"Jokro: The death of an infant chimpanzee"

This is the true story of an infant chimpanzee at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa, who died at the age of 2 and a half years. A researcher happened to capture her life on videotape for 16 days before her death and 27 days thereafter. The mother was named Jire, an approximately 35-year-old female. The infant's name was Jokro...

Click! Video is about 19 min.

High quality(mpg 171MB) Low quality for Windows (wmv 17MB)

(wmv4.86MB)

When the chimpanzee saw the researchers, an adult female barked and screamed and crapped hands.

(wmv 6.91MB)
Road-crossing presents a new situation that calls for flexibility of responses by chimpanzees to variations in perceived risk. The chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa, employ a phylogenetically-old mechanism to adapt to a more recent dangerous situation. The positioning of dominant and bolder individuals, in particular the alpha male, changed depending on both the degree of risk and number of adult males present; dominant individuals act cooperatively with a high level of flexibility to maximise group protection. Differences in progression orders may reflect the division of roles, and the collaboration among males to protect the females and their off-spring. This may also help shape hypotheses about emergence of hominoid adaptive social organization.

Ant-dipping
(mpg 5.23MB)

Nut-cracking
(mpg 2.79MB)

Algae-scooping
(mpg 6.05MB)

Pestle-pounding
(mpg 5.87MB)
(wmv 6.32MB)

Exploratory probing
(mpg 8.38MB)
(wmv 6.21MB)

Exploratory probing
(mpg 3.79MB)
(wmv 4.03MB)

Drinking palm wine
(mpg 6.4MB)
(wmv 5.44MB)