Chimpanzees and bonobos are our closest living relatives. However, many aspects of their lives in the natural environment – which ranges from the moist primary forest to dry open habitat – still elude us. This book, particularly the section on behavioural flexibility, outlines some of the most recent advances in our knowledge of the two species. People inhabiting the tropical forests of Africa have long coexisted with the two extant species of Pan, chimpanzees and bonobos, while sharing partly overlapping niches. Take, for example, the 20 or so chimpanzees living at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa, who have been studied continuously for more than two decades. More than 600 plant species (664, to be precise) have been identified as comprising the flora of Bossou (Sugiyama & Koman 1992). Chimpanzees utilise 200 of these for food and at least two species for medicinal use, while humans use 76 species for food and 81 as traditional medicine, in addition to those utilised in the construction of houses, furniture and for other purposes.

There are only a handful of tribes whose totem beliefs prohibit the hunting of chimpanzees. In others, hunters have been killing chimpanzees for meat and using parts of the body such as the skull for medicinal and animistic religious practices. This kind of coexistence may have been common practice throughout Africa for thousands of years.

The first chimpanzees known to have been brought to Europe came from Angola and were presented to the Prince of Orange in 1640 (Yerkes & Yerkes 1929).