Bossou Chimpanzees: Tool-Using Primates & Primatology Heritage
The Bossou chimpanzee community in southern Guinea has been studied since 1976 — their extraordinary tool use (stone hammers to crack nuts) has defined our understanding of primate intelligence
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Bossou Research Station
The Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University has been studying Bossou society for nearly 50 years — visitors can join scientists observing one of science's most important long-term studies
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Stone Tool Nut Cracking
Bossou chimpanzees use stone hammers and anvils to crack oil palm nuts – a culturally transmitted behavior observed only in this community and a handful of others in West Africa
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Habitual chimpanzee group
The 10-15 Bossou chimpanzees are fully accustomed to human observers - close-up observation of their social behavior, grooming, play and tool use is possible from designated locations
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Mont Nimba Biosphere Reserve
Nearby Mont Nimba – a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that straddles Guinea, Ivory Coast and Liberia – has extraordinary biodiversity, including the Nimba otter found nowhere else
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Vipassage Ant fishing
Bossou chimpanzees fish for drift ants using leaf stalks — inserting a probe into the ant nest and withdrawing it covered with biting ants; this insectivorous behavior took decades to document
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Conservation of forest fragments
The Bossou chimpanzees live in a small patch of forest surrounded by farmland – their survival in this fragmented habitat is a case study of the challenges of great ape conservation