TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: February 19, 2008
At a research site in Fongoli, Senegal, a female chimpanzee
breaks off a branch, chews the end to make it sharp, then uses
this rudimentary spear to skewer a tasty bushbaby hiding
inside a hollow tree. The footage represents an astonishing
breakthrough for primate researchers: It's the first time
anyone has documented a chimpanzee wielding a carefully
prepared, preplanned weapon.
But it's only the latest in a slew of extraordinary new
findings about ape behavior. The more researchers learn about
the great apes—chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and
orangutans (see
Our Family Tree)—the more evidence they find of creative intelligence.
What, then, is the essential difference between us and them?
"Ape Genius," a NOVA-National Geographic special, explores
that provocative question and examines research that is
illuminating the ape mind.
The spear-wielding chimps were documented by anthropologist
Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University, who also observed the
Fongoli colony doing something else never documented before:
holding a pool party. Chimps were long thought to be afraid of
water, but as charming poolside footage reveals, these hairy
bathers swing from the trees and take the plunge in high
spirits.
In addition to Pruetz, "Ape Genius" features contributions by
other noted researchers, including Brian Hare of Duke
University, Andrew Whiten of the University of St. Andrews,
Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University, Rebecca Saxe of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Josep Call and
Michael Tomasello of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology. (For an extended interview with Rebecca Saxe,
see
The Ape That Teaches.)
Bit by bit, these investigators are converging on an
explanation for why the non-human great apes never made the
breakthrough into an accelerating human-style culture that
builds on the achievements of previous generations. After all,
apes are stronger and more agile than we are. They have also
shown previously unsuspected talents for reasoning, creative
problem solving, and other intelligent traits. Some have even
demonstrated rudimentary language abilities (see
Kanzi the Bonobo). And their emotional lives seem on a par with ours, as is
evident in moving footage of a mother chimp dealing with the
sickness and death of her child.
But something has held them back. What?
"Ape Genius" takes viewers to the African savannah and
research labs in Texas, Germany, and Japan to explore a number
of fascinating new experiments that shed light on just what
apes are thinking. (More footage of such experiments is
available in
Video Extras.)
Through careful design, such tests spotlight different
features of the ape mind, and striking variation between one
species and another. For example, bonobos appear far more
cooperative than chimps and will work together on a simple
task that yields a box of food to split. Chimps are more
selfish under such circumstances, but they appear to have a
code of conduct and will seek revenge when they have been
wronged intentionally.
One of the program's most startling experiments suggests that
chimps can easily outsmart young children. In this test,
toddlers follow a series of steps shown to them by an adult
teacher to obtain a piece of candy. Some of the steps are
clearly unnecessary and nonsensical, but the toddlers
mindlessly follow every stage of the instructions. In
contrast, chimps cut out the unnecessary steps and get the
candy quickly. Yet the chimps' greater cunning can't disguise
an important implication of the experiment: We humans have a
built-in expectation that others are trying to teach
us—an expectation that may have played a vital role in
the unique growth of human intelligence (see
What Makes Us Human?).
Something as simple as a common
gesture—pointing—marks another key difference
between apes and humans. Apes don't seem to relate to the act
of communication involved when a researcher points at an
object. They can't understand it as a request to attend to the
same object, and therefore they miss out on a crucial link in
the learning process.
Ultimately, such gaps between humans and apes—the little
differences that make the big difference—may explain why
we study them and not the other way around.
Program Transcript
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