---
title: "37 Interesting Facts About Chimpanzees"
url: https://www.kickassfacts.com/chimpanzee-facts/
date: 2017-10-13
modified: 2017-10-13
lang: en
author: "jazz"
description: "Here are 37 interesting Chimpanzee facts. 1-5 Chimpanzee Facts 1. Washoe (chimpanzee) was the first non-human to use Amercian Sign Language. When Washoe's caretaker returned to work after a miscarriage,..."
categories:
  - "Animals & Plants"
  - "Fact List"
image: https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Chimpanzee.jpg
word_count: 1189
---

# 37 Interesting Facts About Chimpanzees

Here are 37 interesting Chimpanzee facts.

## 1-5 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Washoe_chimpanzee.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Washoe_chimpanzee.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

1. Washoe (chimpanzee) was the first non-human to use Amercian Sign Language. When Washoe's caretaker returned to work after a miscarriage, Washoe ignored her. The caretaker then signed "My Baby Died", to which Washoe replied "Cry", simulating a tear running down the caretaker's face. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee)#Self-awareness_and_emotion)

2. In 1974, Jane Goodall observed a social rift in a community of chimpanzees turn into a violent 4-year civil war for territory involving kidnapping, rape & murder, changing her perception of chimpanzees, it is known as the “Gombe Chimpanzee War”. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War)

3. A couple adopted a chimpanzee which learned to open doors, use keys, get dresses, water the [plants](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-kickass-and-interesting-facts-about-plants/), feed the [horses](https://www.kickassfacts.com/fascinating-horse-facts/), use a computer and drive their [car](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-kickass-and-interesting-facts-about-cars/) too. But when he was 14 yrs old, he brutally attacked a family friend totally disfiguring her. - [Source](http://emadion.it/en/accidents/animal-attacks/travis-the-chimpanzee-who-disfigured-a-woman/)

4. A chimpanzee has been observed wearing a piece of grass into her ear, with no apparent function. After other members of her group started imitating her, researchers realized to be in presence of the first fashion statement observed in other animals. - [Source](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/animal-fashion-some-chimps-are-putting-grass-ears-and-nobody-knows-why-180951888/?no-ist=)

5. During a 1964 hoax, a Swedish journalist exhibited paintings done by a chimpanzee under the name Pierre Brassau. The journalist was testing whether critics could tell the difference between true avant-garde modern artwork and a chimpanzee's work. They could not, and in fact, praised the works. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Brassau)

## 6-10 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Western-chimpanzee.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Western-chimpanzee.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

6. The Western Chimpanzee displays very unique, humanlike behavior, making spears to hunt other primates, living in caves, diving in [water](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-water/) for fun, and sharing plant food with each other. This has never been seen in any other chimpanzee species. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_chimpanzee#Unique_behavior)

7. When chimpanzee infants die, the mothers will continue to carry and groom the dead bodies until the mothers are able to move on. - [Source](http://www.juesatta.com/chimpanzee-mothers-carry-their-mummified-dead-infants/)

8. The last Chimpanzee-Human common ancestor lived up to 6,000,000 years ago. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee%E2%80%93human_last_common_ancestor)

9. The most accepted theory on how AIDS was first transmitted to humans is that a Bantu hunter while processing a newly killed, and infected, chimpanzee, got cut himself and got the animal's blood into his body. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ga%C3%ABtan_Dugas)

10. There was a chimpanzee who drank gin and tonics and masturbated to porn. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(chimpanzee)#section_4)

## 11-15 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Bubbles_the_chimpanzee.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Bubbles_the_chimpanzee.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

11. Bubbles, Michael Jackson's pet chimpanzee, attempted [suicide](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-suicide-facts/) after being removed from Neverland Ranch for being too aggressive. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbles_(chimpanzee)#Bubbles.27s_relocations)

12. In 1990, a man jumped into a Detroit Zoo Chimpanzee enclosure to rescue a drowning chimpanzee. - [Source](https://youtu.be/eqbclCNRiPo)

13. After 6.5 million years of separate evolution, the differences between chimpanzee and human are ten times less than those between rats and mice. - [Source](http://dangerousintersection.org/2010/08/08/putting-our-close-genetic-relationship-to-chimpanzees-into-perspective/)

14. In 1976, a chimpanzee mother-daughter duo kidnapped, murdered, and cannibalized at least three chimpanzee infants in Gombe National Park, effectively making chimpanzee-serial killers a reality. - [Source](https://www.livescience.com/1518-female-chimps-kill-infants.html)

15. A Soviet scientist, that pioneered artificial insemination, attempted to create human-chimpanzee hybrids by injected human sperm into female chimpanzees. After failing, he had plans to inject ape sperm into human females but was arrested and stopped in 1930. - [Source](http://io9.com/the-man-who-tried-to-make-human-ape-hybrids-513278104)

## 16-20 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Nim_Chimpsky.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Nim_Chimpsky.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

16. Nim, the chimpanzee taught ASL in the 70's, would sign, "Stone Smoke Nim" when he wanted to smoke [marijuana](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-kickass-interesting-facts-about-marijuana/). - [Source](http://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138467156/project-nim-a-chimps-very-human-very-sad-life)

