1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:00,825 "THE NEW CHIMpANZEES" 2 00:00:02,569 --> 00:00:03,763 Chimpanzees. 3 00:00:06,106 --> 00:00:11,339 So like us, we are both captivated and repelled. 4 00:00:14,180 --> 00:00:19,584 As we move through the looking glass into their world we are transformed. 5 00:00:20,553 --> 00:00:23,852 Chimpanzees, our forest-dwelling counterparts, 6 00:00:24,391 --> 00:00:26,188 unite us with the rest of nature. 7 00:00:28,995 --> 00:00:32,362 Eerily, they recall our prehistoric ancestors. 8 00:00:36,836 --> 00:00:38,963 Their social life reflects ours, too. 9 00:00:40,673 --> 00:00:42,163 With paramilitary patrols 10 00:00:45,478 --> 00:00:50,609 political struggles for power and gain even outright wars. 11 00:00:55,922 --> 00:00:58,322 The tender affection they show for one another 12 00:01:00,593 --> 00:01:05,087 their gestures and expressions all seem strangely familiar. 13 00:01:14,407 --> 00:01:17,103 Their invention of tools forced us to redefine 14 00:01:17,243 --> 00:01:19,973 what sets humanity apart from the beast. 15 00:01:22,148 --> 00:01:25,675 And now we discover that chimps developed not only tools, 16 00:01:26,453 --> 00:01:29,980 but entire cultures which they pass on to their young. 17 00:01:31,691 --> 00:01:34,353 Even medicine seems within their grasp 18 00:01:36,529 --> 00:01:41,432 And when stalked by death, they seem to feel a sorrow we can share. 19 00:01:45,839 --> 00:01:47,704 With a shiver of recognition, 20 00:01:48,541 --> 00:01:55,879 we glimpse the mind of the chimp and realize we are not alone. 21 00:02:41,294 --> 00:02:43,592 Come with us on a voyage of discovery, 22 00:02:44,364 --> 00:02:46,798 a journey into our collective past. 23 00:02:49,335 --> 00:02:52,998 We retrace our steps back into the forest of Africa, 24 00:02:53,740 --> 00:02:58,143 the ancient homeland our species abandoned some six million years ago. 25 00:03:00,713 --> 00:03:01,873 We left behind, then, 26 00:03:02,315 --> 00:03:07,776 our closest relation the one being on this planet most like us. 27 00:03:09,389 --> 00:03:13,917 For there is a mind in the forest, a mind very much like our own, 28 00:03:16,429 --> 00:03:19,091 And it lights the eyes of the chimp. 29 00:03:22,268 --> 00:03:26,170 Chimpanzees share more than 97% of our genes. 30 00:03:26,873 --> 00:03:28,204 And it shows. 31 00:03:30,810 --> 00:03:32,835 The invention and use of tools 32 00:03:32,979 --> 00:03:35,311 was supposed to set us apart from the other animals. 33 00:03:36,216 --> 00:03:39,652 But this chimpanzee is "fishing" for safari ants 34 00:03:39,786 --> 00:03:43,517 with a wand specially selected and pruned for the task 35 00:03:45,058 --> 00:03:47,925 Chimps make and use many tools 36 00:03:48,595 --> 00:03:51,359 skills passed on from mother to child part 37 00:03:51,497 --> 00:03:53,124 of their cultural heritage. 38 00:03:59,272 --> 00:04:02,105 "Ant-fishing" requires real expertise. 39 00:04:03,009 --> 00:04:07,708 Safari ants are a rich food source, but they pack a vicious bite. 40 00:04:09,048 --> 00:04:11,539 With one fell swoop, they're down. 41 00:04:20,193 --> 00:04:23,685 At eight years of age, her daughter still has much to learn. 42 00:04:31,871 --> 00:04:34,601 But someday she will master this technique, 43 00:04:35,008 --> 00:04:36,771 not just by trial and error 44 00:04:39,946 --> 00:04:41,811 but by watching her mother at work 45 00:04:43,449 --> 00:04:45,508 For the past 35 years, 46 00:04:45,652 --> 00:04:49,088 scientists have been watching and learning from her mother, as well. 47 00:04:50,490 --> 00:04:54,051 She was an infant herself when she met her first human being, 48 00:04:54,694 --> 00:04:56,252 who named her Fifi. 49 00:04:57,630 --> 00:04:59,393 That human was Jane Goodall. 50 00:05:00,867 --> 00:05:02,334 Jane came to Know Fifi, 51 00:05:02,802 --> 00:05:06,169 her mother Flo and her entire family quite intimately 52 00:05:07,140 --> 00:05:10,871 Goodall was the first human to be accepted by wild chimpanzees. 53 00:05:12,011 --> 00:05:17,415 What she discovered revolutionized our concept of chimps and of ourselves. 54 00:05:21,654 --> 00:05:25,146 All across Africa, others have followed Goodall's lead. 55 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,924 A second species of chimpanzee is studied by Takayoshi Kano. 56 00:05:32,832 --> 00:05:36,268 Called bonobos, they're famous for their human like appearance, 57 00:05:36,936 --> 00:05:39,427 and the way they substitute sex for violence 58 00:05:40,206 --> 00:05:42,231 unlike the more aggressive chimp studied 59 00:05:42,375 --> 00:05:43,706 by Goodall and Christophe Boesch. 60 00:05:45,345 --> 00:05:47,609 Boesch has unveiled hunting strategies 61 00:05:47,747 --> 00:05:50,307 and elaborate tool use among rainforest 62 00:05:50,950 --> 00:05:54,852 Chimps leading him to suggest these things might have evolved 63 00:05:54,987 --> 00:05:56,352 before our forebears left the forest. 64 00:05:59,325 --> 00:06:03,022 And Richard Wrangham believes he may even have discovered Chimps 65 00:06:03,162 --> 00:06:05,130 practicing a primitive kind of medicine. 66 00:06:12,171 --> 00:06:15,800 The new research takes us ever further into the chimp's world, 67 00:06:16,109 --> 00:06:19,101 giving us a new perspective on our shared legacy. 68 00:06:23,182 --> 00:06:27,118 Chimpanzees and humans sprang from the same primate stock 69 00:06:27,887 --> 00:06:30,822 our paths diverged only some six million years ago, 70 00:06:30,957 --> 00:06:34,188 with our human forebears moving onto the plains 71 00:06:34,327 --> 00:06:36,522 leaving the forest to the chimpanzees. 72 00:06:37,263 --> 00:06:41,324 But shared characteristics are written deep in both our primate souls. 73 00:06:42,602 --> 00:06:45,799 Chimps, too, are capable of creating distinct cultures. 74 00:06:46,973 --> 00:06:51,740 Various "nations" of chimps cling to life across the African landscape. 75 00:06:54,180 --> 00:06:58,583 Chimpanzees once thrived throughout the forests of equatorial Africa, 76 00:06:58,985 --> 00:07:01,852 while bonobos were restricted to the Congo basin. 77 00:07:02,555 --> 00:07:06,150 Today, both species survive in isolated fragments, 78 00:07:06,459 --> 00:07:08,359 and are studied at a handful of sites. 79 00:07:09,195 --> 00:07:12,562 Gombe, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, 80 00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:16,396 was where Jane Goodall began her study 35 years ago. 81 00:07:18,638 --> 00:07:21,664 Fifi is the only chimp still alive from that time 82 00:07:22,241 --> 00:07:23,868 with six surviving offspring. 83 00:07:26,179 --> 00:07:29,740 Freud, her eldest, is now the dominant male in her group, 84 00:07:30,450 --> 00:07:32,077 while her younger son, Frodo, 85 00:07:32,819 --> 00:07:36,949 is the largest chimp at Gombe and working his way up the male hierarchy. 