Inside the Mind of the Chimpanzee
A Public Lecture with Jane Goodall and Richard Wrangham
The Mind of the Chimpanzee Conference will close with Jane Goodall and
Richard Wrangham offering an in-depth look into the mind of our closest
living relative. With their combined 82 years of experience in the field,
Goodall and Wrangham have changed the way we think about chimpanzees and
humankind.
Sunday, March 25
2–5 p.m.
Navy Pier Grand Ballroom
Lincoln Park Zoo Members $10
Adults (non-members) $20
Students $15
PURCHASE TICKETS
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Chimpanzee Close-up
When the world’s leading chimpanzee experts get together, what do they talk
about? Here are some selected lectures planned for the Mind of the
Chimpanzee Conference.
Dora Biro—Field experiments on tool-use behavior with the chimpanzees of
Bossou
“I will discuss developmental and social learning aspects of two tool-using
behaviors in the community of chimpanzees living at Bossou, Guinea: the use
of a pair of stones to crack open hard-shelled nuts and the use of folded
clumps of leaves for drinking water. The extent to which field experiments
can shed light on the emergence and maintenance of such community-specific
behaviors will also be addressed.”
Brian Hare—A comparison of cooperative problem-solving abilities in
chimpanzees and bonobos
“We compared the cooperative problem-solving abilities of chimpanzees and
bonobos. When two subjects were confronted with a tray of out-of-reach,
sharable food, both species were skillful at spontaneously pulling a rope
simultaneously to obtain the food. When two subjects were again placed in
the same situation, except the food was no longer sharable, bonobos showed
more skill at solving the task. These results support the hypothesis that
flexibility in cooperative problem solving is relative to different levels
of emotional reactivity while illustrating the value of African sanctuaries
for non-invasive research.”
Roman Wittig—Decision-making during conflicts in wild chimpanzees
“Aggression has a disruptive effect on the relationship between opponents.
Group-living animals, therefore, face a dilemma—they cooperate with the same
individuals that they compete with over resources. Chimpanzees employ a
large variety of strategies during which they seem to weigh advantages
against disadvantages. They are thought to go through a ‘decision-making’
process that is more likely to produce an advantageous outcome in
competitive situations. I will present data on the chimpanzees of the Taï
National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, to point out under which conditions
chimpanzees avoid aggression, how they maximize benefits and how they deal
with the disruptive effects of aggression.” 
More talk summaries can be found here.
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