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Their distinctive mode of travel—walking on the sole of each foot and the knuckles of their hands—have earned them the title of knuckle-walkers. The Peruvian Inca orchid, sometimes nicknamed the PIO, is Peru’s official dog, and it can be hairless or coated. As sighthounds—like greyhounds, whippets, and borzois—the dogs are bred to hunt by sight rather than scent. The uakari’s face certainly is expressive, and it often seems to look worried. Maybe that’s because hunting and habitat loss has caused their numbers to drop by 30 percent in as many years, giving it vulnerable status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. These questions only brush the surface of what it means to be the owner of a chimp.
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Why Animals Get Gray Hair, Too - National Geographic
Why Animals Get Gray Hair, Too.
Posted: Fri, 07 Jul 2017 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Some have theorized that facial redness is a signal of good health, a theory Bowler is in the process of testing. Hairless faces on monkeys, he said, may aid visual communication. For the most part, though, expect to have your chimp with you or someone in your household the majority of the time to fulfill its social and activity needs.
Chimps as Pets
One example is hair plucking, similar to how humans deal with stress. Hairless chimpanzees don’t have hair on their heads, only on their palms and soles of feet. Chimpanzees feed on fruit, berries, leaves, flowers, seeds, bird eggs, carrion, and meat. Their social bonds and territorial disputes can result in violence, including cannibalism and infanticide. Silver strands and graying hair is a sign of aging in humans, but things aren't so simple for our closest ape relatives—the chimpanzee. Scientists have recorded about 80 different items chimps eat, including seeds, fruit, leaves, bark, honey, flowers, and insects.
HABITAT AND DIET

Even after bipedalism was established, the charming breasts were most probably effective at maintaining hairlessness positively. In chimpanzee societies, social status and hierarchies play a significant role in their behavior and interactions. Hairlessness can impact a chimpanzee’s social status within its group, both positively and negatively. In some cases, hairlessness can result in a unique appearance that may draw attention from others, potentially elevating the hairless individual’s social status. On the other hand, hairlessness can also make individuals more vulnerable to aggression and social exclusion, particularly in cases where the lack of hair is viewed as a physical abnormality.
Should You Keep a Chimpanzee as a Pet?
You can construct a large outdoor enclosure for them with metal fencing and metal bars to form a secure ceiling. The door to the enclosure should have a strong lock, as chimps can easily learn how to open latches and knobs. Add ropes, swings, branches, balls, and other favorite toys to the enclosure.
The species lives in a strict male-dominated hierarchy, where disputes are generally settled without the need for violence. Nearly all chimpanzee populations have been recorded using tools, modifying sticks, rocks, grass and leaves and using them for hunting and acquiring honey, termites, ants, nuts and water. The species has also been found creating sharpened sticks to spear small mammals. The infant is weaned at about three years old but usually maintains a close relationship with its mother for several years more.
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We can help protect hairless chimpanzees in several ways, including supporting conservation organizations that protect their habitat and reduce human-wildlife conflict. Additionally, we can reduce our environmental impact, which can help protect the habitats of all chimpanzees, including hairless individuals. Finally, we can support research efforts to understand the genetics and behavior of hairless chimpanzees, which can help inform conservation efforts. There are several theories about what causes hairlessness in chimpanzees. This theory is supported by the fact that hairlessness is a recessive trait, meaning both parents must carry the gene for it to be expressed in their offspring. Despite their unique appearance, hairless chimpanzees behave similarly to their furry counterparts.
Consequently, hominins must have been bipedal from the very beginning. Hairless chimpanzees have a genetic mutation resulting in their bodies’ absence of hair. This mutation affects the development of hair follicles, which normally produce hair. Regular veterinary visits should be a part of your chimp's life. And it's important to find a veterinarian who has ample experience dealing with chimps. Heart disease, dental disease, and diabetes are all common illnesses that pet chimpanzees are prone to.
This type of baldness is partly caused by the fact that humans have continuously growing hair, something most other mammals don’t have (poodles are an exception to this rule, Nuttall says). Only with stumptailed macaques, the condition does not distinguish between males and females–both sexes experience a type of eight-ball baldness in their old age. The chimpanzee lives in groups that range in size from 15 to 150 members, although individuals travel and forage in much smaller groups during the day.

Staff at the zoo will carry out a full post-mortem examination after early checks revealed he also had some signs of heart disease. Early in life he had to work hard to be accepted but was recently an integral part of the strict hierarchy, headed by his father. Despite being hairless - inherited from his equally smooth father Jambo - Mongo was a hit in his group.
From the start, they could see he was friendly and liked people—a miracle in light of what he had suffered throughout his life. Henry was rescued in 2009 when animal control officers found him in a rusty cage in a garage in Houston, Texas. For 15 years, he had existed like this, living as a “pet.” It was reported that in his early years he was moved from owner to owner and was known to have been badly abused.
Disease outbreaks are another significant threat to hairless chimpanzees in the wild. Hairless chimpanzees may be more susceptible to infections and diseases transmitted from humans and other animals without fur protection. This is particularly concerning given the current global pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has already been shown to infect other great apes in the wild. Hairless chimpanzees are also at risk of poaching and illegal wildlife trade, a major problem in many parts of their range. Hunters often target hairless chimpanzees because of their unique appearance, and their rarity makes them a valuable commodity on the black market. The illegal wildlife trade is a multi-billion dollar industry decimating populations of many species, including hairless chimpanzees.
Adult chimps are much stronger than most humans, so an unruly chimp may easily harm—or even kill—its owner. We are grateful for those organizations who supported our rescue of the Wildlife Waystation chimpanzees. Between 2019 and 2023, the Chimpanzees In Need fundraiser raised over $4.7M and succeeded in rehoming all the chimpanzees to accredited facilities, where they are thriving. Our emergency effort to rescue chimpanzees at the Wildlife Waystation was a huge success, but our commitment to help chimpanzees continues. A campaign led by NAPSA focused on securing sanctuary homes for captive chimpanzees.
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