Chimpanzee
Lessons from our Sister Species

The complete guide to our closest living relative, drawing on thirty years of primate observation.

Kevin D. Hunt (Author)

9781107544413, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 August 2020

592 pages, 141 b/w illus.
24.3 x 18.9 x 2.6 cm, 1.32 kg

'… the most impressive and comprehensive volume on the chimpanzee … since Jane Goodall … [it] belongs on the bookshelf of every 'chimpologist', or, arguably, every primatologist.' William C. McGrew, Primates

The chimpanzee is one of our planet's best-loved and most instantly recognisable animals. Splitting from the human lineage between four and six million years ago, it is (along with its cousin, the bonobo) our closest living relative, sharing around 94% of our DNA. First encountered by Westerners in the seventeenth century, virtually nothing was known about chimpanzees in their natural environment until 1960, when Jane Goodall travelled to Gombe to live and work with them. Accessibly written, yet fully referenced and uncompromising in its accuracy and comprehensiveness, this book encapsulates everything we currently know about chimpanzees: from their discovery and why we study them, to their anatomy, physiology, genetics and culture. The text is beautifully illustrated and infused with examples and anecdotes drawn from the author's thirty years of primate observation, making this a perfect resource for students of biological anthropology and primatology as well as non-specialists interested in chimpanzees.

1. Sister's keeper: humans and chimpanzees
2. Wild lesson: why study animals in nature?
3. A most surprising creature: the discovery of the chimpanzee
4. Kin: the chimpanzee's place in nature
5. Scratching out a living in an unforgiving world: habitat and diet
6. Guts, glorious guts, large stomach and colon
7. Thews, sinews and bone: chimpanzee anatomy and osteology
8. Arboreal gathering, terrestrial traveling: locomotion and posture
9. Forged in nature's cauldron: engineering the chimpanzee
10. Up from the protoape: the evolution of the chimpanzee
11. Building a natural wonder: growth, development and life history
12. The source of similarity: chimpanzee genetics
13. Making your way in the great wild world: chimpanzee senses
14. The grim reaper in the forest primeval: wild chimpanzee diseases and lessons for healthy living
15. Powering life: physiology and endocrinology
16. Shelter from the storm: chimpanzee mothering
17. Meat seeking missiles: chimpanzees as hunters
18. The mind of the chimpanzee: reasoning, memory and emotion
19. The brain of the chimpanzee: the mind's motor
20. Tired nature's sweet restorer: chimpanzee sleep
21. Chimpanzee thought transfer: communication and language
22. Ape implements: making and using tools
23. Wisdom of the ages: chimpanzee culture
24. The daily grind: within-group aggression
25. A nation at war with itself: defending a community of the mind
26. The sporting chimpanzee: dominance without destruction
27. The passion of Pan: sex and reproduction
28. Into the light: Semliki chimpanzees
29. The other sister, bonobos: the monkey convergence hypothesis
30. Sister species: lessons from the chimpanzee
Appendix 1. Primate taxonomy
Appendix 2. Professional grade chimpanzee
Index.

Subject Areas: Conservation of wildlife & habitats [RNKH], Primates [PSVW79], Zoology: Mammals [PSVW7], Animal behaviour [PSVP], Biology, life sciences [PS]