On April 1st, a new research project, supported by the Sievert Foundation, Osnabrück, Germany started at Osnabrück University, which is led by SImone Pika and aims to investigate exactly this question. To do so, quantitative data on trust in social interactions — such as grooming — will be collected among the Rekambo chimpanzees.

Simone Pika and Claudio Tennie, University of Tübingen, Germany spent three weeks in 12-2025-01-2026 at Ozouga to study nut-cracking behaviour in the Rekambo chimpanzees and implications for chimpanzee and human culture. This reserach trip is part of a grant supported by The Leakey Foundation titled "Can wild chimpanzees innovate nut cracking independently? Combining experimental and behavioral observations.