Animals have imagination too: this monkey's imaginary tea party forces us to rethink what it means to be "human"

©Sean Foster via Unsplash

Bonobos' imagination could be much more than a mere scientific curiosity: it could be proof that we are not the only ones on this planet who also live in the world of what is not visible.

A study published in the journal Science and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University points that out. At the center of the study is Kanzi, a 43-year-old bonobo who lives at Ape Initiative. He is no ordinary specimen: for years he has been known for his ability to understand verbal stimuli and communicate by pointing at objects.

This time, however, he has done something that thoroughly shuffles the cards....

The symbolic game experiment

The researchers chose a simple, almost domestic setting. A scene reminiscent of children's classic tea set game: empty cups, a transparent jug, no actual drink. The researcher pretends to pour juice into two cups. Then he pretends to empty one, shaking the cup to "show" that there is nothing left in it. Then he asks Kanzi a direct question, "Where is the juice?"

Kanzi, in most cases, points to the cup that, in the imaginary game, should still contain the invisible drink. This is not a loose gesture. Even when the cups are moved around on the table, the bonobo continues to follow the logic of the imagined scene.

To avoid ambiguous interpretations, the researchers added a crucial variation: one cup contained real juice, the other only "pretend" juice. When asked which he liked best, Kanzi almost always chose the real juice. A sign that he did not confuse fantasy and reality. He kept both apart at the same time.

A third experiment repeated the same scheme with grapes. The researcher pretended to take a grape from an empty container and put it into one of two jars. After simulating emptying one of the jars, he asks, "Where are the grapes?" Again Kanzi points to the jar that, according to the made-up scene, should contain the fruit.

He did not answer correctly on every attempt, but the consistency of his answers was great enough to speak of a true capacity for mental representation.

Why Kanzi changes our view of other animals

For years, we have considered imagination an exclusively human prerogative. Children begin playing "pretend" games around age two and show amazement as early as 15 months when an adult pretends to drink from an empty cup. But until now, no one had demonstrated under controlled conditions that a nonhuman primate can follow nonexistent objects within a coherent sequence of events.

Yet observations in the wild had already led to suspicions: young chimpanzees treating sticks like babies, symbolic behavior in captivity. Experimental confirmation was still lacking. According to the researchers, the roots of imagination in bonobos could go back to a common ancestor who lived between six and nine million years ago. In other words, the ability to go beyond the "here and now" may not have arisen only with Homo sapiens.

Christopher Krupenye, one of the study's authors, speaks of a result that forces us to rethink the mental life of animals. If a bonobo is able to imagine something that is not physically present and at the same time knows that it is not real, then its mind is not just attached to the immediate.

And with that, the issue is no longer purely scientific.

If we share with them bits of imagination, if they can imagine what is not there, then they may also be able to desire, anticipate and remember with a depth we do not yet fully understand. Continuing to see them as beings driven purely by instinct then becomes increasingly difficult to sustain.

(©Science via GreenMe.it 2026/Managing Editor: Julie Morgan - The Press Junction/Picture: ©picture alliance/dpa/dpa-POOL | Peter Kneffel)