86 00:07:39,025 --> 00:07:42,290 Freud now leads the tightly bonded party of males that 87 00:07:42,428 --> 00:07:43,690 form the core of the group. 88 00:07:45,565 --> 00:07:47,726 Male chimps stay in the group of their birth, 89 00:07:47,867 --> 00:07:50,131 and cooperate when there is common cause. 90 00:07:57,743 --> 00:07:58,710 Every week or so, 91 00:07:58,978 --> 00:08:01,242 the males form a paramilitary patrol to defend 92 00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:05,373 and test the borders of their territory. 93 00:08:05,518 --> 00:08:08,248 In single file and total silence, 94 00:08:08,888 --> 00:08:11,686 they follow their leader in search of trespassing neighbors. 95 00:08:12,558 --> 00:08:16,688 Hair standing on end, they listen for the voices of their foes. 96 00:08:21,067 --> 00:08:24,935 Each community of male chimps jealously guard their territory 97 00:08:25,071 --> 00:08:26,834 and the females in residence. 98 00:08:30,042 --> 00:08:32,067 A stranger turns and flees. 99 00:08:33,279 --> 00:08:35,839 Though groups of males rarely engage in battle, 100 00:08:36,182 --> 00:08:39,811 an individual caught by a border patrol is at serious risk 101 00:08:43,055 --> 00:08:47,458 In the 1970's, Jane Goodall described a harrowing chain of events. 102 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,155 Her study group split in two, 103 00:08:50,296 --> 00:08:52,127 and over the course of four years, 104 00:08:52,265 --> 00:08:55,632 the males of one group systematically hunted down 105 00:08:55,768 --> 00:08:58,965 and brutally killed every adult in the other group 106 00:09:00,373 --> 00:09:03,308 chilling evidence that warfare is a painful legacy 107 00:09:03,543 --> 00:09:05,170 from our primate forebears. 108 00:09:11,450 --> 00:09:15,477 Gombe's steep slopes the stage for all this high drama tumble 109 00:09:15,621 --> 00:09:18,715 from open grassland to riverene forest, 110 00:09:19,025 --> 00:09:22,893 from the top of the Great Rift to the blue basin of Tanganyika. 111 00:09:30,736 --> 00:09:35,196 Today, a new generation climbs the path blazed by Jane Goodall. 112 00:09:52,358 --> 00:09:55,122 Charlotte Uhlenbroek is studying pant hoots, 113 00:09:55,628 --> 00:09:56,993 the long range calls of chimps. 114 00:09:58,197 --> 00:10:00,097 She follows one male all day, 115 00:10:00,733 --> 00:10:04,533 recording the precise time and circumstances of any pant hoot he makes 116 00:10:06,539 --> 00:10:12,478 Her Tanzanian associate, Issa Salala, follows another male and does the same 117 00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:14,773 At the end of the day, they will compare their notes, 118 00:10:15,414 --> 00:10:19,009 to see whether they've witnessed two sides of a conversation, 119 00:10:19,151 --> 00:10:20,880 and to try and decipher its meaning. 120 00:10:34,433 --> 00:10:37,596 The pant hoots are certainly conveying some meaning. 121 00:10:37,737 --> 00:10:41,229 Um, what, what I'm trying to find out is exactly 122 00:10:41,374 --> 00:10:45,470 how specific are the meanings of these different calls. 123 00:10:45,611 --> 00:10:50,878 I mean, um, does a particular pant-hoot convey something about a food source? 124 00:10:51,017 --> 00:10:52,848 Does it say, Come here boys? 125 00:10:52,985 --> 00:10:55,078 Does it say I'll meet you up in the next valley? 126 00:10:55,221 --> 00:11:00,056 Or are they directed at family members at allies, at friends? 127 00:11:00,192 --> 00:11:04,094 Or are they just, generally, Anyone that can hear me, this is my message? 128 00:11:16,208 --> 00:11:18,335 We haven't got our ears tuned in. 129 00:11:18,477 --> 00:11:20,741 I mean, it's like different cultures very often, 130 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,873 it's difficult to hear a slightly different, uh, pronunciation. 131 00:11:25,017 --> 00:11:29,181 So, certainly, we're not hearing all the difference out of these. 132 00:11:31,824 --> 00:11:36,284 Sometimes, there's still just a cacophony of screams out there and you 133 00:11:36,429 --> 00:11:38,863 very hard push to pull them apart; but, I'm sure the chimps can, 134 00:11:38,998 --> 00:11:42,399 I'm sure they, they Know exactly what's going on. 135 00:11:44,670 --> 00:11:46,604 Sometimes words won't suffice. 136 00:11:52,778 --> 00:11:55,941 Males perform displays dramatic 137 00:11:56,415 --> 00:12:00,442 performances designed to establish their dominance and intimidate rivals. 138 00:12:04,690 --> 00:12:08,148 Fearless, Frodo sometimes uses the human researchers 139 00:12:08,294 --> 00:12:09,727 to enhance his displays. 140 00:12:14,700 --> 00:12:16,827 Even Charlotte has fallen prey. 141 00:12:17,970 --> 00:12:19,164 He'll give me a whack 142 00:12:19,305 --> 00:12:22,240 He'll just, just kind of add a little flourish, 143 00:12:22,374 --> 00:12:25,241 by incorporating me, but it's not directed at me. 144 00:12:25,377 --> 00:12:29,108 He, if he wants to hurt somebody, he could have done it. 145 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,883 Females and their young are dominated by this threat of force. 146 00:12:40,659 --> 00:12:43,924 But when the fruit crop is ample, everyone feasts. 147 00:12:49,468 --> 00:12:53,427 A mother's care is the primary influence on a young chimp's life. 148 00:12:54,340 --> 00:12:55,864 Orphans find life hard. 149 00:12:57,610 --> 00:13:00,078 Mel was orphaned at the tender age of three. 150 00:13:01,046 --> 00:13:04,504 Only the generosity of others has allowed him to survive 151 00:13:04,650 --> 00:13:05,844 for six more years. 152 00:13:14,593 --> 00:13:17,391 Still, he seems to miss the affection he 153 00:13:17,530 --> 00:13:21,728 would have Known within his mother's arms something this little baby 154 00:13:22,301 --> 00:13:23,325 seems to understand. 155 00:13:39,418 --> 00:13:42,819 A temporary respite from a life of loneliness. 156 00:13:49,628 --> 00:13:51,789 Beyond the bond between mother and child, 157 00:13:52,464 --> 00:13:55,922 political relationships are the life's blood of chimp society. 158 00:13:56,669 --> 00:13:59,900 Even while relaxing, chimps are jockeying for status. 159 00:14:00,940 --> 00:14:03,670 Grooming is, quite literally, currying favor. 160 00:14:07,379 --> 00:14:11,145 Alliances become apparent by observing who grooms whom. 161 00:14:14,820 --> 00:14:17,653 Dominant animals and their allies get the best pickings. 162 00:14:18,390 --> 00:14:20,187 Food is a precious commodity. 163 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:24,618 They often compress fruit into a pulpy "wodge," 164 00:14:25,364 --> 00:14:29,664 something like a tobacco chaw, to extract every last drop ofjuice. 165 00:14:32,705 --> 00:14:36,004 But the calls of colobus monkeys whet another appetite 166 00:14:36,141 --> 00:14:37,870 not so easily satisfied. 167 00:14:40,479 --> 00:14:42,845 When a monkey troop is spotted nearby, 168 00:14:42,982 --> 00:14:47,783 the most avid hunter recruits other males to join forces in a hunting party 169 00:14:58,964 --> 00:15:02,764 Red colobus monkeys nervously watch the gathering of bodies below. 