What Is Chimpanzees Like Humans

“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

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.

Within this essay, we will study more in depth the behavioral as well as physical traits of two primates at a zoo from their interaction with their peers to their place in the group. This observation would enable us to further understand the possible existing correlation between humans and primates. First, I studied a female chimpanzee with her baby, and then, a dominant male gorilla, in San Francisco Zoo at about noon, on May 23, 2015, for an hour each. Even though they share some similarities such as having a large brain, living for a long time, and being bored in their enclosure, they are still different; when gorillas are the largest, chimpanzees are the smartest. In fact, chimps use tools to catch food, they would not be able to reach

The use of tools comes to practice everyday as chimpanzees collect food from the jungle. Goodall describes how chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park use straw and blades of grass poke holes to hunt for termites by “squatting beside the termite nest, pushing and withdrawing the long grass stem through a hole”. Moreover, during Gooddal’s research, she observed chimpanzees modifying tools, such as small leafy twigs, thus showing the beginnings of tool making. Chimpanzees in West Africa also use tools to get honey from underground bees’ nests. Recently, scientists found out that chimpanzees living in West Savannah use deadly spears from sticks and hand crafted tools to hunt for small animals.

Chimpanzees (Figure 1) are the closest living relatives to us, and they share 99 percent of our DNA (1). Chimpanzees have distinct group territoriality. Male chimpanzees “patrol” near the boundary between the two ranges, at that time they move very carefully and quietly, and they can cease to listen and observe the range of their neighbors. Patrolling individuals are likely to face cruel and violent

Many attributes found in humans are also found in chimps. Similar to humans, chimps have long childhoods which involve long term affection, bonds and learning. Like humans, chimps display nonverbal communication through Kissing, holding hands and fist shaking. They also show emotion and personality which is thought to be a human attribute (Goodall, 2002). They say we are only 4% smarter than chimps, what defines smart? If we are so smart, why are we destroying our planet? Chimps have been doing the same thing for millions of years without damaging their environment. Maybe we should not ask who is smarter, but who is wiser.

Primate life on earth began about 50-55 million years ago during the Eocene Epoch, although it is unknown how many different living species of primates there on earth. One likely fact is that the major groups of primates have been discovered, two of who are the Pongo Orangutan and the Pan Paniscus Bonobo. The word Orangutan translated from Malay means “Person of the forest” this is so because there are only two places you can find an Orangutan’s: Malaysia and Indonesia. The orangutan is an official state animal of Sabah in Malaysia. There are two different types of Orangutan’s; the Bornean Orangutan, which found on the island of Borneo and the Sumatran Orangutan, which is found on the Sumatra Island. Orangutans are known as the world’s largest tree climbing mammals, unlike other primates they spend the majority of their lives on trees. Orangutan habitat consists of primary tropical rain forest and old secondary forest at low elevations. Orangutans prefer high-density climate due to their diet, which consists 65% of fruit. Bonobos have been considered humankind’s closest relative and share 98% of our DNA. Bonobos can only be found in one country: the Democratic Republic of the Congo also known as DRC. Bonobos inhabit the second largest rainforest on earth, the Congo Basin. Bonobos prefer swampy rainforests and similar to the Orangutans, Bonobos are arboreal which are adapted to living on

A very close relative, Chimpanzees, have been known to make their own tools and improvise as well. Jane Goodall once said, “just as human cultures use different utensils for food, so do different groups of chimps”. She noticed that one group of chimps would go “termite fishing”, which means the chimps would use two sticks to capture termites to eat. Another group of chimpanzees would use a rock as a hammer, and an anvil, or a hard surface, to break open nut shells. When drinking water from holes in trees, she noticed that a group of chimpanzees would use chewed leaves to act like a sponge, and then simply suck the water out of the leaves once the water was collected.

Chimpanzees however, have a symmetrical bone pattern because when they grab objects such as branches, the forces align evenly across the thumb (Gibbons, 2015). Since chimpanzees do not use the precision grip, they cannot use technology to the same extent as humans. Also, this lack of mobility in their hands affects their strength as well (Balter,

Primatology has shown just how similar we are to non-human primates, who are capable of a lot more than we originally thought. From a young age primates learn from adults how to make and use tools to help them with hunting or doing a certain activity. For instance, it was stated in the textbook that Chimpanzees have been known to put long sticks into a termite hole, wait a few minutes, and then pull the stick out to eat the termites that attached to it. All of these require dexterity, which is often seen as a human trait. They also use twigs to clean their teeth, very similar to the way humans use dental tools to clean their teeth.

Different animals have various ways to create, manufacture, and use tools. The ones that received the most attention and are most wide-ranging are the technologies of chimpanzees. The chimps use stones to crack hard nuts, sharpen sticks to spear bush babies in the tree holes, and underground bee hives. These behaviors let researchers and psychologists conclude that primates are the most frequent users of tools among all the mammals. Not only primates create and use tools, some of the impressive non-human tools are made by New Caledonian crows. They extract grubs from tree holes by using a tool that is made by twigs with hooks on one end.

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