Follow the epic true story of the world's most famous wild chimpanzee clan, filmed over eight years at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.
Find out more about the challenges facing these and all chimps in today's world.
Chimp family tree
Gombe's chimpanzees are world famous and have been featured in wildlife films for the last 40 years. Chimp Week brings their stories up to date. Explore the character profiles below and come back for daily updates during the week of programmes.
The Gombe chimps are named using the first letter of their mother's name. Chimp Week concentrates on the 'F' and 'G' families with Fifi and Gremlin at the top of their family lines.
Chimpanzee communities can number up to 150 individuals, but rarely all come together as a single group. Instead, they live in an ever changing 'fission-fusion' social system, moving around in family, mixed sex or bachelor groups – or even alone.
Females tend to migrate to neighbouring communities at puberty, though at Gombe about 50% stay in their natal groups.
Find out more about chimp behaviour and about the conservation issues facing these and other great apes through the links from the character profiles above and from the series page on Apes in Danger.
