and sucking out the moisture.
Diet:
Chimps begin their activities at dawn. On descending from their night nests they hungrily feed on fruits, their principal diet, buds, blossoms and leaves. After a while their feeding becomes more selective, and they will choose only the ripest fruit. They usually pick fruit with their hands, but they eat berries and seeds directly off the stem with their lips. Their diet consists of up to 80 different plant foods. They are diurnal (but often active on moonlit nights).
Chimps also supplement their diets with meat, such as young goats and antelopes. Their most frequent victims, however, are other primates such as young blue monkeys, baboons and colobus monkeys.
Parenting:
The female chimp has an estrus cycle of about 34 to 35 days. While in heat, the bare skin on her bottom becomes pink and swollen, and she may mate with several males. She normally gives birth to just one baby, which clings tightly to her breast and, like a human baby, develops rather slowly.
An infant can sit up at 5 months and stand with support at 6 months. It is still suckled and sleeps with its mother until about 3 years of age, finally becoming independent and separating from her at about 4 years. Sexual maturity is reached between 8 and 10 years. Chimpanzees give birth every 4-5years and look after their infants for 10 – 12 years before they are old enough to survive on their own.
Chimps are among the noisiest of all wild animals and use a complicated system of sounds to communicate with each other. They also touch each other and on some occasions may be seen kissing when they meet. An adult chimp often has a special companion with which it spends a lot of time. Female chimps give their young a great deal of attention and help each other with babysitting chore.
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Adventure in Kibale Forest with about 1,420 chimpanzees. Trekking the chimps in 3 days. |
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Primates combined. Watch the gorillas of Uganda and take on chimp tracking. All in 7 days. |
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9 days tour to see the chimpanzees, gorillas and other attractions in Uganda. Perfect safari vacation itinerary. |
| Uganda Vacation 14 days
A grand Uganda holiday vacation to take you to the best of Uganda. From the primates to various attractions of Uganda. |
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