170 00:15:04,803 --> 00:15:08,534 Craig Stanford studies the relationship between colobus and chimps. 171 00:15:09,275 --> 00:15:12,438 He hopes to shed light on the origins of human hunting. 172 00:15:13,445 --> 00:15:16,539 We Know that, at some point early in human evolution, 173 00:15:16,682 --> 00:15:18,479 meat became an important part of the diet. 174 00:15:18,617 --> 00:15:20,346 We don't understand exactly how that happened 175 00:15:20,486 --> 00:15:22,477 was it scavenging meat or hunting meat 176 00:15:22,621 --> 00:15:25,419 Well, we Know that the earliest stage of human evolution happened 177 00:15:25,557 --> 00:15:27,422 in a habitat just like this. 178 00:15:27,893 --> 00:15:30,259 East African woodland that's got open areas 179 00:15:30,663 --> 00:15:33,598 onto which our ancestors eventually moved and adapted to. 180 00:15:33,933 --> 00:15:35,594 So, to be able to study hunting here 181 00:15:35,734 --> 00:15:38,430 is the best way to give us some kind of window 182 00:15:38,570 --> 00:15:41,061 onto the earliest origins of meat eating in our ancestors, 183 00:15:41,540 --> 00:15:42,871 four or more million years ago. 184 00:15:45,411 --> 00:15:48,005 Frodo is the best of the Gombe hunters 185 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,610 He's 17 years old and yet he's killed 10% of the colobus population 186 00:15:52,751 --> 00:15:54,013 in the last three years. 187 00:15:54,820 --> 00:15:59,223 It's really quite an incredible animal and a great hunter. 188 00:15:59,858 --> 00:16:00,586 That was Frodo. 189 00:16:02,361 --> 00:16:06,627 All the hunters, including Frodo, will try to catch a monkey for himself 190 00:16:07,299 --> 00:16:10,996 By joining forces, the chimps hope to strand some monkeys 191 00:16:11,136 --> 00:16:12,535 in an isolated treetop, 192 00:16:13,038 --> 00:16:17,202 with no route of escape except into the clutches of a chimp. 193 00:16:19,712 --> 00:16:21,771 Although we see elements of cooperation at Gombe, 194 00:16:22,181 --> 00:16:25,344 what we thing we're seeing mainly is individual, 195 00:16:25,484 --> 00:16:27,247 selfish behavior by male hunters, 196 00:16:27,519 --> 00:16:29,350 done within a communal setting. 197 00:16:29,488 --> 00:16:33,652 It's a little bit like a baseball game in that baseball is a communal game 198 00:16:33,792 --> 00:16:36,955 in which individual players are doing their piece and in the end, 199 00:16:37,096 --> 00:16:39,656 the end result is going to be success or a failure. 200 00:16:39,965 --> 00:16:40,932 The more hunters there are, 201 00:16:41,066 --> 00:16:43,227 the greater the odds of success and, yet, 202 00:16:43,369 --> 00:16:45,997 each individual hunter is performing selfishly. 203 00:16:47,906 --> 00:16:49,203 As the chimps climb up, 204 00:16:49,341 --> 00:16:51,901 the colobus retreat to the highest branches 205 00:16:52,044 --> 00:16:54,035 too slender to bear a chimp's weight. 206 00:16:59,551 --> 00:17:02,850 The male colobus stand their ground against chimps up 207 00:17:02,988 --> 00:17:04,546 to four times their size. 208 00:17:05,224 --> 00:17:09,558 They will even take the offensive momentarily driving the chimps back 209 00:17:21,607 --> 00:17:23,837 Holding his tail out of the chimp's reach, 210 00:17:24,276 --> 00:17:28,110 this male buys precious time for the escape of the females and young. 211 00:17:47,099 --> 00:17:50,967 Excited by the cries of hunter and prey, females appear below. 212 00:17:52,471 --> 00:17:54,268 Eighty feet above the ground, 213 00:17:54,406 --> 00:17:56,931 Frodo displays his daring technique. 214 00:18:01,113 --> 00:18:02,944 But this time, he misses. 215 00:18:08,353 --> 00:18:10,514 With chimps climbing everywhere, 216 00:18:10,656 --> 00:18:13,056 one monkey leaps into the arms of death. 217 00:18:16,228 --> 00:18:19,595 Even a rear attack by the defending colobus cannot save him. 218 00:18:30,476 --> 00:18:33,206 The young hunter displays with his kill, 219 00:18:33,345 --> 00:18:35,336 but his triumph is short liver. 220 00:18:36,448 --> 00:18:38,848 Freud simply confiscates the carcass. 221 00:18:42,588 --> 00:18:48,959 Freud settles down to share with his allies. 222 00:18:49,761 --> 00:18:53,492 Meat is a valuable currency , a payment for favors. 223 00:18:56,668 --> 00:18:58,602 Females come begging for a taste. 224 00:19:06,578 --> 00:19:08,808 The orphan, Mel, searches for scraps 225 00:19:11,750 --> 00:19:13,308 but he's soon sent packing. 226 00:19:14,953 --> 00:19:17,285 Frodo, frustrated and hungry, 227 00:19:17,422 --> 00:19:19,686 tries to muscle his way to a place at the table. 228 00:19:25,230 --> 00:19:27,323 But Freud will have none of 229 00:19:29,701 --> 00:19:31,362 it leaving Frodo to rage. 230 00:19:38,210 --> 00:19:41,737 His friends rush in to placate him to little effect. 231 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:50,252 With up to 11 males hunting together, 232 00:19:50,822 --> 00:19:53,086 multiple kills are common at Gombe. 233 00:19:53,759 --> 00:19:57,217 As many as seven monkeys have been taken on a single hunt. 234 00:20:00,699 --> 00:20:02,997 Chimps like a little salad with their entree. 235 00:20:03,635 --> 00:20:05,865 They often eat leaves when they eat meat, 236 00:20:06,305 --> 00:20:08,967 sometimes eating kinds they never touch otherwise. 237 00:20:11,343 --> 00:20:15,575 On average, the Gombe chimps consume 20% of the Colobus monkeys 238 00:20:15,714 --> 00:20:17,045 in their range each year. 239 00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:23,019 A taste for meat begins early. 240 00:20:28,460 --> 00:20:32,055 The free for all approach to hunting works well in Gombe's low 241 00:20:32,197 --> 00:20:33,562 and relatively open woodland. 242 00:20:34,633 --> 00:20:39,263 Catching monkeys high in the treetops requires a different strategy elsewhere 243 00:20:45,410 --> 00:20:49,710 Christophe Boesch studies chimps in the Tai forest of the Cote d'Ivoire 244 00:20:50,115 --> 00:20:52,106 prime African rainforest. 245 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,778 Most chimps live in green and shadowy depths like these. 246 00:21:00,559 --> 00:21:03,619 The forest canopy an interwoven web 247 00:21:03,762 --> 00:21:08,790 floats over a hundred feet above its reflection in tea colored pools below. 248 00:21:18,710 --> 00:21:19,768 Following his chimps, 249 00:21:20,345 --> 00:21:24,406 he's discovered that they're capable of an extraordinary level of cooperation. 250 00:21:25,951 --> 00:21:29,648 I mean, the chimps of the Tai forest or the tropical rainforest. 251 00:21:30,122 --> 00:21:34,320 The canopy layer is continuous, the biggest mammal they hunt, 252 00:21:34,459 --> 00:21:37,451 the red colobus, they are about a third the weight of the chimps, 253 00:21:37,929 --> 00:21:41,228 what means that when colobus sit on a thin branch, 254 00:21:41,366 --> 00:21:42,458 the chimps can't go there, 255 00:21:43,001 --> 00:21:44,468 if he go there, he fall down on the ground. 