Chimpanzees
are short with a physically strong body. In fact the average height of
a fully-grown chimpanzee is about 70‑100 cm. Even though chimpanzees
are short they are heavy. A fully-grown male weighs about 43-60 kg
when a fully-grown female weighs about 33-47 kg. They weigh so much
because their bodies are well toned. Chimpanzees have a very thick
coat of body hair that is brown and black. Their hands and feet are long,
narrow, and very bony with opposable thumbs, which very few animals have.
Chimpanzees have large human like ears and lips that protrude from their
face and they crouch over a lot because they walk on their hands and feet.
They have a large eyebrow much like the eyebrows of primitive man and their
face looks leathery. Chimpanzees have flat noses with large nostrils
that don’t protrude from their faces very far.
Chimpanzees
are very smart and even have been taught sign language successfully in an
experiment conducted at Cornell University. The chimpanzees even
taught their offspring how to sign and know over 50 words in sign language.
The average life span of a chimpanzee is about 40-50 years in the wild.
They live in alpha male dominated communities and do many things together.
They walk mostly on all fours, but sometimes walk on two legs. The
females give birth after 8 months and nurse their young. Chimpanzees
are on the endangered species list. There are approximately 150,000
chimpanzees in the world. There are four different types of
chimpanzees. The first is the Western Chimpanzee. The second is
the Nigeria Chimpanzee. The third is the Central Chimpanzee. The
fourth is the Eastern Chimpanzee. There
are a lot of chimpanzees in zoos.
Go to wikipedia for other information on chimpanzees.
Check out animaldiversity for more information on chimpanzees.
