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The Chimpanzee of Uganda: Background, Places for Chimpanzee, Behavior, Diet, Predators, Characteristics and Life Cycle and Top Places for Chimpanzee Tracking and Habituation in Uganda - East Africa

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Scientific Name:	Pan troglodytes
Size:	3 to 4½ feet tall standing bipedal
Weight:	55 to 110 pounds
Lifespan:	50 years
Habitat:	Forest
Diet:	Omnivorous forager
Gestation:	8 months
Predators:	Humans, leopards

Noisy and curious, intelligent and social, the chimpanzee is the mammal most like a human. Chimpanzees fascinate humans and are favorites both in zoos and the wild. Three subspecies of common chimpanzees are distributed across the forest zone of Africa from Guinea to western Tanzania and Uganda. Another species of chimpanzees, the bonobo (Pan paniscus), is found exclusively in central Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ugandan Chimpanzee is a part of the chimpanzees found central and east Africa, Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthi. In East Africa the chimpanzee is found in the wild in Uganda and Tanzania, but only in captivity in Kenya. There is over 5000 chimpanzees found in Uganda many of them in National Parks while others are in Wildlife Reserves and other places that they find conducive to their lifestyle. It is said that at one time there 50,000 or more in Uganda, but due to encroachment of villages and settlements, the trapping of chimpanzees, or simply be used for target practice during the civil unrest in Uganda.

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Chimpanzee Habitats and Best Places to See Chimps in Uganda

Chimps are mainly found in rain forests and wet savannas. While they spend equal time on land and in trees, they do most of their feeding and sleeping in trees. In the Parks and the Wildlife Reserves they are protected and there are ongoing research into the habits and nature of chimpanzees. In Uganda, visitor can find chimpanzees places like Kibale Forest National Park, Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Bigodi Wetlands Sanctuary, Budongo Forest in Murchison Falls National park and at the Ngamba Island in Lake Victoria near Entebbe Intenational airport.

Visitors can even assist researchers and remain the various forests with the chimpanzees for one or several days. (a cost is involved)

They are our closest relative in the animal kingdom, 98.9% of the same genes as man.

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Chimpanzee Physical Characteristics

The chimpanzee has a thickset body with long arms, short legs and no tail. Much of the body is covered with long black hair, but the face, ears, fingers and toes are bare. They have hands that can grip firmly, allowing them to pick up objects. The discovery that they used "tools" for certain purposes surprised the world.Chimpanzees though smaller in size than man, are about 5 times stronger. They weigh for males around 150 pounds while females are around 110 to 115 pounds. When they age many of them actually bald somewhat.

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Chimpanzee Behavior

Chimps live in groups called troops, of some 30 to 80 individuals. These large groups are made up of smaller, very flexible groups of just a few animals, perhaps all females, all males or a mixed group.

Chimps sometimes munch leaves to make them absorbent and then use them as a sponge, dipping them in water and sucking out the moisture. They also use grass stems or twigs as tools, poking them into termite or ant nests and eating the insects that cling to them. They are able to wedge nuts between the roots of a tree and break the shells open with a stone.

Chimps are both arboreal and terrestrial, spending much of their daytime hours on the ground. They are quadrupedal, walking quickly on all fours with the fingers half-flexed to support the weight of the forequarters on the knuckles. They occasionally walk erect for short distances.

Chimps are agile climbers, building nests high up in trees to rest in during midday and sleep in at night. They construct new nests in minutes by bending branches, intertwining them to form a platform and lining the edges with twigs. In some areas chimps make nests on the ground.

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Chimpanzee Diet

Chimps are diurnal (but often active on moonlit nights) and begin their activities at dawn. After descending from their night nests they hungrily feed on fruits, their principal diet, and on leaves, buds, blossoms, flowers, seeds but have been observed to kills other monkeys. After a while their feeding becomes more selective, and they will choose only the ripest fruit. They usually pick fruit with their hands, but they eat berries and seeds directly off the stem with their lips. Their diet consists of up to 80 different plant foods. Chimps supplement their diets with meat, such as young antelopes or goats. Their most frequent victims, however, are other primates such as young baboons, colobus monkeys and blue monkey. In the Kalinzu Forest in Uganda, researchers have observed them eating red-tailed monkeys.

Chimpanzees will use tools such as sticks to gather termites, use rocks to open nuts and other things that would be considered tools. Chimpanzees also use large sticks and branches as clubs and throw them at enemies like leopards and humans.

There is no breeding season and females will give birth every 4 to five years.

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Chimpanzee Care for the Little ones

The female chimp has an estrus cycle of about 34 to 35 days. While in heat, the bare skin on her bottom becomes pink and swollen, and she may mate with several males. She normally gives birth to just one baby, which clings tightly to her breast and, like a human baby, develops rather slowly. An infant can sit up at 5 months and stand with support at 6 months. It is still suckled and sleeps with its mother until about 3 years of age, finally becoming independent and separating from her at about 4 years. Sexual maturity is reached between 8 and 10 years.

Chimps are among the noisiest of all wild animals and use a complicated system of sounds to communicate with each other. A loud "wraaa" call, which can be heard more than a mile away, warns of something unusual or disturbing. They hoot "hoo-hoo-hoo," scream, grunt and drum on hollow trees with the flat of their hands, sometimes for hours.

Chimps touch each other a great deal and may kiss when they meet. They also hold hands and groom each other. An adult chimp often has a special "friend" or companion with which it spends a lot of time. Female chimps give their young a great deal of attention and help each other with babysitting chores. Older chimps in the group are usually quite patient with energetic youngsters.

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Chimpanzee Predators

The number of chimps in the wild is steadily decreasing. The wilderness areas necessary to their survival are disappearing at an alarming rate as more forests are cut down for farming and other activities. As the human's closest relative the chimp is vulnerable to many of the same diseases, and their capture for medical research contributes to their decline, especially in West Africa. as more forests are cut down for farm activities. In addition, recent outbreaks of the incurable disease Ebola hemorrhagic fever, threaten to decimate important chimpanzee populations in the Republic of Congo and Gabon.

Uganda is the perfect place to see both Chimpanzees and Mountain Gorillas up close. Most Chimpanzees that you will see up close as a visitor to Uganda are habituated, which means that they have become accustomed to be near humans. Though it is lower in price to track Chimpanzees, there is still a daily limit and a limit to the size of the group going tracking (trekking).