NOVA: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIAL: APE GENIUS (TV)
Summary
One in this series of science documentaries. This program, narrated by David Slavin, examines the intellectual abilities and development of chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and bonobos.
As the program opens in Fongoli, Senegal, a chimp plays in a swimming hole, though chimps are traditionally afraid of water. The animal is observed by anthropologist Jill Pruetz, who notes that the chimp has immersed himself for "fun" rather than to cool off. Psychologist Andrew Whiten interprets the chimp's reaction to getting wet, stating that such emotions were once thought to be uniquely human. Pruetz later observes as chimps fashion spears to hunt their dinner: bush babies. Whiten compares such actions to the evolution of man.
At the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, psychologist Josep Call conducts an experiment to determine chimps' powers to rationalize. In the Congo, bonobos are seen imitating each other. According to Rebecca Saxe, MIT researcher, the sharing of goals is more complicated than it appears. At the University of Texas's Keeling Center, Antoine Spiteri, one of Whiten's students, performs an experiment to test if chimps learn by imitation.
Footage from 1960 is shown of researcher Jane Goodall in Tanzania, documenting chimps' abilities to show emotion. Then, in Western Africa's Bossou site, a female chimp is seen grieving for her dead two-year-old. Researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University comments on the similarities to how a human mother would deal with a similar situation.
The question is then raised as to whether chimps hunt in a group and exercise cooperation amongst themselves. Michael Tomasello of the Planck Institute observes that apes will help humans if they understand the goal. A series of experiments by researcher Brian Hare at Duke University indicate that bonobos are the most willing ape to foster cooperation. Hare also comments on footage of bonobos protesting as workers try to remove a dead bonomo's body from Lolo Ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Congo.
Back at Kyoto University, Matsuzawa conducts experiments which indicate chimps' facility for numbers. Next, footage from the Great Ape Trust in Iowa shows researcher Sue Savage-Rumbaugh with a bonobo that picked up English without being directly taught. Impulse studies conducted with both chimps and children provide "intriguing but inconclusive" results. Hare explains why humans don't react as emotionally as apes do. Tomasello notes that apes aren't able to tell what others are thinking, a factor that separates them from humans' ability to reason.
Whiten comments that apes often act upon their deductions about cause and effect. Hare then performs experiments with apes and dogs, in which only the dogs understand the teaching process; apes are shown merely to imitate. Tomasello concludes that apes lack a shared commitment to a shared goal, unlike humans who are students rather than spectators.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WGBH Boston, MA
- DATE: February 19, 2008 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:46
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 100094
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Monkeys
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1974-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Paula S. Apsell … Executive Producer
- John Bredar … Executive Producer
- Laurie Cahalane … Coordinating Producer
- James Donald … Supervising Producer
- Stephen Sweigart … Supervising Producer
- John Rubin … Producer, Director, Writer
- David Condon … Producer
- Lisa Mirowitz … Producer
- Patrick Carey … Associate Producer
- Melanie Wallace … Senior Series Producer
- Howard P. Stern … Animation
- Robert Neufeld … Music by
- Ray Loring … Theme Music by
- John Luker … Theme Music by
- Walter Werzowa … Theme Music by
- David Slavin … Narrator
- Josep Call
- Jane Goodall
- Brian Hare
- Tetsuro Matsuzawa
- Jill Pruetz
- Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
- Rebecca Saxe
- Antoine Spiteri
- Michael Tomasello
- Andrew Whiten