 

17. One of the main attractions in Pyongyang is a chimpanzee that smokes a pack a day. - [Source](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/chimpanzee-seen-smoking-north-korea-reopened-zoo-pyongyang)

18. There is 2-3 times more genetic diversity within the wild chimpanzee population on a single hillside in Gombe than in the entire human gene pool. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Human#Biological_variation)

19. There was once a chimpanzee that preferred to walk upright, was bald, preferred the company of humans and even showed sexual attraction towards them. Due to his human-like features and mannerisms; he was known as "Humanzee". - [Source](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kJF7hRmKE0)

20. Ebola has also devastated Chimpanzee and Gorilla populations, including killing a third of all Gorillas. - [Source](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ebola-vaccine-wild-chimps-180951566/)

## 21-25 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Chimpanzee-baby.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Chimpanzee-baby.jpg)

21. Chimpanzee babies are cognitively more developed than human babies until the age of six months. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human)

22. The wounds on a woman whose face and hands were mauled by a chimpanzee were so gruesome that the [doctors](https://www.kickassfacts.com/doctor-facts/) and nurses who treated her received psychological counseling. - [Source](http://abcnews.go.com/story?id=6942308)

23. In the early 1900s, a French scientist transplanted executed criminal testicles into millionaires for hormonal effects, and when demand became higher than supply he used chimpanzee testicles. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Voronoff#Monkey-gland_transplant_work)

24. There is a species of ape called the Bondo mystery ape which could be a population of chimpanzee and gorilla hybrids, displaying traits of both genera. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bili_ape)

25. In 1912, a man found the skull of a prehistoric "missing link" in the human evolutionary chain. In 1953, it was discovered that the skull was that of a medieval human with an orangutan jaw and fossilized chimpanzee teeth. "The Piltdown Man" become the most famous paleoanthropological hoax ever. - [Source](http://web.archive.org/web/20020124104411/http:/www.tiac.net/users/cri/piltdown.html)

## 26-30 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/today.png)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/today.png)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

26. NBC's Today Show had a chimpanzee host for four years in the 1950s. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Today_(U.S._TV_program)#J._Fred_Muggs)

27. Gregoire was the oldest chimpanzee on record at the time of his [death](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-death/) who spent over 40 years confined to the cage before being rescued. - [Source](http://www.nbcnews.com/id/28368980/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/africas-oldest-chimp-conservation-icon-dies/#.WWNZ9oTyu00)

28. There was a chimpanzee in [Russia](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-interesting-facts-about-russia/) named John that became addicted to [cigarettes](https://www.kickassfacts.com/25-interesting-facts-about-nicotine-tobacco-and-cigarettes/) and [alcohol](https://www.kickassfacts.com/30-kickass-and-interesting-facts-about-alcohol/) and had to go to rehab for his addictions. - [Source](http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/russian-chimp-rehab-smoking-alcohol-addiction-casino-504018)

29. The first heart transplant performed on a human used a chimpanzee donor heart. The recipient died after 90 minutes but the procedure paved the way for future transplants. - [Source](https://thechirurgeonsapprentice.com/2015/02/14/the-chimp-the-surgeon-a-history-of-heart-transplants/)

30. Ayumu, a chimpanzee studied at Kyoto University, outperformed [University](https://www.kickassfacts.com/interesting-university-facts/) students in a short-term memory test, leading to the conclusion that young chimps have better short-term memories than adult humans. - [Source](http://langint.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ai/en/friends/ayumu.html)

## 31-35 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RioZoo3.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RioZoo3.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

31. "Tião Monkey" holds the Guinness record for the most voted Chimpanzee in the world. In 1988, he received over 400 thousand votes for Rio de Janeiro Mayor as a protest for null voting. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaco_Ti%C3%A3o)

32. The 2008 World Memory Champion once lost a memory game to a seven-year-old chimpanzee. - [Source](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-510260/Im-chimpion--Ape-trounces-best-human-world-memory-competition.html)

33. Pepsi used a chimpanzee to roll dice in order to determine the grand prize number for their Billion Dollar Sweepstakes. - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Billion_Dollar_Sweepstakes)

34. A part of Jennifer Connelly's finger was bitten off by a chimpanzee while filming a scene for Dario Argento's 1985 "Phenomena." She was rushed to the ER and had it reattached. - [Source](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087909/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv)

35. There is a chimpanzee sanctuary in Quebec, where former lab and zoo chimpanzees can live out the rest of their days in peace. - [Source](http://www.faunafoundation.org/)

## 36-37 Chimpanzee Facts

[![](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eyes-of-chimpanzee.jpg)](https://www.kickassfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/eyes-of-chimpanzee.jpg)Image credit: en.wikipedia.org

36. The eyes of a chimpanzee were superimposed on the hologram of the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back to make the character "more eerie." - [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palpatine)

37. A chimpanzee figured out how to grab a peanut that was stuck in a fixed long tube by transferring water it collected in its mouth into the tube. - [Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz6uvIbWZE)