In the present assignment we are to analyze food habits among chimpanzees and the significance of those throughout the history of evolution of species. As it is well known chimpanzees are our closest surviving relatives with approximately 96 percent of genes being shared between us, humans, and chimpanzees. In the capacity of our relatives chimpanzees have the largest brain among the primates.
Moreover, they have certain things in common if not with humans, at least with our predecessors – chimpanzees can use tools, some of which are quite sophisticated. They make their sleeping nests in a rather elaborate fashion which may even testify for creativity in certain cases. To crown it all, they have shown abilities of learning some skills. (Groves, 2005)
What differs chimpanzees from humans apart from the obvious and self-evident fact that they are far less intelligent, is the lack of emotions and emotive responses. Nevertheless, even in this respect the conclusion should not be the wrong one: chimps have proven to be able to show empathy, for example. So we had better speak about the chimpanzees’ lack of richness of emotions or the limited specter of those.
Thus we can state that there is no doubt that historically our evolutions are interrelated, humans presumably having been developed from chimpanzees through work and gradual tool creation. The latter unlocked the potential for creativity in our ancestors. Yet this theory has significant flaws as well or in the very least it does not account for the fact that modern chimps using tools still cannot evolve into humans.
Indeed, the process of evolution is very slow and cannot be observed within short time or the human’s lifespan. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that chimpanzees are evolving or have been evolving at any time in recent or even mid-term history. On the other hand, the similarities that we share are striking and in this paper we will in particular focus our attention on the question of food. This topic we will include within the broader context of human’s evolution and we will see how food habits of apes helped them to become more reasonable beings.
Firstly, we will need to dwell on some of propositions that scientists come up with. Many of those are still unproven and yet there is some reason to believe that they are not completely without any scientific foundation. In the light of food habits, however, it is logical to consider the diet of modern day chimps and compare it to humans’ diet and, finally, relate it to the evolution.
What do chimpanzees eat? Their food consumption predominantly includes fruits but not only. Actually, the chimpanzee can be described as an omnivorous frugivore. Apart from fruit, the chimpanzee may eat something that humans do not, like leaves and leaf buds. It can also eat insects, bark, resin, stems, blossoms, etc. and even soil!
However, what is very well pronounced in chimpanzees’ food habits is that the food that these species predominantly eat is quite similar to the one that we consume or rather have consumed throughout centuries. Indeed, with the civilization food patterns of humans have changed while chimpanzees seem to have stuck to the ones they have adhered to. (Won&Hey, 2005)
The second thing that is worth pointing out is that chimpanzees engage in the food acquisition activities like humans have done, namely foraging and hunting. Latter, of course, during the evolution of humans foraging and hunting gave way to agriculture and farming but there is no doubt that at the early stages of humans’ development it were foraging and hunting that led to the necessity to upgrade tools’ making techniques and, as the result, it will be not an exaggeration to claim that they were of paramount importance in humans’ evolution.
However, arguably it was hunting that played even more significant role – some scientists have claimed that meat consumption helped humans to upgrade their brain, on the one hand, and on the other – hunting gave rise not only to tools’ making but even art, no matter how primitive it was. Actually, the first paintings that we have as samples of the ancient man’s art are focused around hunting. These were presumably used in practical purposes as well: by means of these paintings hunting skills were perfected. Probably, the younger members of human tribes were also taught by means of them. Only much later did this paintings started evolving into artistic technique of portraying the reality or even serve an aesthetic purpose.
As for chimpanzees, it can be surmised that hunting also promotes their intelligence to a higher level though not to the one that would testify about evolution process. It was observed that chimpanzees while hunting smaller primates tend to interact with each other in a communicative way. Thus we can even speak of some social skills pertaining to them. (Tobias, 1971)
References
Groves, C.P. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tobias, P. (1971). The Brain in Hominid Evolution. New York, Columbia University Press
Won Y., Hey J. (2005). Divergence population genetics of chimpanzees. Mol. Biol. Evol. 22 (2): 297–307.
