The Chimpanzee A Jungle Native

Chimpanzee expressing interest.

         In the Middle and West African forests that lie along the equator is the home of the chimpanzee. There, in the greenhouse-like warmth and moisture, long, rope-thick vines climb the many trees and lose themselves among the branches. Tangled masses of bushes, large-leaved plants, and flowers cover much of the ground below, and everything is splotched alternately with sunlight and raindrops.
       The chimpanzee, with its near relatives, the gibbon, gorilla, and orang-outan, is one of the manlike apes, so-called because it has the general body build of human beings, has no tail, and can stand or walk upright on its legs. Though like man in many ways, the chimpanzee differs from him in as many others. The height of the animal is not great; in the male it is usually about five feet, in the female almost a foot less. In weight and muscle, however, it often outdoes many men, for a large male will sometimes reach 175 pounds and arrive at a strength several times greater than that of any human being. The arms of the chimpanzee have the appearance of being long, and most of the body is so covered with coarse, dark hair that at first glance it might almost be mistaken for that of a short-legged boy dressed in a bear-skin coat. In some of the ways that the hands and feet operate, they are almost the reverse of those of man. The thumb is small and feeble, but the big toe is large and powerful and can be bent across and under the other toes so that it helps the foot to grasp branches or grasses as easily as any human hand. One of the most interesting parts of the animal is the face. The eyes, rather close together, are set in wrinkles and shaded by heavy eyebrow ridges. Between and below them lies the small, unimportant-looking nose, and, far below, the mouth; the jaws jut forward into a rounded dog-like muzzle, and the lips, in order to cover them, are long, wide, and extremely movable. They can be drawn back in a snarl of rage, shaped into a tube, in pleasure, and twisted to suit a variety of other expressions and moods.
       Part of the time the chimpanzee spends in the trees, part on the forest floor. In walking it carries its weight about on all fours—the toes fiat or curled under, the fingers bent, so that only their backs and the knuckles touch the ground. In climbing or traveling through the trees, the arms are the most important parts, and after carefully testing each new branch, the hands give the heavy body a short swing from the old one. Some chimpanzees not only spend waking hours in the trees, but also build nests in them for their sleeping time as well. Each animal usually makes its bed some ten feet above the ground by breaking, bending, and pulling branches under its body until there is a small, quite stout platform. Upon that it can lie and be fairly safe until morning from lions, leopards, and snakes.
       From beginning to end, the life of a chimpanzee is usually spent in the company of its family or with others of its own age. An older male ordinarily is in charge of the family and with him, on the daily expeditions, go several females and young ones. Kept loosely together by shouts, grunts, and gestures, each searches out its own food eggs, or young birds, insects and small mammals, but chiefly leaves and fruits of many kinds. The newly born chimpanzee, small and scrawny in appearance, weighs only about three pounds, and through its first year and well into the second it is combed, cleaned, and closely watched over by its mother. By the time it has reached the seventh or perhaps the tenth year, it has left childhood behind and the rest of its days, whose number no one knows, are spent less in play and more in the business of being an adult chimpanzee. Elizabeth Best

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