What Do Chimpanzees Eat? A Look at Their Varied Diet

Chimpanzees are fruit lovers first, and ripe fruit makes up the bulk of their meals. But they are far from strict vegetarians: they also eat insects, meat from hunts, and even soil. What sets their diet apart is less the menu than the skill behind it, since many of these foods are reached with tools they make and carry.

Fruit, Especially Figs, Is the Main Course

In one well-studied group, a day’s food broke down like this, by dry weight:

Figs earn that top spot because fig trees don’t all fruit at the same time. Across a forest, some are usually ripe, so figs work as a steady staple when other fruits are out of season.

The menu is wide even in a single place. One West African community ate 43 plant species, using 60 different parts such as fruit, leaves and flowers.5PubMed. Diet of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Mt. Assirik, Senegal: I. Composition Throughout, chimpanzees go for sugary ripe fruit and avoid bitter, hard-to-digest plant compounds.6Cambridge Core. Guts, Glorious Guts, Large Stomach, and Colon

Their bodies explain some of this pickiness. Apes lack the specialized teeth and stomachs that let many monkeys live on coarse leaves. Chimps therefore have to seek higher-quality foods like ripe fruit, which is why they travel widely in search of fruiting trees.

What Chimps Eat When Fruit Runs Out

When fruit is scarce, chimps fall back on leaves, seeds, flowers, bark and pith.7Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project. What Do Chimpanzees Eat? Fruit (50%+), Insects & Meat | BCCP These are easier to find but carry less energy.8Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project. What Do Chimpanzees Eat? Fruit (50%+), Insects & Meat | BCCP So in lean times chimps travel shorter distances each day and spend more time feeding.9International Journal of Primatology. Daily Energy Balance and Protein Gain Among Pan troglodytes verus in the Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire When food is plentiful, they spend less time eating and more energy moving.10Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Energetic management in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire This flexibility lets chimps live in more kinds of habitat than pickier eaters.11Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project. What Do Chimpanzees Eat? Fruit (50%+), Insects & Meat | BCCP

Savanna chimps eat a harder menu. In dry savanna, where ripe fleshy fruit is scarce, chimps often eat unripe fruit and seeds.12PubMed. The nutritional quality of male chimpanzee diets in a semiarid savanna In the dry season they chew plant parts that are much tougher than those eaten by forest chimps.13PubMed Central. Food mechanical properties and isotopic signatures in forest versus savannah dwelling eastern chimpanzees In a dry, open part of Tanzania, chimps dig up roots and tubers with sticks.14PubMed Central. Insights into human evolution from 60 years of research on chimpanzees at Gombe

Do Chimpanzees Eat Meat

Every known chimpanzee population has been seen hunting small mammals.15PubMed. Cooperative hunting roles among taï chimpanzees Where they live alongside red colobus monkeys, chimps prefer them, hunting 4 to 10 times a month.16Animal Behaviour. Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat? More than half of hunts typically succeed.17Animal Behaviour. Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat? Even so, meat is a small part of the diet compared with fruit.

In some forests, group hunts need coordinated roles and an ability to predict where the prey will run.18PubMed. Cooperative hunting roles among taï chimpanzees Several males move into the trees while others block escape routes. The kill is followed by noisy begging and sharing. Hunters who play the key roles get the biggest share of meat.19PubMed. Cooperative hunting roles among taï chimpanzees

Sharing follows social lines. In one Ugandan community, males shared meat with allies who backed them in fights.20Animal Behaviour. Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat? There, meat worked more as social currency than as a fix for hunger or a way to win mates.21Animal Behaviour. Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat? Females and young also eat meat when it is shared.

Insects and the Tools Chimps Make to Catch Them

Most animal prey eaten by one West African group were social insects like termites and ants.22PubMed. Diet of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Mt. Assirik, Senegal: I. Composition Termites and ants are rich in protein and fat, and they are available when fruit is low.

