The national animal of Sierra Leone is the chimpanzee. This is a primate that is very important to the local ecosystem in Sierra Leone and is heavily protected by the government. They are humanity’s closest living relative in the animal world and thus hold considerable symbolic significance.
There are many reasons why the chimpanzee has been chosen as the national animal of Sierra Leone, and ultimately it is a very active campaign that is meant to encourage people to get behind the animal in one sense or another and to embody important symbolic aspects of Sierra Leone values.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Sierra Leone?
The national animal of Sierra Leone is the chimpanzee.
This is a species of great ape native to parts of tropical Africa including the savannah and tropical forest.
There are at least four recognized subspecies today with a fifth subspecies proposed.
Fossil evidence as well as DNA sequencing shows that the chimpanzee is the closest living relative of the human being, a sister taxon being the genus Pan which also includes bonobos.
They are covered in black hair, with the hallmark bareface hands, and feet of a great ape.
They are larger than their close relatives the bonobos; a male will weigh around 88 to 150 pounds, while females range from 60 to 110 pounds and they both stand around 4 feet 11 inches tall.
Naturally, they are highly social animals.
They live in groups that can range fairly enormously in size–anywhere from 15 to 150 individuals have been recorded in the wild.
The groups are strictly male-dominated and hierarchical, and disputes are not usually settled with violence–though they will certainly turn to violence against other groups and sometimes within their own hierarchies.
They are among the most intelligent primate species and have been recorded using tools of all kinds as well as modifying sticks, rocks, and grass for hunting.
They will eat a wide variety of foods including honey, termites, ants, nuts, and fruits.
They are even known to sharpen sticks to use as spears to catch small mammals.
Few other animals besides ourselves are so prolific with tool use.
They walk on their knuckles again like many other great apes do, though it’s believed that this evolved separately from our own evolutionary lineage and is not something we evolved out of and they continued–rather they picked it up at some point since we diverged.
Why, then, is the chimp the national animal of Sierra Leone?
Why is the chimpanzee the national animal of Sierra Leone?
The chimpanzee is the national animal of Sierra Leone for a few different reasons.
On the one hand, they are seen as important symbols in a number of ways to the people of Sierra Leone.
They embody the country’s strength, being a remarkably strong species and known for being so, and this is an important part of their symbolism in Sierra Leone.
They are also seen to embody the nation’s resilience and fortitude.
At the same time, though, they are also viewed as a more literal embodiment of the natural beauty and rich biodiversity of Sierra Leone.
They are inextricable from the land itself and one of its keystone species, and so they are seen to be among the most important members of the national wildlife.
They also reflect the physical beauty of the nation in a way few other species are seen to.
Finally, though, there is also the question of conservation.
Sadly, the chimpanzee is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN Red List, and they are threatened by a number of different sources.
By making them the national animal, the government of Sierra Leone hopes to bring attention to their plight.
How intelligent are chimpanzees?
Intelligence is not something that is as easy to quantify as we might like–IQ tests are not much use for telling a human’s overall intelligence, really, never mind a chimpanzee.
But with that said, chimpanzees are obviously highly intelligent by most metrics.
Their tool use is typically the greatest illustration of their intelligence–they can manipulate their environment and even visualize a completed tool, like a spear, before it is finished.
They are thought to be roughly on par with a two to five-year-old child in terms of basic cognition.
Are chimpanzees friendly to humans?
Wild chimpanzees would not be friendly to humans and in fact, are extremely dangerous.
They are highly territorial and can be extremely aggressive if provoked, not to mention that they are enormously strong and can seriously wound or kill a person with their bare hands.
Of course, humans can have good relationships with chimpanzees in the context of rehabilitation and study.
Trust can be built between humans and chimpanzees, but in general, chimps are not going to be friendly to people or indeed any other species that is seen to be encroaching on its territory or upsetting the social balance of its group.
Closely related to us as they may be, then, they are also an animal with a great capacity for what we would see as brutal behavior.
Of course, we are bringing our own preconceptions to a judgment like that, but the point is that we should understand the distance between chimps and ourselves as much as the relationship.
In any case, they embody in this way a number of important symbolic things to the people of Sierra Leone.