Chimpanzee Facts for Kids

Pan troglodytes · pan TROG-loh-dy-teez

A clever ape that uses sticks as tools to fish for termites.

🏃 speed: not yet checked
⚖️ 130 lb59 kg1
📏 3.9 ft1.2 m1 tall
🎂 lifespan: not yet checked
🍽️ plants and animals
In danger (Endangered)

Chimpanzees are clever apes. They use sticks as tools to get termites out of their nests. They hug and pat their friends.

Chimpanzees live in big groups called communities, and they spend the day finding fruit, leaves and insects. A chimp can strip the leaves off a twig and poke it into a termite mound, or crack a nut open with a rock. Friends keep close by grooming, which means picking through each other's fur.

Chimpanzees are great apes, and along with bonobos they are our closest living relatives. Different chimp communities have different habits, such as which tools they use, and young chimps learn them by watching their mothers. Every night each chimp bends branches into a nest high in a tree. Chimpanzees are endangered because their forests are being cleared and some are taken for the pet trade, so parks, sanctuaries and local people work together to help them.

How big is a chimpanzee?

🧒 our measuring child, 4 ft1.2 m🐒 Chimpanzee, 4 ft1.2 m at the shoulder

Chimpanzee in numbers

Length	no checked number yet
Height at the shoulder	3.9 ft1.2 m1males standing, more than
Weight	130 lb59 kg1male
Top speed	no checked number yet
How long it lives	no checked number yet
What it eats	fruit, leaves, seeds and insects, and sometimes small animals
Where it lives	the forests of western and central Africa
What kind	Mammals
Is it in danger?	In danger (Endangered)2

A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.

Wow!

Chimps use chewed leaves as sponges to soak up drinking water.
Along with bonobos, chimps are our closest living relatives.
Different chimp communities use different tools.

Compare the chimpanzee

Friends and neighbours

Three questions

What does the chimpanzee eat?

FishPlants and animalsTiny sea life

The answer: Plants and animals. It eats fruit, leaves, seeds and insects, and sometimes small animals.

Where does the chimpanzee live?

BackyardForestRainforest

The answer: Rainforest. It lives in the forests of western and central Africa.

What kind of animal is the chimpanzee?

MammalReptileBird

The answer: Mammal. It's a mammal: hair or fur, and babies that drink milk.

Books about the chimpanzee, free at the library

Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the chimpanzee for free.

Where these numbers come from

US Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Register 2015 (Listing All Chimpanzees as Endangered), checked 30 October 2026.
Wikidata, from the IUCN Red List, checked 30 October 2026.
Wikidata, Chimpanzee (Q4126704), checked 30 October 2026.