256 00:21:44,903 --> 00:21:46,928 So, there is a big problem, 257 00:21:47,072 --> 00:21:48,004 they have to use, 258 00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:51,598 solve it and the only way to solve it here is by hunting in group. 259 00:21:52,411 --> 00:21:56,814 So that a chimp will drive the prey away in a given direction, 260 00:21:57,616 --> 00:22:00,517 so that the colobus are constantly moving in this direction, 261 00:22:00,652 --> 00:22:03,519 and the driver is really just pushing them in a direction, 262 00:22:03,655 --> 00:22:06,123 he's not trying to capture them, that is, he's not running, 263 00:22:06,258 --> 00:22:08,556 you see that he's just walking in a constant direction. 264 00:22:09,294 --> 00:22:11,854 This gives them the constant direction of flight, 265 00:22:12,964 --> 00:22:15,159 where the chimps on the ground can then organize them and, 266 00:22:15,967 --> 00:22:18,561 if they see that the group splits too much in different directions, 267 00:22:18,704 --> 00:22:20,001 you would have blockers, 268 00:22:20,339 --> 00:22:24,207 individuals that come up in specific trees where colobus might escape, 269 00:22:25,077 --> 00:22:26,635 sort of keep them in constant direction. 270 00:22:29,047 --> 00:22:32,983 And so that, gives them the possibility for them to make the kind of a trap. 271 00:22:33,618 --> 00:22:35,882 So that, by having a driver behind, 272 00:22:36,021 --> 00:22:37,579 some blockers on the side, 273 00:22:38,056 --> 00:22:41,287 they just need somebody actually to come in front of them, 274 00:22:41,426 --> 00:22:45,157 ahead of the movement, and to then close the trap, if you want. 275 00:22:46,298 --> 00:22:49,324 Only the most experienced hunters play this role. 276 00:22:49,735 --> 00:22:54,798 They have to race ahead then climb almost a hundred feet above the canopy 277 00:22:54,940 --> 00:22:58,467 into the crowns of the tallest trees to ambush their prey. 278 00:22:59,678 --> 00:23:01,703 And when they are successful it's incredible 279 00:23:01,847 --> 00:23:04,816 because you can have suddenly all the forest is screaming. 280 00:23:05,350 --> 00:23:08,046 All the chimps Know there have been a capture. 281 00:23:09,287 --> 00:23:10,720 The chimps have made a capture call, 282 00:23:10,856 --> 00:23:14,519 everybody Knows 'meat' that meat is so rare, 283 00:23:14,659 --> 00:23:18,891 it's so difficult to acquire and it's only because, uh, 284 00:23:19,030 --> 00:23:22,591 adult males have worked together that there is meat, 285 00:23:22,734 --> 00:23:26,067 so it's something very special for all group members 286 00:23:26,204 --> 00:23:27,831 and there is a huge excitement with that. 287 00:23:32,244 --> 00:23:36,647 It's really a, a team work and it works only if the team wants to work 288 00:23:37,015 --> 00:23:40,849 and the team doesn't see each other, it's too dense in this forest. 289 00:23:40,986 --> 00:23:45,582 So, they are always anticipating that the other one will come 290 00:23:46,191 --> 00:23:48,489 and often they don't see if they really did theirjob 291 00:23:48,827 --> 00:23:51,227 and it works only if everybody does theirjob. 292 00:23:53,665 --> 00:23:57,032 This kind of work, on the long run, only if meat is shared 293 00:23:57,169 --> 00:24:00,332 according to the work these hunters have been doing 294 00:24:00,906 --> 00:24:03,773 You see, alpha male is not the best hunter or is not hunting 295 00:24:04,176 --> 00:24:05,108 and he doesn't get meat. 296 00:24:06,278 --> 00:24:09,145 You have now an alpha male who's fresh in this position, 297 00:24:09,548 --> 00:24:11,675 that is young and he's not always hunting 298 00:24:12,517 --> 00:24:15,577 and he can really be there displaying 299 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,121 for minutes and not get a tiny piece nothing at all. 300 00:24:25,864 --> 00:24:28,799 This division of the spoils based on right rather than might 301 00:24:29,434 --> 00:24:30,992 reveals a different division of power. 302 00:24:33,205 --> 00:24:35,139 Females, who are allies of the hunters 303 00:24:35,273 --> 00:24:37,241 also gain access to the carcass 304 00:24:39,044 --> 00:24:42,605 bringing their infants closer to the meat than the blustering alpha male. 305 00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,820 If this complex division of labor and food seems almost human, 306 00:24:53,558 --> 00:24:55,492 so does the chimp's love of play. 307 00:25:50,382 --> 00:25:53,783 An infant chimp may seem secure within the bosom of his group, 308 00:25:54,352 --> 00:25:55,614 but this is not always true. 309 00:25:57,656 --> 00:26:01,319 A male has stolen a baby chimp from its frantic mother, 310 00:26:01,726 --> 00:26:03,421 who follows in desperate pursuit. 311 00:26:05,764 --> 00:26:07,925 In the Mahale Mountains, south of Gombe, 312 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,597 researchers have recorded this terrible event not once 313 00:26:12,237 --> 00:26:15,798 but seven times and are at a loss to explain it. 314 00:26:19,210 --> 00:26:22,702 The alpha male is now in possession of the screaming infant. 315 00:26:23,181 --> 00:26:26,173 He actually beats back the mother with her own baby. 316 00:26:34,559 --> 00:26:36,959 Both mother and baby are members of this male's group, 317 00:26:37,696 --> 00:26:41,257 and the infant was presumably sired by one of the group's members. 318 00:26:42,334 --> 00:26:46,361 Males have been Known to kill babies sired by outsiders, 319 00:26:46,638 --> 00:26:49,732 but this kidnapper could very well be the baby's father. 320 00:26:53,378 --> 00:26:56,108 The infant is killed by a savage bite to the face. 321 00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:06,384 Group members share in the macabre feast just as if it were a monkey. 322 00:27:09,427 --> 00:27:11,827 Infanticide and cannibalism 323 00:27:13,565 --> 00:27:15,760 dark reflections of our common legacy. 324 00:27:20,105 --> 00:27:24,098 But the mirror of our primal past reflects light amidst the dark 325 00:27:24,843 --> 00:27:28,574 Aggressive impulses may be rooted in our distant ancestry, 326 00:27:29,214 --> 00:27:32,911 but so is our capacity for peaceful coexistence. 327 00:27:36,388 --> 00:27:38,379 It is in Africa's dark heart 328 00:27:38,857 --> 00:27:43,920 the Congo basin that we find a gentler tributary of our primate legacy. 329 00:27:51,670 --> 00:27:54,537 Takayoshi Kano has led the research here in Wamba, 330 00:27:54,673 --> 00:27:57,301 Zaire, for the past 22 years. 331 00:27:58,677 --> 00:28:00,702 He comes here in search of the second, 332 00:28:00,845 --> 00:28:02,813 little Known species of chimpanzee. 333 00:28:06,384 --> 00:28:10,616 Sugarcane is a sweet lure used to call down the elusive bonobo. 