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UnDisciplined: How long can apes remember each other’s faces?

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Until 1992, a bonobo named Louise lived at the San Diego Zoo. But that year she was moved to Cincinnati. And then, in 2014, she was moved again to an animal sanctuary in Japan. That’s where researcher Laura Lewis met Louise as part of a study on the capacity of chimps and bonobos to remember the faces of apes they’d spent time with years and even decades earlier. And Louise did; she appeared to recognize the faces of those she’d been separated from for more than 25 years. And Louise wasn’t alone. Lewis believes that chimps and bonobos are like humans in that they can still remember fellow apes many decades after losing contact.

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Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.