Chimpanzees in Uganda Facts

Stuart Butler narrates his encounter with a habituated chimpanzees in Uganda with beautiful words in one of lonely planet’s article, let’s take a look.

“Eyes trained on the canopy, the hunters slipped with speed and agility across the forest floor. Although communication was kept to a minimum everyone seemed certain of their role. Occasionally one of the party turned and shot a glance back at me, sweating and stumbling over branches and roots, far behind. Suddenly, a squeal of alarm reverberated through the forest. A docile group of beautiful colobus monkeys with coats the envy of a catwalk model had spotted the approaching hunting party.”

“As the colobus started to flee, pandemonium broke out on the forest floor. The hunters raced ahead, some hauled themselves up the trees and others gave chase from ground level. Screams and barks drowned out the bird song and deafened the insects. Things moved so fast over the next two minutes that I was unsure of what was happening. And then calm returned to the forest. The colobus had escaped and the frustrated hunters returned to the more leisurely pursuit of grooming one another. It was just another morning for chimpanzees in Uganda in Uganda’s Kibale Forest National Park.”

Most safari enthusiast trek into Uganda to view the magnificent mountain gorillas but actually that’s not the only exciting ape in the country. Humankind’s closest relative (98% DNA), the chimpanzee, is found in a number of areas of Uganda. The Uganda Wildlife Authority has habituated some of these groups for human contact in the same way as the gorillas, and although their more energetic lifestyle and unpredictable nature makes them slightly less approachable, there’s no doubt that hanging out with chimps is one of the top safari highlights.

If you’re planning on taking a Uganda Safari, spare a day or two and visit the chimpanzees in Uganda in Kibale Forest National Park, it’s a great alternative to the mountain gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest or Mgahinga.

In Kibale Forest visitors can join daily chimpanzee trekking walks. These normally last around three hours with a maximum of one hour spent among the chimps. But there are those who want a more in-depth, personal immersion (group size is strictly limited), you can arrive at the park’s visitor centre in the pre-dawn gloom to set out on the Chimpanzee Habituation Experience. This guarantees a full day with the chimps; tracking them as they crash through the undergrowth or swing through the tree tops, dozing as they doze and, if you’re very lucky, feeling your heart race in excitement as the apparently playful chimps turn determined killers on the hunt for monkeys.

Chimpanzees are fascinating beings. This list of Chimpanzee facts contains information about chimpanzee social behavior and natural habitat, along with facts about chimpanzee protection efforts.

Chimpanzee conservation in Uganda

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) is found across Africa, from West Africa to Uganda and Tanzania in the east. The Eastern chimpanzee (P.t. schweinfurthii) is a subspecies that occurs in Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is one of the most extensively studied subspecies of chimpanzees, having been studied by Jane Goodall and others for over 50 years at some sites.

According to WCS Uganda, these studies have shown that they are very like humans, have infants every 3-4 years, become sexually mature at around 9-12 and are one of the few animal species to regularly use tools. For instance they fashion different tools to break open termite colonies or bee hives and then to fish out the termites or honey.

Eastern chimpanzee numbers are highest in the DRC but Uganda is home to a sizeable population estimated at about 5,000 individuals according to surveys WCS led with the Jane Goodall Institute in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Research stations that continue to study chimpanzees in Uganda include: The Budongo Conservation Forest Station (BCFS) in Budongo Forest Reserve, the Makerere University Biological Field Station (MUBFS) in Kibale National Park, and the Institute for Tropical Forest Conservation (ITFC) in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Much of what we know about chimpanzee biology comes from research at these stations, together with those in Tanzania (Gombe and Mahale). WCS conservation scientist, Andrew Plumptre, has surveyed populations of Eastern chimpanzees in most of the countries where they occur. He estimates that there are 5,000 in Uganda, 2,700 in Tanzania, 350 in Rwanda and 450 in Burundi. It is clear that after the DRC, Uganda has the largest numbers of this subspecies of chimpanzee.

Main threats to chimpanzees in Uganda

Chimpanzees face different threats depending on where they occur in Uganda. In the National Parks and Central Forest Reserves the main threat comes from accidental snaring in wire snares that have been set for ungulates. Snares such as these can maim or kill individuals.Estimates in Budongo Forest and Kibale NP show that about 20% of all individuals have been maimed in some way from snares.

