About Chimpanzees

Chimp Behaviour

Locomotion

Chimpanzees move on all fours, or "quadrupedally," on the ground and in the trees. While walking, they tend to use their knuckles for support and are thus primarily "knuckle-walkers." This form of locomotion is due to the fact that chimpanzees have longer arms than legs, so walk on the soles of their feet and on the knuckles of their hands.

Chimps also travel efficiently in arboreal settings by climbing, swinging and clinging to branches. They  use their long, powerful arms to "brachiate" (swing from branch to branch). Chimps have both opposable thumbs (these are much shorter compared to human thumbs) and opposable big toes—which enable a precision grip on branches.

Chimps are also capable of bipedal locomotion (walking upright on two legs), like humans. However, unlike humans, they usually only use this mode of locomotion if they need to travel while carrying objects in their hands.