The Chimpanzees Of Bossou And Nimba

The chimpanzees of Bossou in Guinea, West Africa, form a unique community which displays an exceptional array of tool use behaviors and behavioral adaptations to coexistence with humans. This community of Pan troglodytes verus has contributed more than three decades of data to the field of cultural primatology, especially chimpanzees’ flexible use of stones to crack open nuts and of perishable tools during foraging activities. The book highlights the special contribution of the long-term research at Bossou and more recent studies in surrounding areas, particularly in the Nimba Mountains and the forest of Diécké, to our understanding of wild chimpanzees’ tool use, cognitive development, lithic technology and culture. This compilation of research principally strives to uncover the complexity of the mind and behavioral flexibility of our closest living relatives. This work also reveals the necessity for ongoing efforts to conserve chimpanzees in the region. Chimpanzees have shed more light on our evolutionary origins than any other extant species in the world, yet their numbers in the wild are rapidly declining. In that sense, the Bossou chimpanzees and their neighbors clearly embody an invaluable cultural heritage for humanity as a whole. Readers can enjoy video clips illustrating unique behaviors of Bossou chimpanzees, in an exclusive DVD accompanying the hardcover or at a dedicated website described in the softcover.

Preface, by Tetsuro Matsuzawa. "Twenty five years have already passed since Dr. Yukimaru Sugiyama started his long-term research of wild chimpanzees at Bossou. Following him, many Japanese scientists including me have devoted themselves for the field research at Bossou, Nimba and the surrounding areas in the collaboration with Guinean people. In the year of 2001, Guinean government finally succeeded to start the new research institute at Bossou called IREB (the present director is Mr. Mamoudou Diakite). The institute is very unique because the research facility was built on site of the World Natural Heritage, Nimba mountains. Nimba is the only one WNH in the three countries. Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and Liberia. In the course of the discussion with officers of DNRST and IREB in Guinean government, I recognized the necessity of looking back the history of the collaboration between the two countries, Guinea and Japan. This report is the collection of articles published in English. I hope this collection will help people understand the efforts done by Japanese scientists for the research and the conservation of wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Nimba, and the surrounding areas. Please do not cite this collection as a whole, but cite each article. The financial support was given by a grant from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (Grant No. 12002009)."

This book investigates current field and theoretical information on great ape cognition.

Biologists and anthropologists in Japan have played a crucial role in the development of primatology as a scientific discipline. Publication of Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior under the editorship of Tetsuro Matsuzawa reaffirms the pervasive and creative role played by the intellectual descendants of Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani in the fields of behavioral ecology, psychology, and cognitive science. Matsuzawa and his colleagues-humans and other primate partners- explore a broad range of issues including the phylogeny of perception and cognition; the origin of human speech; learning and memory; recognition of self, others, and species; society and social interaction; and culture. With data from field and laboratory studies of more than 90 primate species and of more than 50 years of long-term research, the intellectual breadth represented in this volume makes it a major contribution to comparative cognitive science and to current views on the origin of the mind and behavior of humans.

An introduction to chimpanzee behavior and conservation, synthesizing findings from long-term field studies in the African rainforest belt.

Wild chimpanzees are only found in tropical Africa, where their populations have declined by more than 66% in the last 30 years. This Action Plan focuses on one of the four chimpanzee subspecies, the western chimpanzee, which is one of the two subspecies most threatened with extinction. This publication presents a plan for action that represents a consensus among all parties concerned with the conservation of chimpanzees.

An engaging account of the research and key findings on Taï chimpanzees to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this project.

Historical Remarks Bearing on the Discovery of Pan paniscus Whether by accident or by design, it was most fortunate that Robert M. Yerkes, the dean of American primatologists, should have been the first scientist to describe the characteristics of a pygmy chimpanzee, which he acquired in August 1923, when he purchased him and a young female companion from a dealer in New York. The chimpanzees came from somewhere in the eastern region of the Belgian Congo and Yerkes esti mated the male's age at about 4 years. He called this young male Prince Chim (and named his female, com mon chimpanzee counterpart Panzee) (Fig. I). In his popular book, Almost Human, Yerkes (1925) states that in all his experiences as a student of animal behavior, "I have never met an animal the equal of this young chimp . . . in approach to physical perfection, alertness, adaptability, and agreeableness of disposition" (Yerkes, 1925, p. 244). Moreover, It would not be easy to find two infants more markedly different in bodily traits, temperament, intelligence, vocalization and their varied expressions in action, than Chim and Panzee. Here are just a few points of contrast. His eyes were black and in his dark face lacked contrast and seemed beady, cold, expressionless. Hers were brown, soft, and full of emotional value, chiefly because of their color and the contrast with her light complexion.