Chimpanzees at the edge of Protected Areas can be targeted because of crop raiding activities. Many have been speared or caught in leg-hold traps that are set to deter them. Where chimpanzees occur outside protected areas they are vulnerable from habitat loss to agriculture as human populations expand.  Disease is also a potential threat with studies in Kibale NP showing that the gut parasites of chimpanzees are very similar to those found in the people living near National Parks or interacting with them as tour guides or researchers.

Let’s quickly browse through chimps fact list you may need to know;

The List of Chimpanzee Facts

• Chimpanzees are our closest living relative because we share all but 1.4% of our DNA with chimps. Chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than to gorillas or orangutans.
• Chimpanzee habitat has been severely depleted. Chimpanzees used to live in 25 countries throughout tropical Africa, in an area almost the size of the United States. Today, chimpanzees are extinct in five of those countries and endangered in five others.
• Fifty years ago, there were probably a million chimpanzees living in Africa. Today, chimpanzees are an endangered species, with as few as 170,000 left in the wild.
• Nearly 2,000 chimpanzees live in the United States. Approximately 850 chimpanzees live in research laboratories. About 250 chimps are located in accredited zoos, 600 live in sanctuaries, and 250 are in private hands, such as the entertainment industry, unaccredited “roadside” zoos, and the pet trade. For more information on where captive chimpanzees are living in the US, visit www.chimpcare.org.
• In the wild, chimpanzees live in large groups of 15 to 120 individuals. They communicate with one another through a complex, subtle system of vocalizations, facial expressions, body postures, and gestures.
• Chimpanzees in the wild have different cultures. That is, different groups of chimpanzees that live in different parts of Africa have unique behaviors, tools, and traditions that are passed down from generation to generation.
• In their natural habitats, chimpanzees are known to use plants with medicinal value to self-medicate themselves.
• The time a female chimpanzee is pregnant, known as the gestation period, is 230-260 days.
• At birth, a chimpanzee weighs about four pounds and has a white tuft of fur on his/her rump.
• Like human infants, newborn chimpanzees are entirely dependent on their mothers for warmth, protection, transportation, and nourishment.
• In their natural habitat, chimpanzees nurse for 5 years. During this time, they learn what to eat and what to avoid by watching their mothers and other adult chimpanzees.
• Chimpanzees begin wandering short distances from their mothers at about 8 months of age.
• Chimpanzees enter adulthood at about 13 years of age. Chimpanzee mothers may enjoy life-long bonds with their adult sons and daughters.
• Chimpanzees make and use tools, such as stones to crack nuts, twigs to probe for insects or honey, spears to hunt small mammals, and wads of crumbled leaves to sponge drinking water from hard-to-reach places.
• Some chimpanzees have learned to “talk” using American Sign Language, symbols, and computer graphics. Some have even combined signs to come up with new words. When the famous sign language chimpanzee, Washoe, first saw a swan, she called it a “water bird.”
• Chimpanzees, like humans, use facial expressions to convey emotions.
• Chimpanzees have emotions similar to those we call joy, anger, grief, sorrow, pleasure, boredom, and depression. They also comfort and reassure one another by kissing and embracing.
• Adult chimps are estimated to be at least twice as strong, and perhaps even seven times as strong, as humans. This trait is one of the reasons that people who have chimps as pets often end up giving their chimp to an organization like Save the Chimps.
• Chimpanzees have 32 teeth.
• Chimpanzees’ body temperature is the same as humans, at 98.6 degrees.
• Standing upright on two legs, a chimpanzee may reach over 4 feet in height, and weigh more than 150 lbs.
• Even though chimpanzees’ habitat is often near water, chimps cannot swim, due to the structure and density of their bodies.
• A chimpanzee’s senses of sight, taste, and hearing are similar to those of humans.
• Like humans, chimpanzees eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Chimpanzees not only have opposable thumbs, like humans, but they also have opposable big toes, so they can grab things with their hands and their feet.
• While humans have blood types A, B, O, and AB, chimps have only A or O.
• Many older captive chimpanzees suffer from cardiac disease and take the same medications that humans take for heart conditions.
• Chimpanzees can live for more than 50 years. This is another reason why chimps who were purchased as pets often end up at sanctuaries.

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