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Jill Pruetz on Empathy Among Primates

Eric Kilby

Increasingly recognized as "the next Jane Goodall" in primatology circles, Iowa State University primatologist Jill Pruetz brings incredible research and stories back to Iowa from Senegal in western Africa, where she studies the lives of savanna chimpanzees.

Host Charity Nebbe talked with Pruetz to find out more about the way these primates develop and use tools, and how their cultures form. She learns about a time when the chimpanzees helped Pruetz navigate a raging wildfire. Pruetz also shares a story about the rescue of a baby chimpanzee, and the remarkable empathy she says was shown to the baby and mother by a young chimpanzee named Mike.

Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa