Animal · Tanzania, Uganda, DR Congo
Chimpanzee
Pan troglodytes — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The chimpanzee is humankind's closest living relative, sharing nearly 99% of our DNA. It lives in social groups in the forests of Africa and is known for its intelligence and tool use.
Picture credit: Gunnar Creutz (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Hans Hillewaert (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Giles Laurent (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the chimpanzee live?
Home: Tropical forests and woodlands of central and western Africa.
In the wild you find it in: Tanzania, Uganda, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria.
Conservation status from the IUCN: endangered.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures up to 1.7 m tall standing. It weighs about 45 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.
The story behind it
Chimpanzees are one of the very few animals known to make and use tools in the wild, stripping leaves off twigs to fish termites out of their mounds, or using stones to crack open hard nuts. They live in complex communities with friendships, rivalries and even simple forms of teamwork during hunts for small monkeys. Chimps communicate through more than 30 different calls, gestures and facial expressions. Even though they are protected by law across their range, chimpanzee numbers keep falling because forests are cleared for farmland and some are still hunted illegally, which is why the species is now endangered.
Find it on the globe
Chimpanzee is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Do chimpanzees use tools?
Yes, chimpanzees are famous for using tools, such as stripped twigs to fish termites from their mounds or stones to crack open nuts. Young chimps learn these skills by carefully watching older group members.
How closely related are chimps and humans?
Chimpanzees share about 98 to 99 percent of their DNA with humans, making them our closest living animal relatives. This is why they show human-like behaviour such as using tools and forming close social bonds.
Why are chimpanzees endangered?
Chimpanzees are endangered because their forest habitat is being cleared for farming and logging, and some are still hunted illegally or captured for the pet trade. Diseases spread from humans also put wild populations at risk.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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