Kanzi and the imaginary juice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In tea-party-style experiments run by Johns Hopkins researchers, an experimenter mimed pouring pretend juice from an empty pitcher into two empty clear cups. After acting out dumping one cup, the experimenter asked Kanzi, a bonobo<\/a> trained to communicate with humans, \u201cWhere\u2019s the juice?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kanzi pointed to the \u201cstill full\u201d cup more often than chance, and later picked real juice when it was offered alongside pretend juice. The Associated Press reported he chose the correct pretend cup about 68% of the time, and chose the real drink in 14 out of 18 trials, or roughly 78 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A third task used pretend grapes instead of pretend juice, and Kanzi again tracked the fictional object across containers when prompted. It is not a claim that bonobos live in fantasy worlds, but it is experimental evidence that this bonobo could represent a pretend object and answer questions about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers describe this as \u201csecondary representation,\u201d which is a mental move that lets an animal step away from the here and now. In plain English, it means you can keep track of something you know is not real while still cooperating in the pretend scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The paper argues this capacity likely reaches back 6 to 9 million years to a shared evolutionary ancestor, but it also emphasizes a key limitation. Kanzi had an unusual \u201cenculturated\u201d life around humans, and even supporters agree the next test is whether other apes show the same ability with less human scaffolding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A separate Science<\/em> study from 2024 tackled a different human badge of honor, which is cumulative culture<\/a>. The University of Zurich-led team leaned on genetics to reconstruct long-term links between chimpanzee groups<\/a>, since sticks and leaves do not leave an easy fossil record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dataset blended genetic markers of connectivity with records of 15 foraging behaviors from 35 chimpanzee study sites across Africa. Researchers grouped those behaviors into no tools, simple tools like leaf sponges, and complex toolsets used in sequence to access hidden food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One example comes from the Congo region, where chimpanzees may first dig toward an underground termite nest with a strong stick, then shape a second probe with a brush tip to fish termites out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The study found these most complex toolsets were the ones most strongly linked across populations that are now distant, suggesting they are rarely reinvented and more likely to spread between groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chimpanzees have a built-in movement network, and females are often the couriers. As sexually maturing females migrate to new communities to avoid inbreeding, they move genes between groups and, the study suggests, can also move cultural know-how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what happens when a female arrives in a new group with a different technique? The Zurich researchers found that when complex toolsets and simpler \u201ccomponent\u201d behaviors appear at different sites, genetic patterns indicate those sites were connected in the past by female migration, hinting that complex versions were built by adding to simpler ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WWF lists habitat loss and hunting among the major pressures on chimpanzees, and it also highlights the deadly role of infectious disease outbreaks in some regions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you combine those threats with what the new studies suggest about culture and imagination, conserving apes starts to look less like saving a species label and more like saving a library of local know-how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bonobos are endangered too, and even basic headcounts are difficult because only about 30% of their historic range has been surveyed, according to the African Wildlife Foundation<\/a>. AWF suggests a minimum of 15,000 to 20,000 bonobos remain, and it notes that only a small portion of habitat is protected, which is why forest loss and hunting pressure still loom large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WWF DRC reports that surveys from 2015 to 2018 estimate Salonga National Park and its corridor hold around 15,000 bonobos, even while documenting high levels of poaching. If females help carry ideas between communities, then protecting corridors<\/a> and reducing threats outside park borders becomes a way of protecting culture itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers say they want to test other apes and other species<\/a> for pretend tracking, and to explore other parts of imagination, like thinking about the future or following what others know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the chimpanzee work, the genetics-based method could help identify where connectivity and cultural complexity overlap, giving conservation planners one more evidence-based way to prioritize protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kanzi\u2019s story also lands with a quiet punch, because these discoveries come from individual lives, not just graphs. Ape Initiative<\/a> reported that Kanzi died on March 18, 2025, at age 44, and it was still awaiting necropsy results when it shared the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study was published in Science<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you have ever watched a toddler \u201cpour\u201d tea from an empty cup, you have seen the mind do something … <\/p>\nRead More: Goodbye to 100,000 years of nuclear waste: a project using particle accelerators promises to reduce the radioactive nightmare to just a few centuries<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The science of pretending<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Chimpanzees and cumulative culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Read More: China launches a floating island unlike anything seen before and takes a giant step toward dominating deep-sea research<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Why female migration matters for forests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/human-ability-clue-female-chimpanzees.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Conservation that protects minds and knowledge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Read More: The UK fires up a fusion rocket for the first time and accelerates the race to conquer Mars before anyone else<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
What to watch next<\/h2>\n\n\n\n