By Saloni Mathur
HEART-WARMING images of a chimpanzee mum and child in hysterics have been captured.
Images show the Western Chimpanzee mum and her young child rolling back onto to the grass laughing with total abandon.
Other pictures reveal them sharing a joke, taking part in tickle-time as well as a calming cuddle when it all gets too much.
Western Chimpanzees are considered to be critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), only around 18,000 Western chimpanzees remain across Africa.
Small populations of the Western chimpanzee are still found ranging from Senegal to Ghana in West Africa but have become extinct in Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo.
Western chimpanzees are a unique community of chimps where some of its subspecies have been shown to manufacture wooden spears to hunt down other primates, crack nuts open by balancing them on a root and pounding them with a stone.
It is understood that many of these behaviours could be culturally transmitted through social learning across generations.
These adorable images of living a healthy and hearty life at Chester Zoo were snapped by Mark Blakemore, a British wildlife photographer.
“This pair was a joy to photograph and it looked like someone had just told them a very funny joke and they were rolling around the floor laughing.
“Chimpanzees have always fascinated me as they are highly intelligent and social apes and our closest living relatives.
“Each has individual features, just like we do, including skin colour, hair cover and facial shapes.
“They also have opposable thumbs and toes which they can use to grip tools, long arms for ‘knuckle-walking’ and reaching, and extreme strength which helps them move through canopies.
“I travel around the UK’s zoos and animal parks to take photos of these beautiful and amazing animals.”
ENDS
