20 Interesting Facts About Chimpanzees
Transcript
00:00 Forevergreen Presents 20 Amazing Facts About Chimpanzees You Never Knew
00:07 Fact Number 1 The first thing you should remember about chimpanzees is that they are not monkeys.
00:13 They are apes like gorillas, orangutans and of course humans.
00:17 And in fact they are genetically our closest living relatives on earth, sharing more than
00:23 98 percent of our genetic blueprint.
00:26 This means that less than 2 percent of our DNA is different from chimps.
00:32 Fact Number 2 Although chimps are our closest living relative,
00:36 their brains have been measured at around 282-500 cc.
00:41 And human brains are approximately 3 times that size.
00:45 So we are still well ahead of them in that area, at least so far.
00:50 Fact Number 3 The chimpanzee was the first non-human to learn
00:53 American Sign Language.
00:55 Normal chimpanzees can pass their knowledge to their companions through science.
01:00 Fact Number 4 In 2008, a chimpanzee named Anjana adopted
01:05 and raised two babies of white tigers named Mitra and Shiva after a hurricane disaster.
01:11 Fact Number 5 Elephants and chimpanzees have ability to
01:15 display behavior patterns similar to post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
01:21 Fact Number 6 Humans have the same number of hair follicles
01:25 as chimpanzees have.
01:27 Fact Number 7 Chimpanzees can identify each other from pictures
01:32 of their butts.
01:33 Fact Number 8 In 1954, Congo was a chimpanzee who learned
01:39 how to draw and paint.
01:40 Congo was a famous abstract painter whose paintings were sold to Picasso, Dali and others
01:46 for up to 26,000 US dollars.
01:49 Fact Number 9 Chimps use medicinal plants to treat themselves
01:53 for illness and injury.
01:55 Fact Number 10 The United States and Gabon are the only two
01:59 countries that allow experimentation on chimpanzees.
02:04 Fact Number 11 Chimpanzees fart so loudly and frequently
02:09 that scientists locate them in forests occasionally by following the farts.
02:14 Fact Number 12 Comparative analysis showed that chimpanzees
02:18 and bonobos show population-level right-handedness, whereas gorillas and orangutans do not.
02:26 Fact Number 13 While chimps consume a wide variety of foods,
02:30 including the fruits and leaves of hundreds of plants, but they like the fruit of fig
02:35 the most.
02:36 They also eat meat.
02:38 Their favorite meat meal is red colobus monkey and invertebrates such as termites, which
02:44 makes only 3% of their diet.
02:47 Fact Number 14 The chimpanzees have a thick set body with
02:50 long arms, short legs and no tail.
02:54 Much of the body is covered with long black hair, but the face, ears, fingers and toes
03:00 are bare.
03:01 They have hands that can grip firmly, allowing them to pick up objects.
03:05 The discovery that they used tools for certain purposes surprised the whole world.
03:12 Fact Number 15 Chimps are mainly found in rain forests and
03:16 wet savannas.
03:18 While they spend equal time on land and in trees, they do most of their feeding and sleeping
03:23 in trees.
03:25 Fact Number 16 Chimps are one of the few animals that are
03:29 known to make and use tools.
03:32 They have observed stripping the leaves off a twig and then dip it into a termite nest
03:38 to catch insects and tearing the end of a stick to make it more water absorbent so that
03:43 it can be used as a dipping stick.
03:47 Fact Number 17 Chimps can be very aggressive.
03:51 Groups of males will plan and execute attacks on other chimps, often causing serious injuries
03:57 and fatalities.
03:59 Serious fatal attacks on humans have also been reported.
04:04 Fact Number 18 Chimps are one of only two species in the
04:08 genus Pan, the other being Bonobo, and both are found in sub-Saharan Africa.
04:14 It was once thought that chimps and bonobos were one species, but they are now recognized
04:20 as two distinct species.
04:22 The chimpanzee is found north of the Congo River and is split into four subspecies.
04:29 The bonobo is found south of the Congo River and has not been split into any subspecies.
04:35 Fact Number 19 Fifty years ago, there were probably a million
04:40 chimpanzees living in Africa.
04:42 Today chimpanzees are an endangered species with as few as 1,70,000 left in the wild.
04:49 Fact Number 20 Chimpanzees can live for more than 50 years.
04:54 This is another reason why chimps, who were purchased as pets, often end up at sanctuaries.
05:07 -END-