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P**K
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Chimpanzees!
Encountering our closest great ape cousins in the wild is a thrilling experience. I had the chance two years ago during my trek across Africa when I visited the remote Tanzanian research station established by Jane Goodall. Watching the infant Gabo play on a tree branch just above me after I climbed a mountain and waited an hour for him to come down from swinging in the treetop with a friend was unforgettable (that’s my picture of him above!).Craig Stanford’s “The New Chimpanzee” explains just how unique chimpanzees are and the latest research about them. My favorite adventure writers lack the time or the patience to observe, much less explain the wildlife around them. Stanford has the opposite problem: He is great at presenting in an accessible manner the fruits of his and others’ research, but only provides fleeting glimpses of the adventure involved.Although there are roughly 200,000 chimpanzees living in the wild across equatorial Africa, their numbers have sharply declined to the point that they are considered endangered. A small fraction of this population has been habituated to humans and monitored. Since archeologist Louis Leakey made one of the most fateful decisions of all time to dispatch Goodall to the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1960 as part of his inquiry into the origins of humankind, a dozen long-term field studies have been undertaken in East and West Africa. Stanford points out that some of the most important findings have come about in the last 20 years.Craig Stanford has played a central role in chimpanzee research. The minimalist dust jacket only states that he is a professor of biology and anthropology (come on, Harvard U. Press!), but he is also a U.C. Berkeley-trained Jane Goodall protege who has published over a dozen cutting edge books and articles on chimpanzees, with my favorite title being, “Planet without Apes” (2012).Stanford is one of several hundred primate specialists located predominantly in the U.S. and Europe. Based on the studies Stanford cites, the U.S. appears to have more researchers than the rest of the world combined, but to my surprise, Japan has the second most. Stanford does not mention any research published by Africans. The best discussion I had in Africa was with the director of research at Gombe, Dr. Deous. He invited me to an unforgettable beach BBQ.Here are five fascinating things I learned in “The New Chimpanzee:”Chimpanzees live in communities, typically with around 50-60 members (rather than smaller groups like gorillas). Each community has its own unique culture. The most stark example is some communities in West Africa use stone tools; chimps in East Africa do not.Chimpanzees are omnivores. They eat about 200 different plants, with figs being their favorite. They have developed tools for eating protein-rich insects like termites and ants (see the photograph on the cover of the book, which is the only picture in the entire book). They are the only great ape to engage in “strategic hunting,” especially for red colobus monkeys.Chimpanzees are prone to occasional violence and even murder. Such violence occurs when there is an imbalance of power between two groups. Violence can be directed at the overthrow of the alpha male or at the elimination of a potential rival. Violence is most common between small groups patrolling the edges of their communities.Chimpanzees are “highly promiscuous.” A female will typically have sex 600 times with a dozen or more males while her genitals are swollen. Males prefer older females. “Size matters” when it comes to the ability to get a swollen (ovulating) female pregnant. Females do not experience menopause.Pregnancy lasts eight months and females typically give birth every five years. Researchers have rarely witnessed the birthing process, but females do it alone. Chimp babies begin to play at three months, but remain completely dependent on their mothers until the age of five.The most vigorous debates seem to occur not among primate specialists, but with anthropologists and other scientists outside their field, who sometimes accuse primatologists of anthropomorphism. Even I wondered at times if Stanford was ascribing too much intentionality to chimp behavior. One of the most controversial things Jane Goodall did was set up a feeding station at Gombe to help habituate the chimpanzees to humans. Stanford notes, “Today the huts and bananas are long gone, but the chimpanzees still pass through the clearing regularly and socialize there, as a result of the behavioral traditions established so many decades ago” (p. 217). Really? Like Freud’s cigar, couldn’t a clearing just be a clearing?Stanford is a strong writer. “The New Chimpanzee” reads like an extended science article in the New York Times. The only problem is that he relies on research results almost to the exclusion of describing the act of field research. I wish there were more passages like my favorite:“THE HUNT is often heard before it’s seen. You’re walking single file along a forest path behind a party of male chimpanzees. It feels like tagging along on a Boy Scout hike. The chimpanzees abruptly freeze. They have a habit of stopping in mid-step, one leg suspended in the air behind them” (p. 130).Unfortunately, there are only a handful of such stories. Even more frustrating, Stanford gives us only the briefest taste of his own field research. At one point he casually mentions, “I’ve shared a meal of civet meat with a band of human hunter-gatherers in East Africa” (p. 132), but that is all we learn about his experience with them. He tells us even less about his intriguing work on chimpanzee-mountain gorilla interactions. I hope his next book will focus on his experiences.Much research remains to be done on our pant-grunting, hooting, knuckle-walking kin, both in terms of understanding them as a species and their position on our family tree. We know that we shared a common ancestor some six million years ago, but we are still piecing together exactly when, how and why our paths diverged.The last chapter, “Ape into Human,” surprisingly failed to keep my attention until Stanford asks his final question: “Does research on chimpanzees help protect them?” The short answer is a resounding “yes.” By the end of the century, the only wild chimps left may be in protected reserves under the watchful eye of researchers.So what’s next animal book-wise? I have a copy of Jane Goodall’s “Through A Window: My 30 Years at Gombe” (1990), but Stanford does not even list it in his bibliography. Instead, he points to “The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior” (1986) is her seminal work. I am also interested in mountain gorillas as I had a close encounter with them in Rwanda, but first I think I will look at elephants or whales. I welcome suggestions!
A**R
Balanced and erudite
Well-done overview of both historical and recent research into chimps. Balanced discussion of numerous topics without being too detailed or too simplistic. Very enjoyable read!
F**S
Five Stars
Would you rather have a child or a chimp? . Read more
I**N
A well documented book
An informative and well written book however it's slightly academic in tone. Recommended.
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