Nate Rott

That they then pretend to fill with juice from an empty transparent pitcher.

Kanzi's watching the whole thing.

So we have two transparent cups full of imaginary juice.

Where's the juice?

And about 70% of the time, Chris says, Kanzi picked the right one.

But he's also able to imagine, to pretend that one of them is not.

Can I ask, obviously, this was a study of one animal, right, an individual, and scientists typically want a broader sample size, many examples to be able to draw kind of a broad conclusion.

Does the scale of this study limit its findings in any way, do you think?

To Chris, this new study is that one clear demonstration.

But, he notes, there's reason to suspect that they can't.

For decades, researchers and people who have worked with apes have observed various species doing things that very much look like pretend play.

But, he notes, there's reason to suspect that they can't.

For decades, researchers and people who work with apes have observed various species doing things that very much look like pretend play.

Which is why he very much intends to keep studying this with other apes in the future.

Well, Chris, thanks so much for doing this research, man.

It's super interesting.

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Also, I did a whole digital story complete with videos of Kanzi.

We'll link to it and Chris's study in our show notes.