Image © Paco Bertolani Dr. Paco Bertolani, as mentioned in the previous blog post, will be at the forefront of the project to habituate the wild-born descendants of the chimps released on Rubondo Island in the 1960s. Chimpanzees in the wild have a deeply ingrained fear and mistrust of human beings, and at the first sight of an approaching person they will flee immediately. “However, some people think that this fear for humans is the direct consequence of some previous bad exp

Dr. Paco Bertolani holds a PhD. in Biological Anthropology, and is a specialist in chimpanzee habituation. The population of chimpanzees on Rubondo Island has been mentioned in previous articles: how they came to be there by the efforts of the great conservationist Professor Bernard Grzimek. From a core group of 16 released back into the wild over several years in the 1960s, this community now numbers around 40 individuals, and they are all wild-born. This presents a unique o