Christophe Boesch (born 11 August 1951 in

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

) is a primatologist who studies

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

s. He and his wife work together, and he has both written articles and directed documentaries about chimpanzees. He is of French and Swiss nationality. He received his degree in biology from the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...

, and his Ph.D. from the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

in 1984.Christophe Boesch: Curriculum Vitae

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (german: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Plan ...

. His dissertation was entitled "Nut-Cracking Behaviour of Wild Chimpanzees". After this, he attended the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

, to receive a degree in habilitation in 1994. Boesch's first field experience was in 1973, conducting census work on the

mountain gorilla The mountain gorilla (''Gorilla beringei beringei'') is one of the two subspecies of the eastern gorilla. It is listed as endangered by the IUCN as of 2018. There are two populations: One is found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central/ ...

s of

Virunga National Park , iucn_category = II , iucn_ref = , location = Democratic Republic of the Congo , map = Democratic Republic of the Congo , relief = 1 , coordinates = , area = , established = , nearest_city = Goma , photo =Virunga National Park-107997 ...

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

, under the supervision of

Dian Fossey Dian Fossey (, January 16, 1932 – ) was an American primatologist and conservationist known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups from 1966 until her murder in 1985. She studied them daily in the mountain forests of ...

. In 1975 and 1977 he taught at a secondary school in Geneva; followed by time as an assistant in the Department of Ethology and Wildlife Research at the University of Zurich. In 1976, Boesch began his work with chimpanzees at

Taï National Park Taï National Park () is a national park in Côte d'Ivoire that contains one of the last areas of primary rainforest in West Africa. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1982 due to the diversity of its flora and fauna. Five mammal specie ...

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

. One of his current ongoing projects was begun in 1979, studying the "ecology, social organization, tool-use, hunting, cooperation, food-sharing, inter-community relationships, and cognitive capacities" of the chimpanzees at Taï National Park. Since 1997, he has been the Director of the Department of Primatology of the

in Leipzig, Germany. He is also the founder and president of the

Wild Chimpanzee Foundation The is a multinational organization safeguarding chimpanzees; it was founded in 2000 by the primatologist Christophe Boesch, in Switzerland. It currently runs programs in Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, in partnership with the Max ...

. Boesch and several other scientists have found evidence about how easily disease can be passed from human tourists and researchers to the great apes they are observing; this research has helped to make great ape tourism more hygienic. Boesch and his colleagues at the

have also contributed to our understanding of chimpanzee mating habits through collection and analysis of chimpanzee DNA.

References

External links

Video

Video on Christophe Boesch's research (Latest Thinking)
Primatologists French biologists Swiss biologists 1951 births Living people People from St. Gallen (city) Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Max Planck Institute directors {{zoologist-stub