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| Feeding |
| Chimpanzees spend about 6 to 8 hours a day foraging for food. Their diet
includes a variety of foods such as fruits, seeds, berries, leaves, pith, barks, resins, and plants.
Fruit and vegetable species make up the bulk of the chimpanzee diet while insects, bird eggs, and meat
from small and medium-sized mammals provide additional sources of food. Among the mammal species that
chimpanzees hunt, kill, and eat are lizards, bushbuck and bushpigs, colobus monkeys, and baboons. |
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| Jane's observation: | | May and June of 1961 were the worst of all my early months - worse even than the time when the chimpanzees fled at my approach. I had several returns of fever and often it was an effort to lift a hand, so bad was the humidity, let alone struggle up mountains. And the chimpanzees, who had been feeding in large noisy groups, were splitting up more and more often into small units of two to six. Frequently, such groups made no sounds all day as they wandered through the forests feeding on the fruit of the ubiquitous mbula tree, known as wild custard apples. Gradually, however, the terrible humidity lessened, strong winds blew daily down through the valleys, and my spirits and health were restored. The wild fig season came around again. And this time, instead of watching from the Peak, I was able to move down into the valley and sit quite close to the trees where the chimpanzees fed each day. Source: In The Shadow of Man, pp. 60-61. |
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