On an evolutionary scale, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the closest relatives to humans (Homo sapiens), both having shared a common ancestor about 5 million years ago.

SUBSPECIES AND HABITAT The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is presently listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species (IUCN, 2000). The Robust Chimpanzee is an omnivorous ape found in a variety of wooded habitats across equatorial Africa. Typically, chimpanzees inhabit evergreen forests, but marginal populations have been shown to exist in deciduous woodland and grassland and savanna habitats, interspersed with gallery forest. There are four sub-species of the Robust Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). These exhibit mutually exclusive geographical ranges and include: The Western Chimpanzee (Pan t.verus), which is the sub-species most endangered with extinction, second to the Nigerian Chimpanzee (P.t.vellerosus), and the Central African Chimpanzee (P.t.troglodytes) and finally the Eastern Chimpanzee (P.t.shweinfurthii). Recent evidence suggests that the Western Chimpanzee may however in fact be a separate species altogether (Morin et al., 1994).

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