The ability to imagine — to play pretend — has long been thought to be unique to humans. A new study suggests one of our closest living relatives can do it too.

It has long been known that apes can plan ahead and consider the beliefs of other individuals, but no reproducible evidence ...

Remember childhood tea parties? The cups are empty, the teapot is dry, yet the air is thick with the drama of imagined ...

Discover how an ape playing tea party teaches us humans are not the only beings with complex mental lives.

Past anecdotal observations have hinted that great apes play pretend. But now, experimental research shows that our closest living relatives can keep track of imaginary objects.

Juvenile bonobo embraces a distressed companion during post-conflict consolation. Psychologists from Durham University, UK, observed the behaviour of 90 sanctuary-living apes to establish whether ...

Rainbow Trust photo. Credit: Rainbow Trust photo. Jean Stimmell, retired stone mason and psychotherapist, lives in Northwood and blogs at jeanstimmell.blogspot.com. I recently read a mind-popping ...

Humans aren't the only species that can pretend, a study shows. Scientists offered a bonobo imaginary juice and grapes in a ...

We don’t just have sex to reproduce - new research suggests that using sex to manage social tension could be a trait that existed in the common ancestor of humans and apes six million years ago.

Humans are not the only species to combine concepts to build more complex meaning, a new study found. Bonobo chimpanzees combine calls in a manner similar to how humans structure words to make phrases ...

Amalia Bastos first met Kanzi the bonobo in 2023. Bastos was “starstruck,” she recalls: Kanzi was famous for learning how to ...