Isabel's blog

Scientists have found that chimpanzees, which are similar to us, also stop having babies as they get older, just like women. This discovery challenges what we used to think, that only some animals go through this. It’s making us rethink why this happens. The researchers watched these chimps in a forest for a long time and found that they don’t have babies when they get older.

One of the scientists, Dr. Kevin Langergraber, says, “We need to rethink what we know about why this happens in these animals. The way they live and the things around them might be changing this.” It’s possible that before, more of them had this happen, but now, things like people hunting them and making them sick might be making it less common.

This discovery in chimpanzees has made scientists curious about other animals and how they live. They want to know if other animals also change the way they have babies as they get older. Some animals might have special reasons for stopping having babies, like needing to take care of their families in different ways. Understanding how different animals handle these changes can help us learn more about the ways animals adapt to their environments over time.

This new understanding is helping scientists see that animals and people are more connected than we thought. It’s making us ask questions about how animals take care of their families and why some things happen the way they do. By studying chimpanzees and other animals, we can learn more about how they live and what they need to survive. This can also help us understand how we can better protect them and make sure they have what they need to stay healthy.