Chimps fish for termites by poking a thin stem into the mound and pulling it out covered in insects.23PubMed Central. Dexterity and technique in termite fishing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo Most probes enter the nest successfully, and termites are eaten on roughly 3 of every 4 tries.24PubMed Central. Dexterity and technique in termite fishing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo Chimps usually push the probe in with one hand and draw it out with two.25PubMed Central. Dexterity and technique in termite fishing by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo

Some tools are carefully designed. In Congo, chimps chew stem ends into a brush tip before fishing, because a brush tip gathers more termites than a plain stem.26PubMed Central. Design complexity in termite-fishing tools of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) They repair worn brushes and orient the brushed end into the mound.27PubMed Central. Design complexity in termite-fishing tools of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

For army ants, chimps punch open the nest with a woody sapling, then dip a herb stem to collect ants.28PubMed. Chimpanzees prey on army ants with specialized tool set The dipping sticks are longer for more aggressive ant species.29PubMed. Chimpanzees prey on army ants with specialized tool set

Brush-tipped probes appear in Congo but not in East or West Africa. That suggests learned local traditions, something like culture. Young chimps copy the style used in their own group.

Cracking Nuts With Stone Hammers

Nut cracking is a West African specialty. In Guinea and Liberia, chimps crack oil palm nuts with stone hammers on anvils to eat the kernel.30Journal of Human Evolution. The use of stone tools by wild-living chimpanzees and earliest hominids From Sierra Leone to Ivory Coast, they use heavier stones to crack very hard wild nuts.31Journal of Human Evolution. The use of stone tools by wild-living chimpanzees and earliest hominids Some also use wooden clubs as hammers and tree roots as anvils.32Journal of Human Evolution. The use of stone tools by wild-living chimpanzees and earliest hominids

A chimp places a nut on a flat root or stone and strikes it with a hammer held in one or both hands. Aim and force must be right, or the kernel is smashed. Youngsters watch adults for years before succeeding.

Chimps carry stones from outcrops to favorite cracking spots.33PubMed. Excavation of a chimpanzee stone tool site in the African rainforest Those spots build up chipped stone that archaeologists can dig up.34PubMed. Excavation of a chimpanzee stone tool site in the African rainforest

Eating Soil and Swallowing Leaves Whole

Chimps in Uganda eat soil that releases calcium, iron and magnesium in the gut.35PubMed. Geophagy among East African Chimpanzees: consumed soils provide protection from plant secondary compounds and bioavailable iron Clay in the soil can also bind bitter plant compounds in their diet.36PubMed. Geophagy among East African Chimpanzees: consumed soils provide protection from plant secondary compounds and bioavailable iron37PubMed Central. Mineral Acquisition from Clay by Budongo Forest Chimpanzees

Soil is often taken at the bases of trees or termite mounds, and chimps return to the same spots. It is eaten in small amounts, not as a meal.

Across Africa, chimps swallow certain leaves whole without chewing.38PubMed. High frequency of leaf swallowing and its relationship to intestinal parasite expulsion in “village” chimpanzees at Bulindi, Uganda They fold rough, hairy leaves and swallow them one by one, often early in the morning on an empty stomach. The rough leaves pass through the gut and may sweep worms out. Leaves in dung were linked to expelling nodular worms.39PubMed. High frequency of leaf swallowing and its relationship to intestinal parasite expulsion in “village” chimpanzees at Bulindi, Uganda In one Ugandan group, though, leaf swallowing was not linked to shedding tapeworms.40PubMed. High frequency of leaf swallowing and its relationship to intestinal parasite expulsion in “village” chimpanzees at Bulindi, Uganda

How Chimps Get Water

Juicy fruit supplies much of a chimp’s water. For the rest, chimps crumple leaves in their mouths into a sponge and dip it into tree holes to soak up water.41African Journal of Ecology. Leaf sponge tool use by Buraiga chimpanzees, <i>Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii</i>, in Kibale National Park, Uganda Rainwater often collects in hollows too narrow for a mouth, so the sponge carries water out to suck from. Savanna chimps also drink from streams and pools. Young chimps start drinking with leaves around 18 months old,42PubMed. Leaf-tool use for drinking water by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): acquisition patterns and handedness but they don’t make their own leaf sponges until about 3.5 years.43PubMed. Leaf-tool use for drinking water by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): acquisition patterns and handedness

