# What Do Chimpanzees Eat?

> Chimpanzees are fruit-first omnivores; some communities hunt colobus. Termite fishing is learned culture. Never feed wild chimps.

- **Species:** Chimpanzee (*Pan troglodytes*)
- **Conservation status:** Endangered
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Habitat:** Tropical forest and wooded savanna
- **Lifespan:** 40–50 years in the wild
- **Top speed:** Up to 40 km/h (25 mph)
- **Canonical HTML:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/chimpanzee/what-do-chimpanzee-eat/
- **Parent profile:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/chimpanzee/
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-16

## Quick answer

The chimpanzee is a great ape native to the forests and savannas of central and western Africa and one of humanity's closest living relatives, sharing around 98% of our DNA. Chimps are highly intelligent, use and make tools, and live in complex social groups. They typically live 40 to 50 years in the wild and are listed as Endangered.

## Who should skip this page

Skip this if you need a captive feeding plan from a veterinarian. This page is wild diet, not a pet-care sheet.

## Tool use and intelligence

Chimpanzees are among the most intelligent animals on Earth. They make and use tools, fishing for termites with stripped twigs, cracking nuts with stone hammers, and using chewed leaves as sponges. Different communities pass down their own tool traditions, a form of culture once thought to be uniquely human.

## Help protect the Chimpanzee

Chimpanzees lose forest to logging and hunting. WARN funds partner-led great-ape veterinary and rescue work in-range.

[Donate via WARN's country programmes](https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/where-we-work/)

---
Source: Global Animal Guide (https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/chimpanzee/what-do-chimpanzee-eat/). Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial reuse with attribution.