Essay On Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees are described as humans’ nearest relatives in the animals’ world. There are two species of these intelligent apes and both share about 99 per cent of their DNA with humans, which means that genetically they have more in common with human than with gorillas or orangutans. However, chimpanzees are described based on four major characteristics which are the physical, living behavior, feeding behavior and reproductive behavior (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).

The first major characteristic of chimpanzees is the physical description. Chimpanzees have a body adapted for living both in trees and on the ground. Their arms are longer than the legs and are much stronger than human’s arms. In addition, chimpanzees have longer fingers compared to human’s fingers. All of these features make chimpanzees spend most of their time climb and swing among trees (Beatty, Beer, Green, & Taylor, 2008). According to Mcdonald (2006), chimpanzees have brains that at 300-400cc (18-24cu in). Besides that, male chimpanzees are 10-20 percent larger than females and are considerably stronger. They also have larger canine teeth, which are their main weapons. Otherwise, males and females have similar body proportions. In addition, height of male chimpanzees is about 77-92cm, while female chimpanzees are about 70-85cm (Mcdonald, 2006). Beatty et al. (2008) state that weight of male chimpanzees is about 200 pounds (90kg), while female chimpanzees are about 176 pounds (80kg). Moreover, coat of chimpanzees are mainly black, but often turn to gray on back after 20 years.

The second characteristic of chimpanzees is their living behaviour. The living behaviour is divided into two sections which are based on their habitat and social. According to Freeland...

... middle of paper ...

... a female to a particular location of their territory within several days to more than one month. During this time, they try to avoid other males and stay on their own.

Chimpanzees do not have a regular breeding season (Laidler, 2009). Around thirteen years old, a female chimpanzee is ready to mate (Beatty et al., 2008). Average pregnancy of a female chimpanzee is around 230 to 240 days or 7.5 months (Beatty et al., 2008; Laidler, 2009; Muller & Wrangham, 2009). As Laidler (2009) mentioned, “a female’s reproductive cycle lasts 36 days, and her anogenital region undergoes periodic swelling and reduction in line with her fertility”. The new born offspring weighs around 2 kilograms and it is heavily dependent on its mother for a long period, about four years and during this time, the mother does not resume her regular cycling. (Laidler, 2009; Muller & Wrangham, 2009)