10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CHIMPANZEES- MAHALE AND GOMBE NATIONAL PARKS, TANZANIA

1. Chimpanzees are one of our closest living relatives. In fact, humans and chimpanzees share 95 to 98 percent of the same DNA!
    
2. Chimpanzees make and use tools. In fact, they use more tools for more purposes than any other creature except human beings 
3. Chimpanzees develop lifelong family bonds, particularly between mother and child. Mothers and dependent young (up to age seven or so) are always together.
    
4. Chimpanzees can currently be found in 21 African countries. The greatest concentration of chimpanzees is in the rain forests of what used to be the equatorial forest “belt.”
    
5. Chimpanzees are omnivores, which mean they eat fruits, nuts, seeds, blossoms and leaves, as well as many kinds of insects and occasionally medium-sized animals.
    
6. Chimpanzees communicate in many ways, most notably through sounds and calls. They also communicate with each other through touch, facial expressions and body language.
    
7. Chimpanzees are knuckle walkers, which means they walk on all fours using their knuckles for support when they are on the ground or even when they are up in trees.
    
8. Chimpanzee habitat is rapidly disappearing as human activity increases in the areas where chimpanzees live. Some of the causes for habitat loss include the conversion of land into agriculture, competition for natural resources such as firewood, commercial logging and mining.
    
9. Chimpanzees can catch and be infected with a number of human diseases.
    
10. Chimpanzees are endangered. At the turn of the 20th century, they numbered between 1 and 2 million. Now there are estimated to be fewer than 300,000 chimpanzees remaining in the wild
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