Did you Know that Chimpanzees are Great Apes and not Monkeys?
- Great apes include chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos and humans. There are several differences between great apes and monkeys.
- Great apes don’t have tails, while most monkeys do.
- Apes generally have larger bodies and bigger brains than monkeys. The bodies of apes are built for different forms of locomotion – swinging the arms (also called brachiating) in the air, and knuckle-walking on their hands and the soles of their feet on the ground. Sometimes chimpanzees even walk upright, or bipedal, on their legs.
- Most monkeys cannot swing from branch to branch, as apes can, because their shoulder blades have a different structure. Instead, monkeys run along the tops of branches.