![]() The way to interpret this is that for a given figure, half of all chimpanzees in that category will die before that age, and half will die after that age. But most of the time we are trying to determine the expected lifespan of chimpanzees who are already young adults or adults (typical of chimpanzees coming to sanctuaries), who by definition have already beaten the odds of that early high-risk period. If we want to know how long a yet-to-be-born chimpanzee might live, we might include it. The reason why infant deaths are excluded is because infancy remains a particularly high-risk period, even in captivity. If infant deaths were included, life expectancies would be even lower (closer to 32 years for males and females combined, I believe). These figures were provided to us by Lincoln Park Zoo’s ChimpDATA as part of a unique program we participated in to help project future demographic trends in sanctuaries, and are based on 35 years of records from Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) institutions.Ī couple of technical points, if you’re interested: First, you’ll notice that this excludes infant mortality. Over the years, however, researchers have collected more and more data on captive and wild chimpanzees and a new picture has emerged, one which has drastically changed my own understanding of chimpanzees.įor chimpanzees in captivity, the best information we have is this: For those who survive to their first birthday, median life expectancy is 31.7 years for males and 38.7 years for females. But for a species like the chimpanzee that has only been studied on a large scale for a handful of generations and whose lifespan is measured in decades, good data was hard to come by. Just follow a bunch of fruit flies from birth to death and record their lifespan, which is measured in days. If, for example, you asked, “How long do fruit flies live?” the answer would be cut and dry. How could this be?įor such a simple question, the answer for many years was difficult to come by. This was the standard line when I first started to learn about chimps, but it now appears to be wildly inaccurate. ![]() Search the internet for “chimpanzee lifespan” and you will often read that chimpanzees live 40-50 years in the wild and 50-60 years in captivity, or something to this effect. It’s one of the most commonly asked questions about chimpanzees and for most of the last 15 years I’ve been answering it incorrectly.
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