The Chimpanzees of Bossou and Nimba

From the reviews:

“This is a superb synthesis of a ground-breaking corpus of research over decades; it sets the standards for field study of chimpanzees in West Africa, and more widely.” (William C. McGrew, Primates, Vol. 53 (1), January, 2012)

“This volume presents 40 papers from some 30 contributors … that pull together the considerable achievement of the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute in West Africa. … the papers in the collection explore the diversity of chimpanzee tool manufacture and the big questions still surrounding ape culture and its transmission. … Well written, the collection of papers is accessible to the nonspecialist, making it a detailed species portrait of great merit. Lavishly illustrated, it has seven appendices, full index and references.” (Stephen P. Tomkins, The Biologist, Vol. 59 (1), March, 2012)

“This latest addition … provides an impressive overview of the varied approaches that have been used by a multitude of field workers to examine aspects of the stone-tool culture at Bossou and several other sites. … this book comes with a DVD. … The book/DVD combination will give you a very immediate sense of how lucky the researchers of Bossou and Nimba are to work with such fascinating animals and it is certainly worth having in one’s library.” (Alexander V. Georgiev, Primate Eye, June, 2012)

“The data and discussion in this volume contain valuable information on the behavior, ecology, and conservation of these highly vulnerable Western chimpanzee populations. … This book will be most relevant to primatologists interested in cognition and material culture, and conservationists interested in the interface between local people and wildlife. … This is a welcome addition to the handful of existing books on wild chimpanzees. … one gains a more complete picture of Western chimpanzees and a broader understanding of chimpanzee behavioral and ecological diversity.” (Rebecca M.Stumpf, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 87 (3), September, 2012)

Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa is world renowned for blending captive and field approaches to advance our understanding and appreciation of chimpanzee intelligence. He leads the Ai-project and is the director of Primate Research Institute of the University of Kyoto, Japan. He is also the director of the Bossou/Nimba field research station. He has more than 30 years of experience with working with chimpanzees in captivity, and more than 20 with chimpanzees in their natural habitat. He has received several prestigious awards for his achievements so far including the Prince Chichibu Memorial Science Award in 1991, the Jane Goodall Award in 2001 and the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2004. He is also a member of the executive committee of the IUCN (The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Primate Specialist Group on Great Ape Conservation.
Prof. Yukimaru Sugiyama has nearly 50 years of experience in field primatology. His early studies of the social behavior of langur monkeys in India have been seminal. He is the founder of the Bossou field research site where he began his long-term research in 1976. He has served during his long career as Director of the Primate Research Institute of the University of Kyoto, Japan. He remains an enthusiastic and keen observer of primates in their natural habitat and continues to be active in the field.
Dr. Tatyana Humle earned a B.Sc. Honours in Zoology at the University of Edinburgh, UK, in 1997, and a PhD in Psychology at the University of Stirling, UK in 2003. She joined the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent in January 2010. Her areas of interest are the study of learning and culture in non-human animals, with a special focus on primates, the respective roles of the social and physical environment on learning in young, inter- and intra community behavioural differences in chimpanzees, behavioural ecology, cognition, and laterality and efficiency in tool use. She is also interested in great ape-human resource competition and conflict issues and as well as great ape rehabilitation and reintroduction. She has been conducting fieldwork on wild chimpanzees in Guinea and Côte d Ivoire, West Africa since 1995. Since 2007, she has been acting as scientific advisor to the Chimpanzee Conservation Center.