![]() “And sometimes, there’s aggression between males. “This is what they do most of the time,” Watts said. The series does offer glimpses of the serene side of chimp life, including scenes of them resting, grooming each other, and mothers holding babies. Viewers need to accept that they sometimes do things that are unpleasant to see.” “They aren’t humans, and whatever they do, it’s neither good nor bad, so don’t judge them about it. “I want people to be interested in chimpanzees and to care about their predicament in a world dominated by humans, but I think, ideally, we need people to understand that chimpanzees are chimpanzees,” he said. He worries that the show’s focus on aggressive behavior among the males could distort people’s impressions of chimpanzees, making them think the animals are bad or immoral. ![]() “I didn’t expect Netflix to give him the same liberty with this series,” said Watts, who did not participate in the making of the series, although a snippet of footage he shot in the field is used at the start of episode three. It was not your standard wildlife documentary that tells a story and follows a script read by a famous actor who probably has never visited the site. He wanted it to be about the history of the Ngogo Research Project and individual chimpanzees there. “He made a very bold move by not using a script. “I think it is an excellent film,” Watts said. James Reed, who directed the series, also helmed the 2017 documentary “Rise of the Warrior Apes,” in which the filmmaker relied on interviews with researchers, including Watts, to describe the Ngogo chimps’ behavior in place of scripted narration. “Chimp Empire” is not the first wildlife documentary to feature the Ngogo chimpanzees. I see something like that and just think, ‘Oh, come on.’” They’re both doing the chimp version of laughter. The narrator, Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali, explains that Joya, having lost her mother, needs to learn parenting skills, suggesting that she is somehow mistreating the baby. It depicts a young female, Joya, whose mother had recently died, tugging at another chimp’s baby that is dangling in the branches just above her. ![]() AbramsĪ scene in the second episode, however, exemplifies the series’ shortcomings, Watts said. “So I watched those scenes and thought, ‘Wow, someone could do a fine-grained analysis of footage and see what they learn,’” he said. But I’m always following them and seeing their backs. How do they decide to do it? I’ve often thought it would be great if I could film the eye contact and communication going on. “When I follow them, when they go on patrol it’s always kind of mystifying. “You can see them looking back and forth at each other and checking on each other,” he said. For Watts, this footage was particularly interesting. In several sequences, the filmmakers capture males from both groups patrolling the boundaries of their territory and making forays into their rivals’ turf. I’d love to get access to some of their footage someday to analyze it for research purposes.” I was continually awestruck by the quality of the images. “It is a standard story-telling wildlife ‘documentary’ that has some problems when it comes to the relationship of the script to the real world of chimpanzees, as is typical of the genre,” said Watts, the Alison Richard Professor of Anthropology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. While Watts praised the filmmakers’ skill in capturing compelling and often beautiful footage, he acknowledged that the series’ narrative at times sacrifices scientific accuracy for drama. The plot also follows attempts by younger males in the central faction to unseat a chimpanzee named Jackson, the community’s alpha male. This rift forms the central narrative of the docuseries, as the filmmakers focus on the hostilities that flare between the larger central group and their western rivals. ![]() It also is one of only two communities known to have split into rival factions: a large central group, and a smaller western one. The Ngogo chimpanzee community, which inhabits Uganda’s Kibale National Park, is by far the largest ever discovered. Through the project, Watts and his students and colleagues have uncovered important insights into chimpanzee behavior and its relevance to human evolution. In 1995, Watts founded the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project with his colleague John Mitani, a primate behavioral ecologist from the University of Michigan. Yale anthropologist David Watts watched “Chimp Empire,” the recent four-part Netflix docuseries on the Ngogo chimpanzee community in Uganda, with an informed perspective: He has spent decades studying the chimps featured on the show.
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