Chimpanzee

Family : Panina

Genus : Pan

Chimpanzee is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan : The better known chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes living in west and central Africa. The second specie is Pan paniscus, living in the forest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Diet:

Chimpanzees are omnivore therefore they mainly eat fruits, insects, honey but also some kind of birds and little mammals.

Physical description:

An adult male chimpanzee can weigh from 35-70 kilograms and stand about 1 metre tall, while females usually weigh 26-50 kg and stand at the most 1 metre.

They are black-haired apes with a pale rose face which distinguish them from Bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.

Habitat:

Chimpanzees mainly live in a forest environment in which trees turn into a protection against predators (particularly humans). However during their all life chimpanzees move but always among a restricted area. They form communities of more or less 100 individuals including a dominant male.

Apart from humans, the main predator representing a real danger for chimpanzee is snake.

They rarely live past the age of 40 in the wild but in captivity they are able to reach more than 60.

Abilities:

Chimpanzees aren't able to swim.

They use tools made with branches and stones. This last characteristic bring Humans and chimpanzees together.

Many scientist are working in laboratory with chimpanzees which developed real abilities to learn various languages.

Character:

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Reproduction:
Female chimpanzee is viviparous.

Gorilla

Family: Pongidae
Genus: Gorilla

Gorillas are divided into two species, each one divided into four subspecies:
Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) :
-Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
-Cross river gorilla (Gorilla beringei dielhi)
Eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei):
-Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
-Eastern lowland gorilla ( Gorilla beringei graueri)

Living place:
Western Africa: Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic (about 40,000 and 80,000 western lowland gorillas
Southern nigeria (about 250 cross river gorillas)
Eastern Africa: eastern Democratic Republic of Congo(12,000 eastern lowland gorillas)
Bwindi forest, Ouganda (about 600 mountain gorillas)

Habitat: Gorilla live in tropical or subtropical forests . Lowland Gorillas live in dense forests and lowland swamps and marshes whereas mountain gorilla inhabits the forests situated in altitude from 2225 to 4267 m.

Physical description: Gorilla walks on his knuckle. Gorilla males can reach 1.70 height on average and weigh from 140 to 200 kg.
As for Gorilla females, they are around 1,40 tall and weigh 100 kg.
Their coat depends on age and sex, even though adults have a clearly silver back.

Diet: Gorillas are folivores and eat especially leaves and vegetative matter, although they also eat smaller amounts of fruits, roots and insects. However lowland gorillas are foli-frugivores and eat more fruit, and more insects, than mountain gorillas. Gorilla spends most of his time eating.

Lifespan and reproduction: In general, their lifespan is between 35-50 years. Gestation lasts 8 and a half months and the children keep leaving with their mother until 3-4 years old. During her life, each female gives birth to 6 or 8 babies. Gorilla becomes adult when he is 12.

Group life: The most important figure in a group is the silverback. This adult male gorilla is the group leader and so, he is the one who takes all the decisions. What's more, he establishs a harem which he keeps all along his life. As female gorilla reachs adult age, she splits up with the group to find an other one.

More informations: Gorilla spends more time on earth than the other Great Apes. He often builds his nest on the floor.
We estimate that only 110 000 gorillas are still alive.
Thanks to specialist's work, some gorillas have developped a mean to communicate with human being: for instance koko who has learned sign language for 25 years.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla - 93k

Great Apes through the world

We can see on this map that Great Apes are only present in a small part of the world.

There are around 65,000 Orangutans living on the planet. Between 45,000 and 69,000 live in Borneo, the third largest island on the world located between the south China sea and the Java sea and 6000 live in Sumatra, a large island of Indonesia.

Around 10,000 Bonobos live in the humid forests of the Democratic Republic Of Congo of central Africa.

We can find 12,000 Chimpanzees in West Africa, 83,000 in Central Africa and 13,000 in the East of Africa. Chimpanzee is the Great Apes including the most of individuals.

To finish, 120,000 Gorillas live in Western Africa and 12,000 Gorillas live in Eastern Africa.

Phylogenetic tree

This is the phylogenetic tree which remembers the parenty degrees between hominoid family, including our own specie.