98.76% Chimp

Happy Saturday! Yay weekend. I have no idea what those are, but i'm sure some of you out there have a day off today so I hope you are doing something fun, or at least nothing at all. I'm a firm believer in taking one day every once in a while to completely shut down. Turn off everything electronic, nap, and spend time outside. So, DO THAT if you are out of things to do. 

         One brief note: I do not claim to know everything about everything chimpanzee. While it is my area of study, and I have read more books than I can count on chimps, evolution, etc I am still learning every day. If anything I say here interests you, I highly encourage you to look it up and learn more. (or send me an email on it and I can give a more detailed blog post after I do some reading up myself. ) 

My first blog post is about 98.76%. A pretty high percentage, like the best I ever did on a test ever. In high school. College was hard okay? jeez. 98.76% is how much genetic material we share with pan troglodytes. aka chimpanzees. We share more DNA with chimps than African and Asian elephants do, which as a statistic BLEW MY FRIGGIN MIND. Seriously though. (African and Asian elephants share something like 96-97% DNA but don't quote me on that. you know, the next time someone asks you about African and Asian elephants.)

 I choose to say I am 98.76 chimp. As you can probably tell from our outsides, that 1ish% leftover makes a huge difference. There are many things outside of our genetic makeup that tie us together. SUCH AS:

TOOL USE. by far the biggest and most shocking discovery to many primatologists and scientists around the world. Tool use was one of the huge last things on the list of what separates us from ape, and once Jane Goodall discovered chimpanzees using tools to catch food, everyone's world was flipped. Many males in the science world stepped forward and called bullshit on Jane's research because of course animals can use tools. What makes us human is that we take things and turn them into tools. We create things out of other things, which no animals in the kingdom have been able to do. So Jane was like WHATEVS GUYS and then observed a chimp break a branch off of a tree, take the leaves and twigs that were attached and rip them off, and use it to catch the termites. Thus, creating a tool that was once unusable. BOOM ROASTED.

LANGUAGE USE: Studies at Central Washington University (wanna give me a masters? OH YES YOU DO) with Washoe (WASH-OH), a chimpanzee who was raised with humans and taught sign language showed the chimpanzees ability to learn and use a formally only human language. And of course, some people said "well of course she can copy exactly what you are signing, that doesn't mean she is learning the language." So then studies were recorded of Washoe learning and forming HER OWN sentences that caregivers had not used in front of her before. BOOM ROASTED AGAIN. But again, that to some people still wasn't good enough. So, when Washoe became pregnant, and the researchers decided to not sign in front of her child at all, to see if Washoe would teach her son Loulis (LOO-LIS) any of the signs she had learned. What happened you as? SHE TAUGHT LOULIS SIGN LANGUAGE. No humans needed man, Washoe was a single mama teaching her baby how to ask for chase and play all on her own. Once again, roasting everyone who said it couldn't be done. SUCKAS. 

 

Loulis (left) and Washoe

More things we share are things like, our gestation periods, both chimps and humans are pregnant for 9 months, typically giving birth to 1 baby, twins have occurred in chimp births. 
We share 10 digits on our hands and feet. 
We both fall under the great ape category (with gorillas, orangutans, bonobos-who are typically included with chimpanzees, as there are only 3 species of great apes)
Our social habits- CHIMPS GOSSIP TOO. They just do it in a different way. :) 
We are both omnivores- MEATS AND PLANTS FOR DINNER HUNNY. 

SO, with that 98.76% when I'm working at the sanctuary I feel like I'm looking at my grandma, or my cousin. Especially Negra, who is the oldest chimp at the sanctuary and has the exact same mannerisms as my grandma. Stoic and only making vocalizations when she REALLY wants to be heard, I can't help but recognize that she is my elder, and give her the most respect I can. Which is also why I believe in stopping medical testing on chimps. BUT THAT'S FOR ANOTHER POST.

phew. was that a lot? Felt like it. Hope I didn't overwhelm. THERE'S JUST SO MUCH GOOD SHIT TO LEARN GUYS. Totes. Off to rehearsal.

-b.