Geographic Locations of the Chimpanzee

The chimpanzee, which is also known as both "robust chimpanzee" and "common chimpanzee," lives in Africa's central and western regions. Some of the chimp geographic range includes the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Mali, Uganda, Senegal, Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, Tanzania and Sudan. The companionable and omnivorous animals, who are humans' nearest surviving family members, are extinct from Gambia, and are believed to possibly even be gone from Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin, although there is no official confirmation of that. Chimpanzees are named as endangered animals by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species' 2008 review. Many factors contribute to the falling population of the chimp, from unlawful hunting for flesh and logging activities to fatal infection. One prominent example of a dangerous infection that has wiped out many chimpanzees is Ebola.

Chimpanzees are usually thick rainforest residents, and are found both in arid and damp environments. They are not picky about living locales, and also frequently make their homes in bamboo forests, swamp forests, montane forests, woodlands and airy savannas. Chimpanzees are up in the trees just as often as they are down on the ground. However, the bulk of their resting and eating activities take place high up in the air. Their tree nests are usually constructed out of foliage.

Bonobos are fellow great apes that also live solely in Africa -- specifically in the Congo Basin below the Congo River. Bonobos are prevalent in both the central and northern regions of the Congo, and do not exist anywhere outside of the one nation. Chimpanzees have a significantly more substantial geographic scope than bonobos. Like chimpanzees, bonobos were also declared as "endangered" animals in 2008. They too are faltering rapidly population-wise, with some similar risks -- think logging, poaching and human development.

For the most part, bonobos live in rainforest settings. However, they occasionally also live in grasslands, damp swamp forests and marshes. In terms of landscapes, bonobos differ from chimpanzees in that they are not hesitant at all to be close to water. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, are usually extremely frightened by all things water, and generally are unable to swim.