How Young Chimps Learn What to Eat

Baby chimps first eat solid food at about 5 months,44PubMed Central. The development of feeding behavior in wild chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthii) yet they nurse until about 4.8 years on average.45PubMed Central. The development of feeding behavior in wild chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthii) Their daily feeding time matches adults’ between 4 and 6 years,46PubMed Central. The development of feeding behavior in wild chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthii) and by 5 to 10 years they eat the full adult range of foods.47PubMed Central. The development of feeding behavior in wild chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthii) Even then, they eat ripe fruit more slowly than adults into adolescence.48PubMed Central. The development of feeding behavior in wild chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthii) Drinking with leaves comes about 2 years before nut cracking.49PubMed. Leaf-tool use for drinking water by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): acquisition patterns and handedness Infants take scraps from their mother’s mouth or hands and watch closely during tool use.

Chimps Near Farms and in Zoos

Chimps living among farms eat crops as a regular habit.50PubMed Central. Wild chimpanzees show group differences in selection of agricultural crops At one Guinea site crops took up 14% of feeding time.51PubMed Central. Wild chimpanzees show group differences in selection of agricultural crops They eat whichever crops are easiest to reach but prefer fruit crops, and they mostly ignore vegetables.52PubMed Central. Wild chimpanzees show group differences in selection of agricultural crops Farm fruit is sweeter and bigger than wild fruit, and it grows in easy reach near forest edges. Banana, sugarcane, maize, mango and cocoa cause the most conflict with farmers.53PubMed Central. From Forest to Farm: Systematic Review of Cultivar Feeding by Chimpanzees – Management Implications for Wildlife in Anthropogenic Landscapes

Obesity has only been recorded in captive chimps.54PubMed Central. Wild Chimpanzee Welfare: A Focus on Nutrition, Foraging and Health to Inform Great Ape Welfare in the Wild and in Captivity Zoo diets tend to be high in sugar and starch and low in fiber.55International Zoo Yearbook. Great ape nutrition: low‐sugar and high‐fibre diets can lead to increased natural behaviours, decreased regurgitation and reingestion, and reversal of prediabetes Captive apes suffer heart, gut and dental disease and diabetes linked to diet.56International Zoo Yearbook. Great ape nutrition: low‐sugar and high‐fibre diets can lead to increased natural behaviours, decreased regurgitation and reingestion, and reversal of prediabetes Switching to low-sugar, high-fiber diets brought blood sugar back to normal.57International Zoo Yearbook. Great ape nutrition: low‐sugar and high‐fibre diets can lead to increased natural behaviours, decreased regurgitation and reingestion, and reversal of prediabetes Sanctuary chimps that roam freely have lower weight and healthier blood fats than lab chimps.58PubMed Central. Healthy cardiovascular biomarkers across the lifespan in wild-born chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

How Chimps Feed the Forest

Nearly all chimp dung, 98.5%, contains seeds, mostly figs.59Journal of Tropical Ecology. Seed dispersal by forest chimpanzees in Uganda Seeds that pass through a chimp sprout faster and more often.60Journal of Tropical Ecology. Seed dispersal by forest chimpanzees in Uganda Chimps also carry large seeds, up to 15 mm wide, that smaller animals can’t.61Journal of Tropical Ecology. Seed dispersal by forest chimpanzees in Uganda62PubMed. Chimpanzee seed dispersal in a montane forest fragment in Rwanda In one Rwandan forest fragment, 17% of tree species were spread by chimps.63PubMed. Chimpanzee seed dispersal in a montane forest fragment in Rwanda So they help damaged forests regrow.64PubMed. Chimpanzee seed dispersal in a montane forest fragment in Rwanda Losing chimps can mean fewer large-seeded trees.