334 00:28:16,928 --> 00:28:19,897 Dr. Kano, and his associate Chie Hashimoto, 335 00:28:20,465 --> 00:28:23,525 have discovered that bonobos are quite distinct 336 00:28:23,668 --> 00:28:26,831 from the chimps studied by Goodall and Boesch. 337 00:28:28,273 --> 00:28:30,207 At first glance they are different. 338 00:28:30,942 --> 00:28:33,069 Although they've been called pygmy chimps, 339 00:28:33,411 --> 00:28:35,902 they're not smaller, just more slightly built. 340 00:28:43,621 --> 00:28:45,680 Hunted elsewhere in Zaire, 341 00:28:45,824 --> 00:28:48,452 they're safe here but wary still. 342 00:28:53,798 --> 00:28:56,892 The sugarcane buffet proves irresistible. 343 00:28:59,370 --> 00:29:02,203 At ease on two legs, as well as on four, 344 00:29:02,340 --> 00:29:04,638 they simply rise up and walk 345 00:29:05,176 --> 00:29:07,440 so their hands are free to carry the cane. 346 00:29:10,515 --> 00:29:11,675 Eerily, their long, 347 00:29:11,816 --> 00:29:16,412 shapely limbs and upright gait recall our own prehistoric forebears. 348 00:29:17,355 --> 00:29:19,186 And their natural two-legged gait 349 00:29:19,324 --> 00:29:22,259 is only the first surprise they have in store for us. 350 00:29:28,233 --> 00:29:31,532 An impressively stern female enters 351 00:29:31,669 --> 00:29:33,193 and snaps a young sapling. 352 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:37,237 Once she picks herself up, 353 00:29:37,375 --> 00:29:40,640 she does something entirely surprising for a female chimp. 354 00:29:42,046 --> 00:29:43,604 She displays! 355 00:29:44,816 --> 00:29:46,545 And the males give her sway. 356 00:29:50,655 --> 00:29:53,920 For this is the confident stride of the group's leader, 357 00:29:54,292 --> 00:29:58,422 its alpha female, whom Kano has named Haru. 358 00:30:06,738 --> 00:30:08,603 Females play a very different role 359 00:30:08,740 --> 00:30:11,231 in bonobo society than they do among chimps. 360 00:30:12,277 --> 00:30:17,044 The reins of power are shared equally between male and female held 361 00:30:17,182 --> 00:30:21,881 by a strongly bonded group of high ranking mothers and their adult sons. 362 00:30:25,089 --> 00:30:28,422 The son of a dominant female can take great liberties. 363 00:30:29,093 --> 00:30:33,154 High-ranking females cooperate to dominate adult males 364 00:30:33,298 --> 00:30:35,493 and support their sons in social conflicts. 365 00:30:40,505 --> 00:30:41,938 Though tough with other adults, 366 00:30:42,373 --> 00:30:46,070 bonobo mothers almost never discipline their babies even 367 00:30:46,211 --> 00:30:48,941 when they steal the food right our of their mouths. 368 00:30:56,921 --> 00:30:59,719 Haku, an 11 year old adolescent male, 369 00:31:00,158 --> 00:31:02,388 has lost the loving attention of his mother. 370 00:31:03,228 --> 00:31:04,252 As an orphan, 371 00:31:04,662 --> 00:31:08,154 he has been forced out, to the very fringesof his own community. 372 00:31:12,003 --> 00:31:14,904 He's old enough now to begin to make his mark but, 373 00:31:15,039 --> 00:31:17,872 without a mother's help, his chance of success is nil. 374 00:31:19,477 --> 00:31:22,310 Males stay with their mothers for their entire lives, 375 00:31:22,447 --> 00:31:23,812 and rely upon their backing. 376 00:31:27,085 --> 00:31:28,382 With no mother to back him up, 377 00:31:29,087 --> 00:31:32,215 Haku must be wary of Ten, the alpha male. 378 00:31:39,497 --> 00:31:42,955 Ten was just about Haku's age when he first rose to power. 379 00:31:43,935 --> 00:31:47,530 Lately, Haku has begun trying to assert himself. 380 00:31:50,775 --> 00:31:52,504 But Ten had an advantage. 381 00:31:53,177 --> 00:31:56,635 His mother was the alpha female before Haru, 382 00:31:56,781 --> 00:31:59,341 and he rose to power on her apron strings. 383 00:32:01,419 --> 00:32:05,378 He will not tolerate any display from this "motherless child." 384 00:32:07,191 --> 00:32:10,422 Haku has spirit but to no avail. 385 00:32:17,235 --> 00:32:19,328 Ten's annoyance with this upstart 386 00:32:19,470 --> 00:32:23,600 is soothed by one of the other high ranking males in a surprising way. 387 00:32:26,444 --> 00:32:31,074 Instead of fighting, bonobos use sex to defuse aggression 388 00:32:31,449 --> 00:32:34,907 in this genuine "make love, not war" society. 389 00:32:36,621 --> 00:32:40,284 Bonobos have largely divorced sex from its reproductive role. 390 00:32:40,892 --> 00:32:46,091 Sex is used by all bonobos, regardless of gender or age, 391 00:32:46,230 --> 00:32:49,063 to form bonds and mitigate tension. 392 00:32:50,868 --> 00:32:53,530 So Haku is not likely to suffer physical harm. 393 00:32:54,339 --> 00:32:55,897 But without family backing, 394 00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:58,008 his bid for status is probably doomed. 395 00:32:59,811 --> 00:33:03,474 Adolescent females must face a still greater challenge. 396 00:33:03,614 --> 00:33:05,377 They leave the group of their birth, 397 00:33:05,516 --> 00:33:07,108 and visit neighboring groups in search 398 00:33:07,251 --> 00:33:09,242 of a new home for the rest of their lives. 399 00:33:10,188 --> 00:33:11,678 This female, called Shin, 400 00:33:12,223 --> 00:33:14,316 has chosen Dr. Kano's group, 401 00:33:14,459 --> 00:33:17,724 but she must first pass muster with the formidable Haru. 402 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:26,869 Female bonobos also use sex to forge strategic alliances with each other. 403 00:33:35,246 --> 00:33:38,613 The males, including Ten, readily mate with Shin. 404 00:33:39,550 --> 00:33:43,816 But Shin must still win the approval of Haru and the other females. 405 00:33:44,655 --> 00:33:48,557 Finally, Shin is embraced by a high-ranking female, 406 00:33:48,693 --> 00:33:50,957 who will act as her sponsor to the group. 407 00:33:57,568 --> 00:34:00,765 Shin settles down to enjoy the sugarcane within the circle 408 00:34:00,905 --> 00:34:02,304 of her new community. 409 00:34:04,308 --> 00:34:08,335 With equality between the sexes and the substitution of sex for violence, 410 00:34:08,479 --> 00:34:11,642 the social lives of bonobos are very different 411 00:34:11,783 --> 00:34:14,411 from that of their sibling species the chimp. 412 00:34:17,522 --> 00:34:19,080 While chimps may wage war. 413 00:34:19,557 --> 00:34:22,458 The gentle lives of bonobos show that violence, 414 00:34:22,593 --> 00:34:26,427 although part of our primate inheritance, is not inevitable. 415 00:34:28,633 --> 00:34:30,863 Their social lives are fascinating 416 00:34:31,469 --> 00:34:34,961 yet it is the mystery and potential of the chimpanzees' inner 417 00:34:35,106 --> 00:34:38,234 minds that intrigues us most. 418 00:34:56,627 --> 00:34:59,460 How deep is the mind of the chimp? 