What’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys?! Hanging out with chimpanzees!
This is our home away from home while chimp trekking in Tanzania, Africa. It’s a tent…. inside a house with no walls! I can hear the nocturnal animals munching on the grass during the night.
Looking for chimps. They sleep in the trees at night. They’re up and around during the day – sometimes on the ground, and sometimes up in the trees.
May I join you for breakfast?
Gosh, what a messy eater! Just THINK of the mess he’d make eating bird seed!
This fella is BIG!!! Want to know an interesting fact? Chimpanzees, like this one, are apes (not monkeys). They have no tails. (Orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos are also apes. That’s right, they don’t have a tail either.)
Chimps and humans are similar in many ways because we have evolved from the same family. We are both “primates”. Chimps have both opposable thumbs (like ours) AND opposable toes! How cool is that!?!
Premus is the name of the “alpha male” in this chimp community. That means he’s the boss, and the other chimps have to do what he says. Watch the video. He’s coming down the path right towards me! He sure LOOKS like he’s in charge!
Pedicure, anyone?!?
Hey, little fellas! Wanna play?
Baby chimps just wanna have fun!
This is Jane Goodall’s house. Dr. Anthony Collins now lives here. He and other researchers (like the college student in the photo) continue to learn about the chimps and the other animals in the ecosystem here in the Gombe valley.
Dr. Collins was very nice, and invited us into the house for a cup of tea and a chat. Here’s a picture of the living room table. Jane’s house is made of concrete. It’s very basic, not fancy, just as Jane wanted it. There’s a lot of cool stuff inside, like books about animals, animal skulls, shells, and rocks from the lake shore.
Dr. Collins also gave us a tour of the house. Here is Jane’s bedroom. She is older now (in her 80’s), and spends her time travelling the world, asking people to take care of the environment so the chimps’ habitat can survive. She lives in England, but still visits her chimps at Gombe twice a year. When she does, she stays here in her house.
All of the staff at the two camping sites where we stayed were so very nice to us! Ramadan, the fellow to the left of Ms. Christie-Blick, guided us through the jungle to find the chimps. It’s been an AMAZING experience!
If YOU want to go chimp trekking, you need to go to Africa. Chimpanzees are found in the wild in only a few countries on this continent. We went to the country of Tanzania in Africa. People have to be at least 16 years old to go chimp trekking (for safety reasons). You DO have to be willing to spend hours hiking through the jungle to find the chimps. Little birds can sneak in, in a backpack. 🙂
that is so cool! I bet Chirpy had a good time.
Chimps are so cute i wish i was there in person to see.
Bella: The house you stayed in was so cool.The chimp in the tree was eating like a pig. The apes was so big we would of not even went close to it. Its interesting that we are related to chimps. The baby chimps were so cute I wish I could get one. I love Jane Goodalls house I wish I could live there. I´m definitely going to Tanzania
Olivia: I always thought that chimpanzees were monkeys. In one of the pictures the chimps hands and our hands are so alike. The chimps hands look like a humans hand , with lots of hair. 😉
Chimps are so fascinating! It was so cute watching the baby chimps play. I wish I could see real life chimps!:)
It’s very interesting how when the alpha was walking down a baby chimp was holding onto him! I can’t believe you were given a tour of Jane Goodall’s house! Also, I never knew that someone still lives in Jane Goodall’s house.
Hey Chirpy! Seeing the chimps was so cool! The baby chimpanzees were very cute, I can believe that we evolved from them. 😉 Jane Goodall’s house was so simple, but I like it. Her house looked very safe, and it looked like she was out in the jungle, more than she was in her house. The baby chimpanzees looked more like human, than the adult chimpanzees. The chimpanzee, that was eating, was very messy. I wish I could see those chimps in person.
We are very interested by the Chimps. Their habits are quite like ours, their eating habits are very similar to us (especially those of a boy).
I never knew that premus was the name of “alpha.” I wish I could go there. It looks amazing.
We thought this blog page very interesting.
Arpi- I thought it was interesting that there was a tent inside a house.
Sam- Jane Goodall’s house is so cool! I love how her house is basic not fancy. I’d like to live in a house like hers! The baby chimps were so cute! But that chimp in the tree was a very messy eater!
We thought the videos from Tanzania were incredible. It seems as the chimpanzees thought the humans were one among them, because they didn’t mind their presentz. Also, it was stunning to see Jane Goodall’s house. She lived such a simple house but she made huge impact.
I would love living in one of those houses! The apes are amazing! They are smart, AND messy! I think that’s why they evolved into us!
I thought the chimp eating the food was very cool and funny. I never new that the alpha could walk on his 4 legs I didn’t know any of the chimps could. It’s very cool I learned a lot from this
I thought those pictures were amazing! I would love living in those houses. Apes are amazing creatures, and smart, i guess that’s why they evolved into us!
We both thought that the chimp eating his food was very fascinating and funny. We thought that it was cool that Premus could walk on all 4 legs and how tall he was.
I did not know that the alpha male was called the Premus. I really hope to go chimp trekking one day
Jenna: I never knew that chimps had such bad manners! 🙂 I wish I was there! 😉
Juliana: I never knew that chimps came so close to humans. I would expect them to be more violent. 😉
Wow! I never knew that chimps were so amazing! Now I really want to go to Tanzania !!!
I learned that chimpanzees are very similar to us humans. They have a body a lot like ours, and have very similar body parts. They have a very interesting life style like climbing on their mother’s back.
SO COOL! We want to go chimp tracking too!
we saw so many chimps and learned that they move so much like humans and they have human features and opposable thumbs and toes. We think this is so cool!
I did not know how comfortable and calm they can be around humans! They really look careless! 🙂
WoW. It is incredible how much those chimps act like humans. It must have very been exciting to see them up close like that.
I want to play with habutated chimps
We agree! It must have been sticky, hot, and had lot of bugs, though! 🙂 We really want to do this now, it looks like sooooooooo much fun!!!!!!
it must of been so much fun looking for chimps in Tarzania!!