For the first time, scientists have experimentally shown bonobos (Pan paniscus), our closest living relatives along with chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), can engage in pretend play — something ...

Kanzi, a bonobo, demonstrated symbolic pretend play by correctly tracking the location of imaginary juice in controlled experiments, showing cognitive abilities previously thought to be unique to ...

If you liked this story, share it with other people. Few apes have done more to unsettle human certainties than Kanzi the bonobo. He wasn’t the first nonhuman primate to use symbols to communicate, ...

Kanzi, the world’s most celebrated bonobo who learned to communicate and play Minecraft with humans, died last week in Iowa, U.S., at the age of 44. Ape Initiative, a research organization in the city ...

Little kids hosting make-believe tea parties is a fixture of childhood playtime and long presumed to be exclusively a human ability. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University presented evidence in a new ...

Discover how an ape playing tea party teaches us humans are not the only beings with complex mental lives. Imagination develops in early childhood through creative play and later becomes a ...

He's determined, smart and outgoing; you can find him playing on the computer, watching an action movie or chomping on a celery stick in the greenhouse: He's Kanzi, the bonobo who plays Minecraft. The ...

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives, and story summaries. Few apes have done more to unsettle human certainties than Kanzi ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Although Kanzi, who died in March 2025, did not initiate the pretend play, his ability to follow along shows he had some of the ...