{"id":78966,"date":"2026-02-15T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=78966"},"modified":"2026-02-14T19:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T02:06:10","slug":"at-a-tea-party-with-scientists-this-ape-showed-some-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/at-a-tea-party-with-scientists-this-ape-showed-some-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"At a ‘tea party’ with scientists, this ape showed some imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Having an imaginary friend, playing house or daydreaming about the future were long considered uniquely human abilities. Now, scientists have conducted the first study indicating that apes have the ability to play pretend as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings, published Thursday in the journal Science, suggest that imagination is within the cognitive potential of an ape and can possibly be traced back to our common evolutionary ancestors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is one of those things that we assume is distinct about our species,\u201d said Christopher Krupenye, a cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins University and an author of the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis kind of finding really shows us that there\u2019s much more richness to these animals\u2019 minds than people give them credit for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers knew that apes were capable of certain kinds of imagination. If an ape watches someone hide food in a cup, it can imagine that the food is there despite not seeing it. Because that perception is the reality \u2014 the food is actually there \u2014 it requires the ape to sustain only one view of the world, the one that it knows to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis kind of work goes beyond it,\u201d Dr. Krupenye said. \u201cBecause it suggests that they can, at the same time, consider multiple views of the world and really distinguish what\u2019s real from what\u2019s imaginary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonobos, an endangered species found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are difficult to study in the wild. For this research, Dr. Krupenye and Amalia Bastos, a cognitive scientist at the University of St. Andrews, relied on an organization known as the Ape Initiative to study Kanzi, a male bonobo famous for demonstrating some understanding of spoken English. (Kanzi was an enculturated ape born in captivity; he died last year at age 44.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research team created three experimental scenarios for Kanzi that they compared to \u201ctea parties.\u201d The first was modeled after experiments conducted in the 1980s that involved make-believe play with children. As Kanzi watched, a scientist sat at a small table bearing two empty cups and an empty jug. The researcher then \u201cpoured\u201d an imaginary juice into each cup, and then poured one of the cups back into the jug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, if Kanzi was closely tracking the imaginary fluids, he should realize that one cup still held liquid and the other was empty. And in fact, when asked \u2014 \u201cWhere\u2019s the juice?\u201d \u2014 Kanzi pointed to the cup containing imaginary liquid more often than would be expected by chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, scientists wondered, what if Kanzi was confused? In a second experiment, Kanzi was again presented with two cups: one with real juice and another into which imaginary juice was poured. Asked where the juice was, Kanzi pointed to the cup with actual juice, again more often than mere chance would dictate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third experiment replicated the first one, except it involved transferring imaginary grapes into two bowls and then emptying one of them. In more than half of the trial runs, Kanzi successfully identified the location of the imaginary grapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so fascinating to get such clear evidence of imagination,\u201d said Joseph Feldblum, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University who was not involved in the research. \u201cThese experiments are able to peel back the layers and understand a lot more about what\u2019s actually going on inside their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In humans, imagination offers many benefits. Children and adults can rehearse situations that might occur before they actually encounter them, preparing us for real life without the cost of getting something wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presumably apes, too, could gain from identifying more profitable ways forward. \u201cThere are many benefits to not being stuck in the here and now,\u201d Dr. Bastos said, \u201cbecause you can start thinking about alternative futures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some scientists saw the study as a confirmation of what natural observation had already led them to suspect. Martin Surbeck, a primatologist at Harvard University who was not involved with the research, works with a population of wild bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has seen young female bonobos take a stick and place it on their back, as if they were playing with an infant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On its own, such behavior in the wild might not necessarily prove that apes have the ability to imagine, Dr. Surbeck said, but this study was \u201ca more rigorous proof of the concept of the existence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many questions remain. Under what circumstances of natural selection did bonobos acquire the ability to play pretend?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere does it come from?\u201d Dr. Surbeck said. \u201cHow did it evolve? Why do great apes and humans have that, assuming that others don\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As our closest living evolutionary relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees offer clues to the origins of human abilities. The three species shared a common ancestor that lived about seven million years ago; bonobos diverged from chimpanzees one million to two million years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humans did not fall fully formed out of the sky, Dr. Surbeck noted. \u201cWhatever we are, we come from somewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd all of our behaviors, they have precursors. And very likely, most of these precursors exist in our closest living relative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n