JAN VAN HOOFF (PART ONE)

Dr. Jan van Hooff is a leading primatologist and the author of the first ethogram (description of behavioral repertoire) of captive chimpanzees. Over several decades, he worked with apes in different settings, including in the New Mexico base for the space program of the US Air Force and in the Arnhem zoo his grandparents founded. He has been trained in the Netherlands and at Oxford, where he studied with Nobel Prize Niko Tinbergen and also worked with Desmond Morris. Dr. Van Hooff was a professor at the University of Utrecht, advising many students, perhaps most notably Frans DeWaal. The “reunion” of Jan van Hooff with the female chimpanzee called Mama is the topic of DeWaal’s 2019 essay Mama’s Last Hug.

Jan van Hooff’s testimony is in two parts. Recordings were acquired in 2018 in Bilthoven, Netherlands. Laurent Dubreuil conducted the interview; he also directed and edited the movie.

DISCLAIMER. The views expressed by the interviewees are their own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Ape Testimony Project and of the individuals or organizations associated with this initiative.

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