Common Chimpanzee

The Common Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), also known as the Robust Chimpanzee, is a great ape. Colloquially, it is often called the chimpanzee (or simply "chimp"), though technically this term refers to both species in the genus Pan: the Common Chimpanzee and the closely-related Bonobo, or Pygmy Chimpanzee.

Several subspecies of the Common Chimpanzee have been recognized:

Central Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes, in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
West African Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus, in Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria;
West Nigeria/East Cameroon or simply Nigerian Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes vellerosus, in Nigeria and Cameroon;
Eastern Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, in the Central African Republic, the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Basic facts

Common Chimpanzees are found in the tropical forests and wet savannas of Western and Central Africa. They used to inhabit most of this region, but their habitat has been dramatically reduced in recent years.

Adults in the wild weigh between 40 and 65 kg (88 and 143 lb); males can measure up to 160 cm (63 inches) and females to 130 cm (51 inches), and although lighter than humans they have a pull 5-6 times stronger This is because the muscles of chimpanzees and other primates are far more effective than those of humans[http://www.nature.com/news/specials/chimpgenome/interactive/chimp_interactive_graphic_pf.html. Their bodies are covered by a coarse dark brown hair, except for the face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Both their thumbs and their big toes are opposable, allowing a precision grip. Their gestation period is 8 months. Infants are weaned when they are about 3 years old, but usually maintain a close relationship with their mother for several more years; they reach puberty at the age of 8-10, and their lifespan in captivity is about 50 years.

Although omnivores, their diet is mainly vegetarian, consisting of fruits, leaves, nuts, seeds, tubers, and miscellaneous plantlife supplemented by insects and small prey. There are also instances of organized hunting; in some cases, such as the killing of leopard cubs, this seems to be primarily a protective effort. However, Common Chimpanzees sometimes band together and hunt Western Red Colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus badius) for their meat. Isolated cases of cannibalism have been documented. Chimpanzees have also been known on rare occasions to attack and eat human infants. ^*

Social behavior

Common Chimpanzees live in communities that typically range from 20 to more than 150 members, but spend most of their time traveling in small parties of just a few individuals. They are both arboreal and terrestrial, spending equal time in the trees and on the ground. Their habitual gait is quadrupedal, using the soles of their feet and resting on their knuckles, but they can walk upright for short distances.

The Common Chimpanzee lives in a fission-fusion society, where mating is promiscuous, and may be found in groups of the following types: all-male, adult females and offspring, bisexual, one female and her offspring, or a single individual. The core of the societies are males who roam around, protecting members of the group as well as engaging in the search for food. Among males, there is generally a dominance hierarchy. However, this unusual fission-fusion social structure, "in which portions of the parent group may on a regular basis separate from and then rejoin the rest", is highly variable in terms of which particular individual chimpanzees congregate at a given time. This is mainly due to chimpanzees having a high level of individual autonomy within the fission-fusion society. Also, communities have large ranges that overlap with those of other groups.

As a result, individual chimpanzees often forage for food alone, or in smaller groups (as opposed to the much larger parent group, which encompasses all the chimpanzees who regularly come into contact and congregate into parties in a particular area). As stated, these smaller groups also emerge in a variety of types, for a variety of purposes. For example, an all-male troop may be organized in order to hunt for meat, while a bi-sexual group consisting of one mature male and one mature female may occur for the purposes of copulation. An individual may encounter certain individuals quite frequently, but have run-ins with others almost never or only in large-scale gatherings. Due to the varying frequency at which chimpanzees associate, the structure of their societies is highly complicated.

Chimpanzee Genome Project

Human and Common Chimpanzee DNA is very similar. After the completion of the Human genome project, a Common Chimpanzee Genome Project was initiated. In December of 2003, a preliminary analysis of 7600 genes shared between the two genomes confirmed that certain genes such as the forkhead-box P2 transcription factor, which is involved in speech development, have undergone rapid evolution in the human lineage. A draft version of the chimpanzee genome was published on September 1, 2005, in an article produced by the Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium (September 1) ; (September 1) . The DNA sequence differences between humans and chimpanzees is about thirty-five million single-nucleotide changes, five million insertion/deletion events, and various chromosomal rearrangements. Typical human and chimp homologs of proteins differ in only an average of two amino acids. About 30% of all human proteins are identical in sequence to the corresponding chimp protein. Duplications of small parts of chromosomes have been the major source of differences between human and chimp genetic material, with about 2.7% of the genome now representing differences having been produced by gene duplications or deletions during approximately 6 million years since humans and chimps diverged from their common evolutionary ancestor. Results from the human and chimp genome analyses should help in understanding the genetic basis of some human diseases.

Link with Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1

Two species of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the more virulent and easily transmitted, and is the source of the majority of HIV infections throughout the world; HIV-2 is largely confined to west Africa. Both species originated in west and central Africa, jumping from primates to humans. HIV-1 has evolved from a Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIVcpz) found in the Common Chimpanzee subspecies, Pan troglodytes troglodytes native to southern Cameroon. Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has the greatest genetic diversity of HIV-1 so far discovered, suggesting that the virus has been there longer than anywhere else. HIV-2 crossed species from a different strain of SIV, found in the Sooty Mangabey, monkeys in Guinea-Bissau.

References

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa, 1775.

External links

Apes | Wildlife of Africa