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Chimpanzee Factsheet

Conservation StatusIUCN Red Data List

Where found

Robust chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
The robust chimpanzee has a wide but discontinuous distribution in Equatorial Africa, in about 21 countries from Senegal in the west to Tanzania in the east. They are divided into four sub species:

Eastern chimpanzee (P. t. schweinfurthii)
Occurs in eastern Central African Republic (CAR), extreme south-west Sudan, east of the Ubangi River and south to the Equator in the DRC, western Uganda, the Nyungwe forest and the Gishwati forest in Rwanda, Burundi and in the extreme west of Tanzania. Their population ranges between 76,000- 120,000

Central chimpanzee (P. t. troglodytes)
Occurs fairly widely in southern Cameroon south of the Sanaga River, the western part of the Central African Republic, Southwards, the subspecies occurs in two areas of Equatorial Guinea. It is widespread throughout Gabon and the northern part of the Republic of the Congo north of the Equator. It also occurs fairly widely in the Kouilou basin in the southern Congo and an isolated locality near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) .The southernmost localities are in the Cabinda Enclave of Angola and in the extreme west of DRC, just north of the Congo River .The geographic range of the subspecies is about 695,000 km² in area and their population numbers 70,000- 117,000 .

Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (P. t. vellerosus)
Occurs in southern Nigeria in small, highly fragmented populations and along the border with Cameroon. Their population numbers 5,000 - 8,000

Western chimpanzee (P.t. verus)
Occurs as one more or less continuous population southwards and eastwards from southeast Senegal, into southwest Mali and southern Guinea-Bissau. The sub species occurs more or less throughout Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, much of Côte d'Ivoire and extends into southwest Ghana. Their population numbers 21,000 - 56,000

Habitat
Chimpanzees live in a variety of habitats, from humid evergreen forests, through mosaic woodlands and deciduous forest. To dry savannah woodlands.

Diet
They eat a wide variety of foods: fruits, flowers, seeds, young leaves, algae, mushrooms, honey, and a variety of small mammals (particularly monkeys) and invertebrates.

Numbers surviving
The chimpanzee population in total is estimated to range from 172,000 to 301,000 with downward trends in many of the sites surveyed.

Threats
Deforestation, hunting for the commercial bushmeat trade, killing the adults to capture the infants

Organisations involved in their conservation
Jane Goodall Institute
Center for Great Apes
Project Primate Inc.
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance

 

Photos on this website courtesy of William Calvin, Jeff Canin, Aleisha Caruso, Debby Cox, Furuichi c/o JGI Uganda, Kris Descovich, Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary, Tony Gilding, Selby King, Carlos Schuler, Jodie Sheridan

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