Sticks or soft stems are use to get ants and other insects by inserting them into holes. They also use sticks or rocks to break open fruits with shells too hard to bite open. Chimpanzee diets are composed mainly of ripe fruits. They also enjoy eating young leaves particularly in the afternoon. In long dry seasons when fruit is scarce, they eat tree seeds, flowers, soft pith, galls, resin and bark.
Females spend twice as much time as males eating insects.
Birds are caught only occasionally. Mammals, such as monkeys, pigs and antelope are also eaten, particularly by males. Wild females mature 3-4 years later. The newborn chimpanzee is helpless, with only a weak grasping reflex and needing support from the mother's hand during travel. Within a few days it clings to the mother's underside without assistance and begins riding on her back at 5-7 months.