Chimpanzees
Laugh, Cry, Kill, and Grieve Much Like We Do
September 06, 2014
Story at-a-glance
Chimpanzees and humans are remarkably similar, sharing about
99 percent of our DNA (that makes chimpanzees our closest
living relatives)
Like humans, chimps live in social communities, can walk
upright on two legs, use tools, and can adapt to different
environments
Chimpanzees grieve like humans, laugh, help others, and even
carry out brutal raids to expand their territory
Chimpanzees are innovative and will come up with different
ways to accomplish goals, depending on what resources are
available
Today there are only an estimated 170,000 to 300,000 chimps
left in Africa, making them an endangered species.
By Dr. Becker
Chimpanzees and humans are remarkably similar, sharing about
99 percent of our DNA.1
That makes chimpanzees our closest living relatives (along with
bonobos, which were formerly called pygmy chimpanzees and also
share more than 98 percent of their DNA with us). Like humans,
chimps live in social communities and can adapt to different
environments, such as African rain forests and grasslands.
They can also walk upright on two legs (although they
typically walk on all-fours), and though they usually stick to a
diet of fruit and plants, they consume some meat (as well as
eggs and insects) on occasion.
Other similarities? Chimpanzees make tools, such as using
stones to open nuts or leaves to soak up drinking water. They
can also learn sign language and reach reproductive age in a
similar timeframe to humans -- 13 (for females) and 16 (for
males).2
What else is intriguing about chimps? Quite a bit, actually.
Discovery News recently compiled six shocking facts
about chimpanzees that, in addition to satisfying your
intellectual appetite, make great conversation points for your
next dinner party (or trip to the water cooler).3
6 Facts About Chimps You Probably Don't Know
1. Chimps Can Be Cold-Blooded Killers
Packs of male chimps sometimes carry out "brutal raids"
on other groups of chimps, for the purpose of expanding
their territory (which means they get more land, extra food,
and also increased access to females). When carrying out
such raids, the chimps are said to move purposefully and
"with stealth."
2. Male Chimps Have Spines on Their Penises
The purpose is most likely to increase stimulation during
mating… and human males apparently had similar spines at one
point, too.
3. Chimps Are Innovative
Chimps not only create tools, but different chimps will
come up with different ways to accomplish goals, depending
on what resources are available. For example, three groups
of chimpanzees used eight different innovative methods of
opening hard-shelled monkey oranges:
Banging them against a tree
Banging them against a rock
Nibbling a hole in them
Throwing them
Using teeth to break the shell
Smacking the fruits together
Stomping on them
Peeling them
4. Chimps Laugh
Many animals laugh, including chimps, rats, and puppies.
If you tickle a chimp, he may very well laugh (not that I
recommend doing so!), and he'll likely laugh at other
situations that would also draw laughter from humans.
According to Discovery News:4
"Their laughter comes in the same sorts of
situations as humans, sounds like a human and they laugh
more than we do, since they can do it while inhaling AND
exhaling."
5. Chimps Help Others
Chimps will share tools with other chimps or physically
assist them on projects. And, once they've helped out a pal
one time, they're known to continue doing so about 97
percent of the time.
6. Chimps Grieve
Chimps face death and dying in much the same way as
humans, holding vigil over chimps who are dying (including
both touching and grooming them) and grieving once they are
gone.
NIH Ended Use of Most Chimps in Research in 2013
In 2011, the Institute of Medicine declared that invasive
medical research on chimps could no longer be justified, and
many countries around the world have already stopped the
practice. In fact, the US is the only country that owns
chimpanzees for research.
Fortunately, last year the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) took an important step toward a "more compassionate era,"
noting that chimps "deserve special respect."5
Plans were made to
retire 400 of its approximately 450 chimps, some of which
had been in used in laboratory research for 50 years. According
to the recommendation, the remaining chimps would be maintained
for possible future use, but with changes to their housing to be
implemented over the next five years. In addition, three guiding
principles will be used to assess the need for chimps in
biomedical and behavioral research studies in the future:
The knowledge gained must be necessary to advance the
public's health.
There must be no other research model by which the
knowledge could be obtained, and the research cannot be
ethically performed on human subjects.
The animals used in the proposed research must be
maintained either in ethologically appropriate physical and
social environments or in natural habitats.
The criteria for evaluating the need for chimpanzees for
biomedical research would ensure the following standards are
met:
There is no other suitable model available, such as in
vitro, nonhuman in vivo, or other models, for the research
in question.
The research in question cannot be performed ethically
on human subjects.
Forgoing the use of chimpanzees for the research in
question will significantly slow or prevent important
advancements to prevent, control, and/or treat
life-threatening or debilitating conditions.
Advances in alternate research tools have rendered
chimpanzees essentially unnecessary as research subjects, and
the new criteria effectively closed 16 research projects that
had been underway.
Chimpanzees Are an Endangered Species
Millions of chimpanzees used to live and roam freely in
Africa, but today there are only an estimated 170,000 to 300,000
chimps left in the area, making them an
endangered species. According to some estimates, the chimp
population living on the Ivory Coast has decreased by 90 percent
in the last two decades, and their numbers continue to dwindle,
due to habitat destruction, hunting, and disease.6
As reported by SavetheChimps.org:7
"The increasing human population is encroaching ever
deeper into even protected areas of chimpanzee habitats, and
large scale logging is now a major threat to the forest
primates of Africa. Subsistence hunting of chimpanzees as a
source of meat is nothing new, but there is now a thriving
but unsustainable commercial market for bushmeat (the meat
of wild animals), including chimpanzees.
Increased contact with humans, both local people and
eco-tourists, has also brought the threat of diseases which
may be mild in humans but lethal to chimps."
The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) is working in Africa to
help manage protected areas and protect chimps from further
destruction by:8
Protecting chimpanzees through anti-poaching and
effective law enforcement
Helping governments establish and manage national parks
Monitoring chimpanzee populations
Encouraging sustainable use of forest resources in park
buffer zones
Building trans-boundary collaboration to develop
partnerships between neighboring countries
If you'd like to get involved, WWF has a (symbolic) "adopt a
chimpanzee" program to help support its conservation efforts and
protect chimps from extinction.
Are Dogs Even More Like Humans Than Chimps?
Dogs share far more of their DNA with wolves than they do
with humans, yet because dogs have lived among humans for so
long and undergone so much domestication, some believe they're
more like humans than even chimps -- and could serve as a
model for understanding human social behavior. One study even
argued that dogs should serve as the "new chimpanzees" in
comparative studies designed to shed light on human uniqueness.9
That study found dogs exhibit all three of the primary social
behaviors as humans, including:
Sociality: Organizing into groups where
members show loyalty and reduced aggression to one another.
Synchronization: Sharing social rules
and emotions, which leads to stronger group unity.
Constructive activity: Individuals
within a group cooperate and communicate with each other to
achieve goals.
Dogs can even tell the difference between rational and
irrational human communication. It's just one more demonstration
of humans' close ties to the species around us, and more
justification of why so many of us choose to surround ourselves
with animals (not that we needed any!).