A 25-year study of chimpanzees living in Fongoli, Senegal, is the focus of a new PBS Nature film that describes the apes using tools and behaviors more often associated with early humans. The program, titled « HumanLike: The Chimps of Fongoli », is set to premiere on PBS on November 11.
The community studied there lives in an extreme Saharan environment, where water and shelter are scarce. According to the program, the chimpanzees hunt using spears, take refuge in caves, dig wells to reach water and control and use fire. These are the behaviors that give the film its central theme of how closely the apes' lives resemble our own ancestors' survival strategies.
The film is part of the PBS Nature series, produced by the WNET Group, and it will be available to watch for free on YouTube through December 10, 2026. Viewers should note that the material being promoted is the program itself. The accompanying description does not point to an independent scientific publication or peer-reviewed paper backing the claims, so the findings are presented here as the film reports them rather than as confirmed by outside research.