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Baboon & Gorilla Skeletons

"BUSHMEAT"

Chimpanzees are native to Equatorial Africa, and once roamed in their millions across 25 countries in West, Central and East Africa. But relentless poaching and habitat destruction has reduced the wild population to an estimated 150,000, and only limited legislation exists in a few nations to protect them.

Chimpanzees continue to be hunted down and poached in their hundreds each year. The illegal hunting and subsequent sale of primate meat -- known as "bushmeat" -- is a thriving commercial enterprise and is on the increase with the depletion of forests. Any chimpanzee babies who survive the hunting ordeal are sold as pets, zoo animals, or circus performers, while others are sold for medical research.


Chimpanzees are not only fruit eaters!

One of the first and most significant discoveries made by Jane Goodale was that chimpanzees hunt for and eat meat. During her first year she observed a male chimp, David Graybeard, an adult female, and a juvenile eating what Jane realized was a young bushpig. Before this, it had been assumed that chimpanzees ate only fruit and leaves.


On that first occasion it was not clear whether the chimpanzees had caught and killed the prey, or merely come upon a carcass. But a short time later Jane actually observed the hunting process when a group of chimpanzees attacked, killed, and ate a red colobus monkey that had climbed high into a tree. The hunters covered all available escape routes while one adolescent male crept up after the prey and captured it, whereupon the other males instantly rushed up and seized parts of the carcass.

Successful hunters typically share some portion of their kill with other group members in response to a variety of begging behaviors. Most of the captured animal is eaten, including the brain. Meat is a favored food item among chimpanzees, but does not make up more than two percent of their overall diet.

Primate Characteristics


Primates include porcelains, monkeys, apes, and humans. All primates share the following characteristics:

  • Hair instead of claws
  • Ad of fur
  • Nails insert
  • Opposable thumb and big toe (thumb/big toe can touch all other digits; the exception is humans in which the big toe is modified for bipedal walking)
  • Ability to grasp with fingers and/or toes
  • Five digits on each hand
  • Padded digits with fingerprints
  • Reduced olfactory sense and dependent on vision more than smell
  • Stereoscopic vision– forward rotation of eye with protective bony structure
  • Binocular vision– both eyes focus on one object, giving depth perception
  • Higher brain to body size ratio– high level of intelligence