419 00:35:03,034 --> 00:35:07,061 Christophe and Hedwige Boesch have been mapping the chimpanzee mind 420 00:35:07,205 --> 00:35:09,730 through an extraordinary kind of tool use. 421 00:35:10,708 --> 00:35:12,005 There was this great day, 422 00:35:12,143 --> 00:35:14,941 it was beginning of December in seventy-nine. 423 00:35:15,379 --> 00:35:19,440 I was following chimps through unKnown lands, 424 00:35:19,584 --> 00:35:21,347 I didn't Know where I was anymore, 425 00:35:21,486 --> 00:35:26,048 they were drumming, screaming, I followed with my compass, behind. 426 00:35:26,190 --> 00:35:28,351 And, suddenly, there was great excitement 427 00:35:28,493 --> 00:35:32,122 and I was hiding under some vegetation 428 00:35:32,263 --> 00:35:36,529 and there was a clearing in front of me with a big tree, 429 00:35:36,667 --> 00:35:38,897 big branch sticking out 430 00:35:39,036 --> 00:35:43,769 and I heard some banging so I approached without making a slightest noise 431 00:35:43,908 --> 00:35:48,777 and I hear the chimps coming, they passed me, 432 00:35:48,913 --> 00:35:51,848 I could fee their warmth, I could smell them, 433 00:35:51,983 --> 00:35:56,647 they all started climbing up these trees with big tools in their hands 434 00:35:57,321 --> 00:36:00,654 and banging on something which I finally realized 435 00:36:00,791 --> 00:36:02,122 they were cracking nuts. 436 00:36:03,728 --> 00:36:08,392 The sight is unforgettable something of prehistoric times, 437 00:36:08,533 --> 00:36:12,867 the image of these great animals using these big tools. 438 00:36:16,941 --> 00:36:17,805 To crack nuts, 439 00:36:17,942 --> 00:36:21,400 the chimps seem to have grasped the concepts of hammer and anvil. 440 00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:24,478 The anvil is a tree root; the hammer, 441 00:36:24,615 --> 00:36:26,845 a wooden club, or sometimes even a stone. 442 00:36:27,785 --> 00:36:30,117 Although it may seem effortless, 443 00:36:30,555 --> 00:36:34,992 it takes a decade of practice before the chimps develop real expertise. 444 00:36:36,861 --> 00:36:41,195 When you look at these images of chimps cracking nuts, 445 00:36:41,332 --> 00:36:46,895 it looks terribly easy and people don't realize how difficult it is. 446 00:36:47,605 --> 00:36:48,902 I made an experiment: 447 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:52,100 I asked a primatologist who came to visit me here, 448 00:36:53,277 --> 00:36:54,676 I gave him some nuts and a nice place in the forest and I told him, 449 00:36:57,715 --> 00:36:58,909 yeah, crack some nuts now. 450 00:36:59,517 --> 00:37:03,920 You will see how easy it really is. 451 00:37:04,789 --> 00:37:08,225 It took him 25 minutes to open the first nut. 452 00:37:09,093 --> 00:37:12,494 He took him 40 minutes to eat three nuts. 453 00:37:13,164 --> 00:37:14,495 And you can imagine, 454 00:37:14,632 --> 00:37:19,228 if you really have to fight 40 minutes for three nuts it's not worth it. 455 00:37:22,206 --> 00:37:26,370 I remember the very first time I saw a female mother 456 00:37:26,510 --> 00:37:31,038 who was looking at her five year old trying to crack a nut 457 00:37:31,382 --> 00:37:32,974 and she was fighting with a very, 458 00:37:33,117 --> 00:37:39,078 very strange formed club and she was changing her position all the time 459 00:37:39,223 --> 00:37:42,886 and changing the grip of the hammer and didn't succeed. 460 00:37:43,561 --> 00:37:46,496 And she was starting to whimper, not Knowing what to do. 461 00:37:47,064 --> 00:37:48,292 And then the mother came, 462 00:37:48,432 --> 00:37:51,026 the infant immediately stepped a bit backward 463 00:37:51,168 --> 00:37:55,901 and the mother took the hammer and in a very slow motion move, 464 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,136 she turned the hammer and just the move, 465 00:37:59,277 --> 00:38:02,246 this turning the hammer, took her a whole minute, 466 00:38:02,713 --> 00:38:07,673 so it was even slower than I did, and as to emphasize, 467 00:38:07,818 --> 00:38:10,286 that's the way you should hold the hammer 468 00:38:10,421 --> 00:38:12,252 and she cracked for some nuts for her 469 00:38:12,390 --> 00:38:16,121 and then left and the infant tried again 470 00:38:16,260 --> 00:38:18,751 with exactly the same grip as the mother. 471 00:38:18,896 --> 00:38:21,990 She still had some trouble to crack the nuts so she changed position, 472 00:38:22,133 --> 00:38:23,327 changed the place of the hammer, 473 00:38:23,834 --> 00:38:27,065 but kept all the time exactly the same grip as the mother showed her. 474 00:38:27,938 --> 00:38:30,202 So, that's really correcting an error 475 00:38:30,741 --> 00:38:33,437 in an infant which is really the highest 476 00:38:33,577 --> 00:38:35,511 form we would consider of active teaching 477 00:38:36,314 --> 00:38:42,310 and that just was kind of a surprise for the first observation in animal, 478 00:38:42,453 --> 00:38:43,579 for the animal doing that. 479 00:38:46,590 --> 00:38:49,024 A young chimp's tutor is its mother, 480 00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,288 who teaches it most of the skills it needs to survive. 481 00:38:58,569 --> 00:39:02,562 The Boesch's research has shown that female chimps are the most expert 482 00:39:02,707 --> 00:39:04,265 and dedicated toolusers, 483 00:39:04,842 --> 00:39:07,208 which may shed some light onto the origins 484 00:39:07,345 --> 00:39:09,404 of tooluse among our own ancestors. 485 00:39:11,082 --> 00:39:14,779 Already here we have a slight sexual difference in favor of females 486 00:39:14,919 --> 00:39:16,614 in that they crack more then males. 487 00:39:17,321 --> 00:39:22,452 Another technique to crack nuts up in the trees is much more often done 488 00:39:22,593 --> 00:39:27,428 by females and they have to anticipate bring the hammer up on a branch 489 00:39:27,565 --> 00:39:30,659 in the tree and then they have to handle it up there, 490 00:39:30,801 --> 00:39:33,736 hold the nuts in a fruit in the hand, hold the hammer, 491 00:39:33,871 --> 00:39:37,830 hold the baby and still crack somehow and eat these nuts. 492 00:39:38,209 --> 00:39:41,906 And then we have a nut species panda nuts, very hard, 493 00:39:42,046 --> 00:39:44,537 you need stone tools to open it. 494 00:39:45,149 --> 00:39:47,174 Stones are a rarity in the forest, 495 00:39:47,752 --> 00:39:51,381 again, this technique is more often done by females. 496 00:39:51,522 --> 00:39:54,753 It could make you think that maybe tooluse 497 00:39:54,892 --> 00:39:59,261 in our ancestors was also a female activity 498 00:39:59,397 --> 00:40:04,699 and the first toolusers and tool invertors may well have been females. 499 00:40:15,413 --> 00:40:19,281 Females also transport learned skills between chimp communities 500 00:40:19,417 --> 00:40:21,612 when they move from group to group at adolescence. 501 00:40:22,319 --> 00:40:27,552 But, sadly, as chimp populations become increasingly isolated this kind 502 00:40:27,691 --> 00:40:29,989 of cultural exchange will come to an end. 503 00:40:32,563 --> 00:40:34,895 Only recently have researchers all across Africa 504 00:40:35,032 --> 00:40:37,159 realized that some of the differences 505 00:40:37,301 --> 00:40:40,361 between their study groups were cultural due to the invention 506 00:40:40,504 --> 00:40:42,734 and passing along of learned traditions. 