Since becoming involved in Roots and Shoots, I’ve become more knowledgeable of and engaged by the many parallels between chimps and humans. Did you know that it was Jane Goodall who discovered that chimps are omnivores like us?! Before she observed chimps eating a bush pig, people thought that chimps were vegetarians. Like humans, chimps are highly social animals who have strong bonds to their community groups as well as family members. Young chimps have a particularly strong relationship with their mother and even sleep in their mother’s nest for the first five years of their lives! They also have both opposable thumbs (like us) and opposable big toes – a difference that makes them well suited to clinging to branches as they swing through the trees!

Even though there are many aspects of our behaviours that make us similar to one another, Roots and Shoots has also led…