Wild chimpanzees live across a broad belt of equatorial Africa, spanning at least 21 countries from the western coast to the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the east. Their range stretches from Senegal and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa through the Congo Basin and into Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania in East Africa. Despite this wide distribution, chimpanzee populations are increasingly fragmented, and the species is classified as endangered.
Countries Where Chimpanzees Live
Chimpanzees are found in West, Central, and East Africa. In West Africa, they inhabit Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Senegal, among others. Central African populations live in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic. In East Africa, chimps are found in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi.
Not all of these countries hold large populations. Some, like Guinea, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, still support significant numbers spread across multiple regions. Others have small, isolated groups clinging to shrinking patches of forest.
Four Subspecies, Four Regions
The four recognized chimpanzee subspecies each occupy a distinct part of Africa’s tropical belt. Western chimpanzees range across Upper West Africa from Senegal to Ghana. Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees occupy a relatively narrow zone along the border of those two countries, making them the most geographically restricted subspecies. Central chimpanzees have the largest continuous range, spanning from southern Cameroon through Gabon, the Republic of Congo, and into parts of the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eastern chimpanzees live from the eastern DRC across Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and western Tanzania.
These ranges don’t overlap. Major rivers, particularly the Niger and Sanaga in West Africa and the Congo River system in Central Africa, act as natural barriers separating one subspecies from the next.
Habitats Chimps Use
Chimpanzees are far more adaptable than their reputation as rainforest animals suggests. They occupy tropical rainforests, montane forests, riverine forest corridors, regenerating secondary forests, and even open savanna. Some populations live in forest-savanna mosaic landscapes where patches of trees are scattered across grassland. They’ve been documented from sea level all the way up to 2,750 meters in mountainous terrain.
In Bossou, Guinea, chimpanzees navigate a patchwork of young secondary forest, coffee plantations, cultivated fields, and small remnants of mature forest. Their nearest stretch of continuous old-growth forest is about 6 kilometers away across open savanna. This kind of human-altered landscape is increasingly typical for West African chimps, who move between forest fragments and farmland to find food.
Climate Extremes Across Their Range
The climate conditions chimpanzees tolerate vary enormously depending on where they live. At Taï National Park in Côte d’Ivoire, a classic lowland rainforest site, average temperatures hover around a mild 26 degrees Celsius with heavy rainfall year-round. That’s the comfortable end of the spectrum.
At the harsh end, the chimpanzees of Fongoli in southeastern Senegal endure dry-season averages above 37 degrees Celsius, with peaks exceeding 45 degrees. Rain doesn’t fall for more than seven months at a stretch. Research from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that these savanna chimps show signs of dehydration and physiological stress during the late dry season. The fact that chimpanzees survive in conditions this extreme shows just how flexible the species can be, though it also highlights the pressure some populations face as climates warm and dry seasons lengthen.
Shrinking Range and Growing Threats
Chimpanzees once occupied a much larger and more continuous range across Africa. Today, most of their habitat has been transformed by human activity in recent decades, leading to drastic population declines. The three main threats are poaching, habitat loss, and forest fragmentation driven by agriculture, logging, and expanding road networks. Road infrastructure across Africa is projected to grow by 35% to 60% over the 2010 baseline by 2050, which will carve up chimpanzee habitat further.
The western subspecies faces the most acute danger. The IUCN upgraded its status to critically endangered based on projections that the population will decline by more than 80% over the next 75 years, roughly three chimpanzee generations, if current pressures continue. The other three subspecies remain classified as endangered, but all face the same combination of threats at varying intensities.
Protected areas like Loango National Park in Gabon, Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains in Tanzania, Kibale National Park in Uganda, and the Nimba Mountain range spanning Guinea, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire serve as critical refuges. But a large proportion of wild chimpanzees live outside formal reserves, in landscapes shared with farming communities, making coexistence strategies just as important as parkland protection for the species’ long-term survival.