IN THE NEWS / Wildlife protector honored

Written by Meenaa on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Masamichi Kobayashi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

NAGOYA–”My findings on the high social intelligence of chimpanzees have been recognized. This is indeed a great honor,” beamed Prof. Toshisada Nishida, the winner of the 2008 Louis Leakey anthropological award, named after the famed British paleoanthropologist.

Nishida, 67, has spent nearly half a century observing chimpanzee groups living in Tanzania National Park to try to shed more light on the animals.

As part of his research he discovered that a third-ranked male, who held the casting vote in the rivalry between the No. 1 and No. 2 chimpanzees in a particular group, used his position to his own advantage in terms of increasing the number of females he could mate with. By observing and analyzing the detailed behavior of the primates, Nishida was able to ascertain that their social characteristics are extremely similar to that of humans.

Nishida’s interest in chimpanzees was sparked when he joined an anthropoid research group while a student at Kyoto University. During his long years of research in Tanzania, his wife and two children also left Japan to join him and support his activities.

“By observing how the chimpanzees distribute meat gained from their hunting trips, I was able to see how their interaction includes borrowing and lending processes akin to those seen in human society. I could never tire [of watching the chimpanzees],” Nishida said.

Nishida says he “want to teach children about the wonders of nature,” and with that aim in mind, he became head of the Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture-based Japan Monkey Center in 2004, a zoo that keeps many different species of monkeys.

“The DNA of chimpanzees and humans is 99 percent the same,” Nishida said. “If humans don’t rid themselves of the idea that they’re somehow special, all life might become extinct,” he warned.
(Nov. 19, 2008)