Chimpanzees are amongst our closest living relatives – in fact , we portion out about 99 per centum of our deoxyribonucleic acid with them . Now , it seems they also have unique personality that remain static over clock time , just like us .
Many twelvemonth ago , Jane Goodallpioneered the musical theme of chimpanzees having personalities . “ It is n’t only human beings who have personality , who are capable of rational thought and emotion like joy and sadness , ” shesaid . She is also famous for discovering that chimps use tools .
Goodall pore on Pan troglodytes from the Kasekala community in Tanzania ’s Gombe National Park . Inresearchconducted in 1973 , a group of researcher quantified the personalities of Pan troglodytes from this community by rating 24 unequaled traits .
The researchers found distaff chimpanzees to generally be more trustful , unsure , and depressed . Meanwhile , male person were more strong-growing and gregarious . However , there were still vast differences amongst the sexes . One particular female person , Passion , killed and ate at least four infant chimps in 1975 . The researchers determine to exclude Passion from their result due to her unusually “ disturbed ” behavior .
Despite these determination , the mind of brute having personality did n’t really foot up until the late 1990s . Now , a research team head by the University of Edinburgh has look back at this flat coat - breaking research to measure whether Pan troglodytes personalities might exchange with prison term .
“ It ’s the most renowned group of chimpanzees in the man , and I thought this was a terrific opportunity , ” steer investigator Alexander Weiss toldNational Geographic .
Weiss and his team first manoeuvre to Tanzania back in 2010 to get together with 18 current and retired field assistant who get it on the chimp there and had meditate them , some for as long as 35 twelvemonth .
“ It was reasonably awe - inspiring – I know about these field assistants , having take work by Jane Goodall before , ” said Weiss . “ It was an awful privilege that they took the time to aid out with this . ”
These researcher rated the personalities of 128 chimpanzees , some of whom are no longer around today . They looked at24 different trait , such as fearful , singular , esurient , jealous , playful , helpful , manipulative , and gentle .
Weiss ’ squad then compared the unexampled survey results with the results from 1973 and found consistencies in the chimps ’ personalities . This think of that although they might change somewhat with eld , chimps have personality that remain relatively constant throughout their life , just like we do .
Weiss and his colleagues collect a large amount of data , and have publish it in the journalScientific Data . They hope their finding might help other scientist to better see personality in people , and the effects they have on things like reproductive success .
“ I do n’t have enough clock time in my animation to do everything that can possibly be done with these data point , so why not let other people explore them ? ” explained Weiss .
“ That ’ll be really coolheaded to see , ” he added .
