--- title: Chimpanzees Have Cognitive Abilities to Cook, Scientists Say description: Chimpanzees have the cognitive abilities to cook, a new study finds. canonical: https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-03T02:17:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:11.343Z article:section: Science og:title: Chimps Are Capable of Cooking, Scientists Say og:description: But they don't have a source of heat, such as fire og:url: https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48ea07e1092cb3c5/698852b98e060150b1460c57/chimpanzee-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: Western chimpanzee juvenile female using tools og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chimps Are Capable of Cooking, Scientists Say twitter:description: But they don't have a source of heat, such as fire twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48ea07e1092cb3c5/698852b98e060150b1460c57/chimpanzee-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chimps Are Capable of Cooking, Scientists Say > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=99da6da8-aa98-4b4f-903d-9c01423059b1&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How Animals Learn Language [Watch (HLS stream): How Animals Learn Language](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IB9XTqaU.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2010-08-06. TIME science writer, Jeffrey Kluger visits the Great Ape Trust to meet a remarkable Bonobo ape named Kanzi._  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 3, 2015 2:17 AM UTC  Western chimpanzee juvenile female using tools Western chimpanzee juvenile female using tools Anup Shah—Getty Images  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 3, 2015 2:17 AM UTC Chimpanzees have the mental abilities to cook, [researchers say](http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/), and would choose to cook their food if given the opportunity. Though chimps can’t heat up raw foods on their own—they can’t quite produce fire—scientists found that when presented with two containers—one with cooked food and one regular—the chimps almost always chose to eat their sweet potatoes hot and roasted, even if it meant they had to wait. They didn’t put any of the provided wooden pieces into the “cooker,” but they were found to be interested in carrying it further (across a room) to cook it rather than quickly begin to eat. The results, newly published in _Proceedings of Royal Society B_, suggest that the primates understand the concepts of planning, cause-and-effect and delayed gratification—three mental abilities that are necessary to cook. The study sheds light on the scientific mystery of when and how humans first learned to cook. Scientists suggested in the past it had to do with learning to produce fire, and [argue](http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/11/cooking-and-human-evolution) that cooking was a pivotal moment in humans’ physiological development, as the heated food is easier to digest. “Understanding when and how this dietary shift occurred is a pressing problem in biology,” researchers Felix Warneken and Alexandra Rosati wrote in the study. “If the cognitive abilities necessary to engage in cooking are also present in chimpanzees, it would support models in which control of fire rapidly led to cooking.” ## Transcript >> The story that I've been exploring is on animal cognition on what's in the mind of animals. One of the first things and most important things I did was going to the Great Ape Trust in Iowa and visit several of the language adept apes. >> Tomato. >> And three of the bonobos there have been brought up with language and have acquired a vocabulary of 384 words. >> Potato. >> Potato. >> Blueberries. >> Blueberry. >> But you can see Justin in this row for example there are words-- some of the words here are like, ready, chalk, pretend, and what you'll notice is that a lot of these words are not easy nouns or verbs. How do you explain to an ape more, it, is, until, said, ed, the past tense, how do you tell an ape that? It has to be able to grasp instructions. >> Can you buy surprise? >> Surprise. >> When I first arrived, he was quite cautious and Kanzi approached the wall with some tentativeness and when that was done and he was comfortable, he pointed to the icon for coffee, pointed to me and swept his arm to include the other researchers and we all had coffee and he drinks hot coffee and he takes it with a little bit of sweetener and a little bit of vanilla milk. When he grew bored with us, he pointed to his icon for ball. The researchers suggested that I go get it for him to further strengthen our relationship and showed me where to tap out. " Yes, I will get the ball for you ." I did then get the ball for him. It took me a long time and when I returned, Dr. Rumbaugh asked him if he was ready to play and he said past ready. So apparently, I kept him waiting too long. >> Kanzi, could you cut the onions with your knife? >> That's very good. Thank you. >> One of the highest faculties that humans have are the things we'll be find it harder to measure and even articulate things like compassion and things like empathy, things like generosity. Kanzi's vocabulary includes not just words that describe his day. It includes words like happy and be and tomorrow and these are all words that suggest an animal that understand that his life while it's not the life you and I choose to live, his life is one that's meaningful to him, that brings him pleasure and is one that he looks forward to continuing and, you know, that says a lot. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/"},"headline":"Chimps Are Capable of Cooking, Scientists Say","datePublished":"2015-06-03T02:17:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:11.343Z","description":"But they don't have a source of heat, such as fire","url":"https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/","keywords":["animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48ea07e1092cb3c5/698852b98e060150b1460c57/chimpanzee-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48ea07e1092cb3c5/698852b98e060150b1460c57/chimpanzee-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Western chimpanzee juvenile female using tools","caption":"Western chimpanzee juvenile female using tools","creditText":"Anup Shah—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/","name":"Chimps Are Capable of Cooking, Scientists Say"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Animals Learn Language","description":"TIME science writer, Jeffrey Kluger visits the Great Ape Trust to meet a remarkable Bonobo ape named Kanzi.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IB9XTqaU/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-08-06T14:20:17.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IB9XTqaU.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/","duration":"PT3M13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3906674/chimpanzee-cooking/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```