Chimpanzee

• It shares roughly 98.8% of its genetic sequence with humans.
• Its tool use is varied, a behaviour passed culturally from one generation to the next.
• Females do not have their first infant until they are 11 to 23 years old.
• inteligenciaIt can recognise its own reflection, one of the few non-human species to pass the mirror test of self-awareness.
• comportamientoIt organises into shifting subgroups according to how much food is available, a social pattern known as fission-fusion.
• historia naturalIn 1960 Jane Goodall was the first to document tool use by wild chimpanzees, poking blades of grass into termite mounds to fish out food.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat & environment

Tropical forest and wooded savanna of equatorial Africa, from Senegal to western Tanzania

Birth weight

Birth weight not found as a precise figure in the sources consulted; born in a highly dependent state

Size at birth

Completely dependent on its mother, clinging to her belly from birth

Sexual maturity

Female: first birth between 11 and 23 years in the wild (~14.5-15 years on average in Tanzania) | Male: full social maturity at around 15

Gestation / incubation

~8 months (229-240 days)

Litter / clutch size

1 infant (twins rare); 5-6 years between births

Lifespan in captivity

Up to 60-68 years documented in captivity

Sources consulted: North Carolina Zoo; AnAge (genomics.senescence.info); New England Primate Conservancy; A-Z Animals; Britannica; Animal Diversity Web; National Chimpanzee Brain Resource