News

Human beings used to be defined as “the tool-maker” species. But the uniqueness of this description was challenged in the 1960s when Dr. Jane Goodall discovered that chimpanzees will pick and modify grass stems to use to collect termites. Her observations called into question homo sapiens‘ very place in the world. Since then scientists’ knowledge of animal tool use has expanded exponentially.

We are pleased to announce the recipients of our fall 2019 research grants. This granting cycle, The Leakey Foundation is supporting the research of 27 scientists working at field sites and in laboratories around the world.

The Leakey Foundation is proud to announce the Joan Cogswell Donner Field School Scholarship which will provide grants of up to $2,000 to students from countries where there are abundant scientific resources but limited resources for academic development.

Teach a chimpanzee to fish for insects to eat, and you feed her for a lifetime. Teach her a better way to use tools in gathering prey, and you may change the course of evolution.

By Adam Brumm, Griffith University; Adhi Oktaviana, Griffith University, and Maxime Aubert, Griffith University Our team has discovered a cave painting in Indonesia that is at least 44,000 years old … Continued

This Giving Tuesday, all donations up to $5,000 will be quadruple-matched, thanks to Gordon and Ann Getty and Leakey Foundation Fellow Gianni Amato. All donations above that amount will be doubled.

In this installment of our “Fossil Finders” series, Leakey Foundation Fellow Carol Broderick brings us the story of  Heselon Mukiri who made several important discoveries and worked with Louis Leakey since the beginning of Leakey’s career. 

Global climate change could cause Africa’s Lake Victoria, the world’s largest tropical lake and source of the Nile River, to dry up in the next 500 years, according to new findings funded in part by The Leakey Foundation. Even more imminent, the White Nile — one of the two main tributaries of the Nile — could lose its source waters in just a decade.

Leakey Foundation grantee Kelly Ostrofsky spent the last several months working at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, getting to know the mountain gorillas that live in the Ruhija sector of the forest.

Will primates move to track changes in their habitats, or might they modify their behavior, or even adapt, in place? If they do move, why? What elements of their habitats are actually changing that make it more or less preferable? These questions frame Leakey Foundation grantee Andrew Bernard’s dissertation research in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.