507 00:40:43,274 --> 00:40:45,333 In the Kibale Forest of Uganda, 508 00:40:45,476 --> 00:40:47,944 Richard Wrangham has found that it is culture 509 00:40:48,078 --> 00:40:51,639 which enables some chimps to eat foods others must forgo. 510 00:40:53,551 --> 00:40:56,816 So, here we got a safari ant nest 511 00:40:56,954 --> 00:41:00,856 and in five years we have clear evidence 512 00:41:00,991 --> 00:41:03,255 that the chimps here do not every eat these, 513 00:41:03,761 --> 00:41:07,128 but in Tai and in Gombe this is what they do. 514 00:41:07,865 --> 00:41:14,532 A wand onto the nest and then sweep the ants up, 515 00:41:14,672 --> 00:41:17,072 biting, no neat test, 516 00:41:17,508 --> 00:41:20,534 you've got to be pretty quick and you've got to Know what you're doing. 517 00:41:21,045 --> 00:41:23,843 Now, having just tasted them, 518 00:41:23,981 --> 00:41:25,312 I can understand why chimps like to eat them, 519 00:41:26,116 --> 00:41:27,947 but, on the whole, I'd prefer not to, myself. 520 00:41:29,820 --> 00:41:33,051 Every chimp group has its own unique tool kit. 521 00:41:33,491 --> 00:41:36,255 Only at some locations have they learned to use wands 522 00:41:36,393 --> 00:41:38,054 to capture ants or termites. 523 00:41:40,364 --> 00:41:43,356 At Tai, they use bone picks to dig out the marrow, 524 00:41:43,834 --> 00:41:45,768 just as our earliest ancestors did. 525 00:41:51,842 --> 00:41:54,743 They will also use a wodge of fruit as a sponge, 526 00:41:55,246 --> 00:41:58,511 to help squeeze out every trace of sweetness from the pulp. 527 00:42:00,684 --> 00:42:02,777 While at Gombe, as well as at Tai, 528 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:07,323 chewed leaves make a sponge to quench the thirst at shallow puddles. 529 00:42:10,628 --> 00:42:14,928 We have only begun to realize the depth of the traditional Knowledge generated 530 00:42:15,065 --> 00:42:16,930 by the various "nations" of chimps. 531 00:42:19,136 --> 00:42:21,400 One puzzling cultural practice is the eating of hairy and unpalatable leaves 532 00:42:25,276 --> 00:42:28,643 They ball them up in their mouths, forcing them down whole. 533 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:34,713 Well, here I've got one of the leaves that is swallowed hole by chimpanzees. 534 00:42:35,553 --> 00:42:39,956 This particular one is the one that the chimpanzees tend to swallow, 535 00:42:40,090 --> 00:42:47,053 at dawn, why they do it at dawn is not certain. 536 00:42:47,731 --> 00:42:50,256 Well, one possibility is they're helping to remove worms. 537 00:42:50,701 --> 00:42:53,761 This is so new that we don't even Know the name of this. 538 00:42:53,904 --> 00:42:56,873 We think it's part of a tape worm and it looks as though, 539 00:42:57,007 --> 00:42:59,635 when the chimpanzees have this tapeworm, 540 00:42:59,777 --> 00:43:05,215 they swallow the leaves in order to expel the tapeworm. 541 00:43:06,483 --> 00:43:08,007 Scientists are now searching 542 00:43:08,152 --> 00:43:11,713 for drugs among the plants they believe chimps take as medicine. 543 00:43:12,556 --> 00:43:15,650 We have long tested human drugs on chimps 544 00:43:15,793 --> 00:43:19,820 someday we may test drugs discovered by chimps on ourselves. 545 00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:27,060 Chimpanzee cultures also mold their methods of communication. 546 00:43:27,204 --> 00:43:28,694 Besides their calls, 547 00:43:28,839 --> 00:43:31,103 they use a symbolic language of gesture. 548 00:43:31,976 --> 00:43:38,279 Some gestures we hold in common a kiss soothes a little domestic discord. 549 00:43:40,651 --> 00:43:44,553 Others we seem to recognize two males clasp hands 550 00:43:44,688 --> 00:43:48,522 and raise their arms in a salute as they begin to groom one another. 551 00:43:53,263 --> 00:43:55,390 Other gestures, such a leaf grooming, 552 00:43:55,532 --> 00:43:57,295 we are only beginning to decipher. 553 00:43:59,003 --> 00:44:00,732 When a chimp wants to be groomed, 554 00:44:00,871 --> 00:44:04,602 they pick a leaf and just, uh, run the thumbs over it, 555 00:44:04,742 --> 00:44:07,870 sometimes bring a mouth to it and then drop it. 556 00:44:08,012 --> 00:44:09,001 What does this mean? 557 00:44:09,146 --> 00:44:11,614 Well, in functional terms, it means nothing, 558 00:44:11,749 --> 00:44:14,240 but it's a symbol. It's a symbol for the chimps. 559 00:44:14,385 --> 00:44:18,219 What it means to them is I would like to be groomed 560 00:44:18,355 --> 00:44:20,346 or sometimes it means I'm interested in you. 561 00:44:23,994 --> 00:44:26,485 If these gestures are truly cultural, 562 00:44:26,630 --> 00:44:29,531 we should be able to see them evolve as fashions change. 563 00:44:30,234 --> 00:44:32,566 Christopher Boesch believes he has. 564 00:44:34,104 --> 00:44:37,096 Leaf-clipping is a behavior where they take a leaf, 565 00:44:39,109 --> 00:44:40,440 makes a specific sound 566 00:44:41,078 --> 00:44:45,105 and in Tai they do it before displaying. 567 00:44:46,417 --> 00:44:48,476 The interesting thing is that, two years ago, 568 00:44:48,619 --> 00:44:53,283 chimps in Tai started for the very first time to leaf clip 569 00:44:53,424 --> 00:44:56,552 when they were making a resting period They were asleep, 570 00:44:57,461 --> 00:44:58,689 they would change position, 571 00:44:58,829 --> 00:45:00,990 would do some leaf clipping, and sleep again. 572 00:45:01,732 --> 00:45:04,701 A new context of use. And, interestingly 573 00:45:05,469 --> 00:45:09,530 the individuals have started to use the leaf clipping 574 00:45:09,673 --> 00:45:13,575 in this new context were younger or were females. 575 00:45:15,279 --> 00:45:17,577 There is much we could learn from the chimps, 576 00:45:17,981 --> 00:45:19,380 but we are running our of time. 577 00:45:19,950 --> 00:45:22,350 Poaching for meat and the logging of forests 578 00:45:22,820 --> 00:45:24,117 are driving them towards extinction. 579 00:45:25,155 --> 00:45:29,854 Today, Jane Goodall is fighting to save them and their heritage. 580 00:45:31,061 --> 00:45:32,790 We're finding that across Africa 581 00:45:32,930 --> 00:45:36,331 where different researchers are studying different chimpanzee groups, 582 00:45:36,467 --> 00:45:39,630 there are different traditions, different cultures 583 00:45:40,370 --> 00:45:44,704 and the tragedy here is that the chimpanzees are disappearing so fast, 584 00:45:45,576 --> 00:45:48,739 not only, eh, is it sad that the individuals are going, 585 00:45:48,879 --> 00:45:50,346 but their whole cultures are going, too 586 00:45:50,681 --> 00:45:53,878 and that's the area where we have most yet to learn. 