How do chimpanzees live?
Chimpanzees live in large communities in the tropical forests of Africa. The communities consist of several adult males and females with their offspring. The total number of members can vary between communities from 12 to 150. Males stay for their whole lives in the same community, while females move to neighbouring communities after they become adults.
The members of a community do not stay together for the whole day. After they wake up in the morning, chimpanzees split into small groups, called parties, which search for food separately. These parties sometimes meet during the day, mix, and separate into new parties. The males normally maintain contact among the parties by drumming on the buttresses of trees, huge roots that look like big triangles. This drumming can be heard for about a kilometer. That way everybody in the forest knows where the males are and the community can meet in the evening to build their sleeping nests together.
Video "drumming on the buttresses "
