In the image of a sunny afternoon where a child sets up a tiny tea set for invisible guests, the notion of pretend play has long been a familiar rite of childhood — a keystone of imagination and the internal world that sets humans apart. Yet, recently, the gentle laughter of this mental game has echoed further back into the shared branches of our family tree, suggesting that imagination might not be ours alone.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of St Andrews have offered the first controlled experimental glimpse into this possibility — by inviting a bonobo named Kanzi to take part in tea‑party‑like scenarios that tested his ability to understand and interact with imaginary objects. This study, published in Science, marks a turning point in how scientists think about animal cognition, blurring the line between human and non‑human minds.
Kanzi, long celebrated for his advanced understanding of lexigram language, participated in three main experiments. In one, cups were “filled” with pretend juice using an empty pitcher; the bonobo consistently picked the cup with imaginary contents over one “emptied” of pretend juice. In another, he was asked to choose between real juice and the pretend variety — again showing he could distinguish between tangible and mental representations. A final grape‑tracking task reinforced these findings, showing Kanzi could follow the trail of an unseen fruit placed in imaginary scenarios.
What makes this research notable is that Kanzi performed these tasks without direct incentives tied to success in the pretend play portions — suggesting his understanding of imagined scenarios wasn’t simply a learned trick but a genuine cognitive engagement.
Scientists have long observed behaviors in the wild — young apes dragging sticks as if they were dolls, for example — that hint at imaginative capacity. Yet controlled experimentation has been scarce, making this new evidence especially compelling. If bonobos can form mental images of objects that are not present, this challenges the long‑held belief that imagination is an exclusively human domain.
However, researchers caution that Kanzi’s exceptional language training and life experiences may mean his abilities are not representative of all great apes. More studies will be needed to see whether his imaginative play reflects a broader cognitive capacity across species.
Still, the notion that a bonobo can follow the invisible trail of pretend juice or grapes reminds us that imagination may be woven more deeply into the fabric of primate minds than once thought — and that the roots of what we consider uniquely human may stretch back millions of years.
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Sources Major news reports covering this research:
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