'Chimp Empire': ASU professor studies community featured in Netflix series
Miles is the largest chimpanzee ever seen in the Ngogo community. He held the alpha position for many years before he was deposed by his paternal brother, Jackson. Photo courtesy Kevin Langergraber
For more than 20 years, Arizona State University primatologist Kevin Langergraber has studied the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda.
The new Netflix series "Chimp Empire" was filmed about the Ngogo over a one-and-a-half-year period and directed by James Reed, who won the 2021 Best Documentary Feature for "My Octopus Teacher." The show is narrated by fellow Oscar winner Mahershala Ali.
“I think the filmmakers have done an amazing job turning our scientific stories into compelling emotional drama that brings people in,” Langergraber said.
“'Chimp Empire' captures a year of many changes at Ngogo — one previously unified chimpanzee community, the largest ever known, split into two warring factions. And there were dramatic changes in leadership. The film ends contemplating the chimpanzees’ perspective on the events that happened. It speculates that Even Garbo (the oldest chimp at Ngogo) has not seen many years as eventful as this one.
"The filmmakers got incredibly lucky to film the events in the lives of the chimps that they did. It will take us years of scientific research to even attempt to understand the reasons for these events and the consequences they’ll have for the community in the future.”
Langergraber is an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and research scientist with the Institute of Human Origins.
Langergraber hopes the documentary will engage people’s interest in chimpanzees and spur efforts toward supporting their conservation.
“Films like these are important for getting people interested in chimpanzees. But in the end, awareness and appreciation of wildlife isn’t enough to conserve them … it has to result in action,” Langergraber said.
-
Chimpanzees Garrison being groomed by Rollins. These two males of the western Ngogo group have spent countless hours over the years performing affiliative behaviors like this to cement their social bonds.
Photo courtesy Kevin Langergraber
-
Adult female chimpanzee Carson and her son E.O., who was named after the evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson.
Photo courtesy Kevin Langergraber
-
Viewers of "Chimp Empire" resonated with the social struggles of adolescent male chimpanzee Gus.
Photo courtesy Kevin Langergraber
-
ASU primatologist Kevin Langergraber studies the Ngogo chimpanzee community, which is the subject of "Chimp Empire."
Photo courtesy Kevin Langergraber
The Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, an nonprofit organization that supports conservation work with anti-poaching patrols and programs to reduce conflict between chimpanzees and humans over crop raiding, is hoping that the publicity generated by the film will result in more direct support. Learn more about the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
This is the second documentary focused on this group of chimpanzees. The 2017 Animal Planet documentary "Rise of the Warrior Apes" was told through the view of the scientists who study the chimpanzees, including Langergaber.
More Science and technology
The Polytechnic School at ASU hits milestone mark at 10 years
The year was 2014.Taylor Swift released “1989.” "Frozen” and its soundtrack were stuck in the minds of many.Facebook was…
Study finds cerebellum plays role in cognition — and it's different for males and females
Research has shown there can be sex differences for how male and female brains are wired.For example, links have been made…
Artificial intelligence drives need for real data storage innovations
In southeastern Mesa, Arizona, construction crews are hard at work on a state-of-the-art data center. The $1 billion…