Chimpanzee

Our closest living relative, the chimpanzee shares approx. 98.4% of our DNA. There is no other creature that walks like us or talks like us, and a DNA profile, no matter how close, is still so incredibly far. Human beings have evolved under completely different circumstances from chimpanzees. Yet when we look at the animal kingdom, modern chimpanzee society is the only one that is very much like our own.

Male dominated and alarmingly violent, chimpanzees are the only animals other than ourselves who regularly engage in organized, deliberate and stealthy warfare, and most frighteningly, the gratuitous mutilation of their victims. Yet they are brilliantly creative problem solvers and tool-makers, with definitive cultural differences from troop to troop that are taught to the young and handed down through generations.

Often kind, loyal, loving and empathetic, the chimpanzee is indeed our closest kin, in more ways than mere DNA can ever suggest.