587 00:45:55,486 --> 00:45:58,751 The group studied by Christophe Boesch is disappearing fast. 588 00:45:59,490 --> 00:46:01,117 The cause is a mystery. 589 00:46:01,792 --> 00:46:04,784 Only rarely does he find any evidence of their passing. 590 00:46:07,264 --> 00:46:11,064 It's only in one of the oldest female we had. 591 00:46:11,301 --> 00:46:15,897 And she was found by the group actually dead on the floor 592 00:46:16,039 --> 00:46:22,444 with her last baby dead and the oldest juvenile sitting nearby watching. 593 00:46:24,648 --> 00:46:29,676 The losses are tragic for the species, and for all involved. 594 00:46:31,021 --> 00:46:35,014 I have lost, in the last six years, about half of the chimps. 595 00:46:35,626 --> 00:46:38,026 There were 80, there are now only 40 left. 596 00:46:38,162 --> 00:46:43,065 So, it's a dramatic reduction and, 597 00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:45,225 but for us it's depressing, yeah, sure 598 00:46:52,109 --> 00:46:54,907 predation and disease have always taken their toll, 599 00:46:55,512 --> 00:46:58,879 but death at the hand of man may prove too much to bear. 600 00:46:59,750 --> 00:47:04,744 We have some clear proof that poachers are killing chimps here in our group. 601 00:47:05,355 --> 00:47:09,951 And I have the feeling that the toll they pay to poachers is just too much 602 00:47:10,561 --> 00:47:16,158 and it's this part which is the causes of the decline of the population and, 603 00:47:16,300 --> 00:47:17,790 if that is true, 604 00:47:17,935 --> 00:47:20,369 it's very worrying not only for the study group 605 00:47:20,504 --> 00:47:21,664 but for all the chimps in this park 606 00:47:23,941 --> 00:47:25,602 Each death is felt dearly. 607 00:47:26,343 --> 00:47:29,938 Yet it is when chimps are forced to confront death, 608 00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:34,176 that we seem to catch a glimmer of the chimpanzee soul. 609 00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:39,485 What is striking is that they feel compassion. 610 00:47:40,123 --> 00:47:45,425 I mean, they really feel the individual has something not normal 611 00:47:45,562 --> 00:47:47,427 and that they need help. 612 00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:55,334 In one case, I observed a fresh juvenile being killed by a leopard. 613 00:47:56,173 --> 00:47:57,936 So, you have an individual that looks 614 00:47:58,342 --> 00:48:01,971 actually very similar to a wounded one but he's dead 615 00:48:02,946 --> 00:48:06,541 and it was very surprising to notice that the chimps reacted 616 00:48:06,683 --> 00:48:07,672 totally differently, 617 00:48:07,918 --> 00:48:11,979 as if they Knew this individual is not just injured, 618 00:48:12,122 --> 00:48:12,986 this individual is dead. 619 00:48:14,424 --> 00:48:18,451 And all the adult males stayed around the body for all this time, 620 00:48:18,862 --> 00:48:23,060 groomed it a lot what they would never do with a live juvenile 621 00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:25,862 and, in a kind of a way, 622 00:48:26,003 --> 00:48:29,234 asked for the other group members to show respect for the dead. 623 00:48:29,806 --> 00:48:32,104 And the only young that was authorized 624 00:48:32,242 --> 00:48:34,642 to come to the body was the younger brother of the dead. 625 00:48:36,046 --> 00:48:41,484 So, yeah, it makes you think 626 00:48:41,618 --> 00:48:44,485 what they feel and how they understand. 627 00:48:48,358 --> 00:48:50,553 We can only guess what this female, 628 00:48:50,694 --> 00:48:53,492 called Castor, understands about her own tragedy. 629 00:48:55,132 --> 00:48:57,430 Her infant is mortally ill. 630 00:49:01,171 --> 00:49:03,571 Since her baby is too feeble to cling to her, 631 00:49:03,807 --> 00:49:06,537 she resorts to carrying it with her foot as she climbs 632 00:49:06,810 --> 00:49:09,335 in search of the food she needs to survive. 633 00:49:20,257 --> 00:49:21,952 Still the baby clings to life. 634 00:49:24,194 --> 00:49:26,822 How do we really realize that somebody's dead? 635 00:49:27,397 --> 00:49:31,060 How would we realize if we didn't have all the science and all these things. 636 00:49:31,902 --> 00:49:36,930 So, I think, in a way, they certainly Know 637 00:49:37,074 --> 00:49:38,974 that something, special is happening 638 00:49:39,977 --> 00:49:41,808 that they would like to fight against it, 639 00:49:43,380 --> 00:49:46,349 but that they can't and they realize it after a while. 640 00:49:48,418 --> 00:49:53,082 Finally, the emaciated form of her infant lies deathly still. 641 00:50:05,102 --> 00:50:08,560 Then with a gesture so human it's painful to watch, 642 00:50:09,106 --> 00:50:13,440 she seems to bid her baby farewell with a kiss. 643 00:50:35,465 --> 00:50:38,957 If chimps share with us the emotions that bring us to tears, 644 00:50:39,336 --> 00:50:41,031 perhaps they share others, as well. 645 00:50:43,273 --> 00:50:45,207 Jane Goodall wonders. 646 00:50:46,043 --> 00:50:49,535 Do chimpanzees feel perhaps a sense of awe, 647 00:50:49,679 --> 00:50:51,738 similar to that which must have lead 648 00:50:51,882 --> 00:50:56,615 to the first religions of our ancestors worship of fire, of sun, 649 00:50:56,753 --> 00:51:00,655 of rain, worship of rushing water that is always coming, 650 00:51:00,791 --> 00:51:03,021 always going, yet always here? 651 00:51:59,683 --> 00:52:02,413 Face to face with our nearest relations. 652 00:52:04,121 --> 00:52:08,353 Our mutual family history is glorious and tender, 653 00:52:09,025 --> 00:52:10,390 brutal and shocking. 654 00:52:11,194 --> 00:52:13,594 As humans, though, we are distinct, 655 00:52:13,730 --> 00:52:16,460 and must choose how our own nature is expressed. 656 00:52:17,067 --> 00:52:21,436 But it's clear that, for good or ill, we are part of nature 657 00:52:22,439 --> 00:52:26,000 just another of its promising but flawed creations. 658 00:52:30,313 --> 00:52:32,781 Through the study of the chimps, science, 659 00:52:33,316 --> 00:52:36,683 which once strove to set us apart from the rest of nature, 660 00:52:36,820 --> 00:52:39,721 has now brought us back within its fold 661 00:52:40,657 --> 00:52:44,058 discovering this mind in the forest. 662 00:52:45,629 --> 00:52:49,326 What grabs you is when you feel that there's an animal out 663 00:52:49,466 --> 00:52:53,232 there that has a human like mind that can solve problems, 664 00:52:53,603 --> 00:52:55,935 that has extraordinary social relations 665 00:52:56,072 --> 00:53:01,203 and has got this beginnings of the diversity of culture. 666 00:53:02,546 --> 00:53:07,313 It's when we see into the mind of the chimps that we get that strange tingle 667 00:53:08,018 --> 00:53:09,417 What it means in a deep way 668 00:53:10,487 --> 00:53:13,012 is that as long as these chimpanzees are surviving, 669 00:53:14,291 --> 00:53:15,918 humans are in touch with their ancestry 670 00:53:17,527 --> 00:53:19,495 and we Know we're not completely alone