Young chimpanzees take more risks than human children, surprising new study reveals

A groundbreaking study has overturned long-held assumptions about risk-taking behavior in our closest evolutionary relatives. While human teenagers are notorious for their dangerous stunts and reckless behavior, new research published in iScience reveals that chimpanzees actually engage in their most daredevil activities as infants—not adolescents.

Undergraduate researcher Bryce Murray from the University of Michigan made this discovery while analyzing video footage from the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project in Uganda. He observed young chimps, particularly infants, repeatedly performing death-defying acrobatics high in the forest canopy. “I kept seeing these behaviors that seemed very risky,” Murray explained, describing how infant chimps would leap between branches or drop through the air without holding onto anything—essentially free-falling through the trees.

This finding challenges scientists’ expectations, as researchers had assumed chimpanzees would mirror human developmental patterns of risk-taking behavior. The observations are particularly striking given the real dangers involved: these aerial stunts occur 10 meters (33 feet) or more above ground, and previous studies have found that about a third of chimpanzee skeletons show evidence of bone fractures, likely from falls.

While chimpanzees are naturally adapted for arboreal life and master tree climbing by age two, the frequency and intensity of risky behavior among the youngest chimps suggests something beyond mere skill development. This research opens new questions about how risk-taking behavior evolved differently in humans versus our primate cousins, and what evolutionary advantages such early daredevil behavior might provide for young chimpanzees.