Munich

A primate research centre with a difference opens this week in Leipzig. All of its work will be undertaken in full view of the public, who will be able to visit it to watch the four species of great ape housed there.

The Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Centre, built at a cost of DM30 million (US$13.5 million), is situated in the city's zoo. Its founders hope that the centre's 'open-door' approach will help to boost public confidence in their work.

“The new centre offers us a unique opportunity to compare the cognitive abilities of all four great ape species,” says Michael Tomasello, its co-director. “We will use both observational and experimental methods to investigate how apes solve ecological and social problems.”

Ape watch: the chimpanzee enclosure at the primate centre offers visitors unparalleled visual access. Credit: MICHAEL SERES

Sixty great apes — chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orang-utans — will be delivered to the centre from zoos across Europe. Some have arrived already. Their new home consists of indoor and outdoor enclosures designed to imitate the apes' natural surroundings. There are no bars —the apes are separated from visitors by moats or glass.

Research on intelligence, tool-using, numerical skills and social behaviour will start in June, once the animals have settled down and formed social groups.

Visitors will be able to watch the scientists working with the apes through panes of one-way glass in hidden observation corners. This level of openness is important to the project, says Josep Call, co-director of the centre. “Seeing apes solving problems in front of your eyes is very exciting — more so than seeing them on television.”

Primate expert Jane Goodall, of the UK-based Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation, has welcomed the centre. “Any new exhibit involving [highly endangered apes] that helps people to understand their true nature is to be applauded,” she says.