Humans Vs Chimpanzees Research Paper

“In their natural homes in the wild, chimpanzees humans’ closest living genetic relatives”, who are more like us than they’re like gorillas are never separated from their families and troops . “Profoundly social beings, they spend every day together exploring, crafting and using tools to solve problems, foraging, playing, grooming each other, and making soft nests for sleeping each night” . They care deeply for their families and forge lifelong friendships . Chimpanzee mothers are loving and protective, nursing their infants and sharing their nests with them for four to six years . They have excellent memories and share cultural traditions with their children and peers . They empathize with one another and console their friends when they’re upset . They help others, even at a personal cost to themselves . When one of another

Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.


Humans and non-human primates have many behaviors and characteristics in common. Apes and chimpanzees have been studies and closely watched for many years. Scientist and researchers and found many similarities between the apes and chimpanzees with humans. All three are hard working and work with tools. They also make these tools. Another similarity is the fact that they are very social with others of their breed. This is also true about other primates other than apes and chimpanzees, like lemurs, lorises, pottos, and tarsiers. Apes and chimpanzees are able to learn sign language and elementary math skills. All primates have nails instead of claws on their fingers and toes. Both non-human primates and humans all have opposable thumbs. They use these thumbs to be able to pick up things better and they are thumbs that are able to move and touch other parts of the same hand. Non-human primates, including humans, learn by watching their mothers and other family members. For example, chimpanzees learn to make stick tools to stick into holes to get termites to eat. They do this because the mothers never teach them

In the Article “The 2% Difference” by Robert Sapolsky explains that scientists have decoded the chimpanzee genome to discover 98 percent of human DNA is similar. In Sapolsky article he goes on to explain the two percent difference humans and chimpanzee. A few of his discovered was that “Chimps excel at climbing trees, but we beat them hands down at balance-beam routine; they are covered in hair, while we have only the occasional guy with really hair shoulders” (Angeloni pp.40 2016). Physically we look different and can do different physical activities then chimpanzee. Sapolsky continues by saying how we have differences in social behavior. It is known

In the video, the uniqueness of humans by Robert Sapolsky, explains how animals are not that different than humans. Dr. Sapolsky explains even though animals and humans look different, we all have similar genes. Furthermore, when he breaks down what makes humans unique, he correlates animals` behavior with human behavior; in which, involuntarily makes humans and animals have the same behavior. Dr. Sapolsky shows that even though humans and animals have similar behaviors, humans thought process is more advanced than animals.

Throughout the term, reading the book, “Through a Window” by Jane Goodall has been quite intriguing for me, in that it has inspired me with new ideas and perceptions about how our own species has evolved over time. I have really enjoyed seeing the many similarities that hominids share with other primate species, especially chimpanzees. Goodall’s research only further proves that we are not only extremely biologically similar to chimpanzees in our DNA, but have many behavioral similarities as well. The film, “Monkey in the Mirror” also shows support for our likeness in intellectuality. These documented findings on chimpanzee and human resemblances provides the strong evidence needed to conclude the fact that humans do indeed share a common ancestor with great apes.

Thus, I was able to observe some similarities among these species. The way the female chimp used tools, and her fingers to grab food, how she used to be on her feet, freeing her hands, groom her child, educate her offspring, sleep with him while snuggling, use a lot of face emotions to convey a message to an individual; she smiled at her baby, laughed when playing, and tickling him, remind me of human. She also has a flat pink face, hands’ palm, and feet sole as humans do. Furthermore, the gorilla was also really human when he protected his eyes from the intense sunrays, following the movement of the sun, and sat in the shade, mated with a female, scratched his head, and bottom, and put his finger in his nose. I think that these humans’ pattern appeared for similar reasons as in the Primates. For instance, when the gorilla scratches his bottom, it is because the area is itchy, and he wants to remove what is indisposing him. In addition, the mother chimp educates her kid to transmit knowledge throughout generation, which is the same for humans, who go to school.

Chimpanzees portray their emotions through a number of facial expressions and mannerisms. Just like humans, they undergo mood swings, jealous rages, and laughter. For instance, Goodall observed during her research that a male gorilla “would threaten [me] with an upward and

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I have really enjoyed learning in this class and glad I took it because I found it to be very interesting. From learning all these different types of primates, from non-human to human primates, to even developing a better understanding of the evolution of primates and primate behavior. For my final paper, I will be going over and portraying the behavior of non-human primate and human primate. I will be comparing the primates behavior seen over the movies and literatures that we were assigned, to the understandings of evolution. Being able to learn and compare the behavior of non-human primate and the behavior of human primate, it can help further one understandings of how we are similar in physical and biological structures. According to the Wikipedia, “The primate lineage is thought to go back at least 65 million years ago”. (Wikipedia) With this one could say that the evolution of primates have been evolving for quite a while now, and even if we do not look like a non human primate we are similar than we think. The reading materials and the movies we had to watch for this class displayed the behaviors of non-human primate and human primate, some how differed. There are many question about evolution, and to how we were created? are there other reasons deeper than evolution? How much can we learn about evolution by just comparing the different behavior of the primates?

Non human primates’ social organization can provide useful information how human social evolution occurs. We will go over main points of how similar and different non human primates such as chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas’ society are compared to ours, humans.

These social behaviors with both these primates can be connected to human social behaviors. Humans are considered to be male dominant species that in certain cases civilization required males to abuse women to assert their male dominance. Also, there are times when two different civilizations collided there was usually warfare due to this interaction. Intercourse for the human species is also not used for just reproduction but also for pleasure and in some instances to solidify relationships. Although, there are other social factors that separate human’s social behavior and the primates. Such as appears being a mainly a main factor, but also bonobo mothers breast-feeds her child for five year while human are for two years. Another variant of social behaviors between primates and humans comes from an experiment done with bonobos. A scientist held two pieces of pipe, that can fit into once another, but the scientist porously fails to attach the pipes together in front of bonobos to see if the bonobo can insert

“Bonobos are more comfortable walking upright than chimpanzees are. They also keep their white rump patch for life, while the patch darkens with age on chimpanzees, (San Diego Zoo, 2018). They can move quadrupedally by knuckle-walking just like gorillas but on the ground but a bonobo can walk bipedally just as humans can. “Bonobos and chimpanzees look very similar and both share 98.7% of their DNA with humans—making the two species our closest living relatives. Bonobos are usually a bit smaller, leaner and darker than [the common] chimpanzees,” (World Wildlife Fund, 2018). An easy way to distinguish one is by their hairless black faces, red lips, and parted long hair, all features that are almost human

How are Great Apes genetically similar to humans? Research Question: My research question for this assignment is that what are the possible things chimps are able to do like humans and if they are 96% genetically similar to humans, are they capable of speaking one day? They are capable of doing many things like humans but are not able to speak, what can be the reasons and will they somehow ever be able to? Hypothesis: I expect that if Chimps interact with humans throughout their daily lives, they should be able to copy humans and do what they are taught.

two species are so similar. As human populations grow, so does the risk of disease transmission between humans and chimpanzees. On 12 June 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will classify all chimpanzees, both wild and captive, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Before this ruling, only wild chimpanzees were listed as endangered, while captive chimpanzees were listed as threatened under the act. The final rule was published in the Federal Register of 16 June 2015, and came into effect 90 days after publication on September 14, 2015. Just like the Bengal Tiger, worldwildlife.org is trying their best to help out the Chimpanzees. They stated, “WWF establishes, strengthens, and manages protected areas in Central