Hobbies And Interests
Face
The juvenile chimpanzee shows some of the "baby face" that makes the infant so appealing. Infantile features in humans and chimps include a head that is large in proportion to the body and a small, rounded facial area containing large eyes set low on the head, a small nose and a short chin. As the infant becomes a juvenile, the baby face changes gradually to a more adult face, with a longer jaw and heavier bone structure. A baby-faced juvenile chimp may have paler facial skin.
Body
Juvenile chimps tend to retain the infant's white tuft of hair on the rump until about age 5. Infants have arms and legs of about equal length, but in the juvenile the upper limbs lengthen until in the adult the arms are approximately one and a half times the length of the legs. Observed long-term, female juveniles do not develop the genital swelling and color changes of the sexually active female.
Activity
Juvenile chimps are more likely to climb higher in trees and brachiate (swing from branch to branch) and to walk upright for longer periods than older and heavier adults. They are also more likely than adults to interact playfully, wrestling and chasing.
The Other Chimp
Bonobos, or pigmy chimps, are smaller and finer-boned than the common chimpanzee and tend to look young, even as adults. Adult bonobos can be mistaken physically for juvenile common chimps because they retain the white tail tuft and have the longer, finer and thicker head and body hair that in the adult common chimp thins and coarsens.