Common Chimpanzee - Ecology

Ecology

The common chimpanzee is a highly adaptable species. It lives in a variety of habitats, including dry savanna, evergreen rainforest, montane forest, swamp forest, and dry woodland-savanna mosaic. In Gombe, the chimpanzee lives in subalpine moorland, open woodland, semideciduous forest, evergreen forest, and grassland with scattered trees. At Bossou, the chimpanzee inhabits multistage secondary deciduous forests, which have grown after shifting cultivation, as well as primary forests and grasslands. At Taï, it can be found in the last remaining tropical rainforest in Côte d'Ivoire.

The chimpanzee has an advanced cognitive maps of its home range and can repeatedly find food. The chimpanzee makes a night nest in a tree in a new location every night, with every chimpanzee in a separate nest other than infants or small chimpanzees, which sleep with their mothers. When confronted by a predator, the chimpanzee will react with loud screams and use any object it can against the threat. Leopard predation is apparently a significant cause of mortality in chimpanzees at Taï and Lopé National Parks.

In some cases, the common chimpanzee has been documented killing leopard cubs, an act which primarily seems to be a protective effort. Lions may have also preyed on the chimpanzees at Mahale Mountains National Park, where at least four chimpanzees could have fallen prey to them. Although no other instances of lion predation on chimpanzees have been recorded, the larger group sizes of savanna chimps may have developed as a response to threats from these big cats. Isolated cases of cannibalism have also been documented.