Stacy Lindshield News Today

Chimpanzees walking around the Fongoli savannah (Senegal). Image: U. Villalobos-Flores. Savannah chimpanzees in a cave in Sabe (Guinea). Image: Jane

While humans are able to survive in arid climates, great apes need swaths of lush forest in Africa (bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas) or Southeast Asia (orangutans) to thrive, except for some innovative savanna chimpanzees. An international team of primatologists reviewed the characteristics of these chimpanzees – and their environments – to understand how they thrive while lacking many of the biological and cultural traits that humans possess (for example, numerous sweat glands, relative hair...