Questions About Chimpanzees
Answered by
Elizabeth Vinson Lonsdorf

Elizabeth says...

6) How do they relate to my life and how similar am I to them?

Chimpanzees are similar to humans in many ways. They have extremely strong mother-infant relationships that can last throughout their life. They have different cultures depending on where they live. They laugh, play and have complex social relationships. They are so biologically similar to us that they can catch human diseases. In terms of how they relate to our lives, chimpanzees are our closest living ancestor, and provide insight in to how our early human ancestors may have behaved and survived in their environment.