Researcher Jacques Tamba Keita (R) and primatologist and director of the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project Dr. Jill Pruetz (L) track down West African chimpanzees on the Fongoli home range in the Kedougou region, on December 9, 2025. For five area residents originally from local villages, all but one without a high school degree, a project focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. The Fongoli females are the only documented animals in the world to regularly hunt with tools, fashioning branches into spears for killing smaller primates known as a bush babies. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)

Researcher Nazaire Bonnag stands next to sample vials containing West African chimpanzees stool samples at the research center on the Fongoli home range in the Kedougou region, on December 10, 2025. For five area residents originally from local villages, all but one without a high school degree, a project focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. The Fongoli females are the only documented animals in the world to regularly hunt with tools, fashioning branches into spears for killing smaller primates known as a bush babies. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)

Researcher Nazaire Bonnag shows a stool sample vial containing Western African stool samples at the research center on the Fongoli home range in the Kedougou region, on December 10, 2025. For five area residents originally from local villages, all but one without a high school degree, a project focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. The Fongoli females are the only documented animals in the world to regularly hunt with tools, fashioning branches into spears for killing smaller primates known as a bush babies. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)

Head researcher Michel Tama Sadiakhou takes GPS coordinates as he observes West African chimpanzees on the Fongoli home range in the Kedougou region, on December 10, 2025. For five area residents originally from local villages, all but one without a high school degree, a project focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. The Fongoli females are the only documented animals in the world to regularly hunt with tools, fashioning branches into spears for killing smaller primates known as a bush babies. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)

Researcher Nazaire Bonnag (R) and primatologist and director of the Fongoli Savanna Chimpanzee Project Dr. Jill Pruetz (L) observe West African chimpanzees on the Fongoli home range in the Kedougou region, on December 10, 2025. For five area residents originally from local villages, all but one without a high school degree, a project focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. The Fongoli females are the only documented animals in the world to regularly hunt with tools, fashioning branches into spears for killing smaller primates known as a bush babies. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)

(FILES) A general view of an artisanal gold mining site in Bokodi on May 8, 2025. In the far southeast corner of Senegal, where dangerous work in the region's informal gold mines is prevalent, five area residents originally from local villages, research chimpanzees. The project is focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees and has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. (Photo by Amaury Falt-Brown / AFP via Getty Images)

Researcher Jacques Tamba Keita tracks down West African chimpanzees on the Fongoli home range in the Kedougou region, on December 9, 2025. For five area residents originally from local villages, all but one without a high school degree, a project focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. The Fongoli females are the only documented animals in the world to regularly hunt with tools, fashioning branches into spears for killing smaller primates known as a bush babies. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)

A West African chimpanzee walks past head researcher Michel Tama Sadiakhou on the Fongoli home range in the Kedougou region, on December 10, 2025. For five area residents originally from local villages, all but one without a high school degree, a project focused on the area's highly unusual savannah-dwelling chimpanzees has proven an escape from the mines, and a deep dive into science. The group of rare chimpanzees they research live in the bush instead of the forest alongside other chimp communities in Senegal's Kedougou region, on the border with Mali and Guinea. The Fongoli females are the only documented animals in the world to regularly hunt with tools, fashioning branches into spears for killing smaller primates known as a bush babies. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)