By: Elaina Meininger

Jill pruetz

Childhood

-Jill was born on December 15,1965 in Yoakum,Texas-Jill grew up in a small town with a middle class family-Jill never really wanted anything she just loved her life she did want a horse, but she got to ride her cousins horses sometimes.-Jill liked to play outside as a child-Jill always loved animals, she grew up with cats and dogs

Jill Pruetz

Jill as a young adult-Jill took an anthropology class in college and that is what inspired JIll in archaeology and primatology-Jill worked in belize,Peru, Kenya, Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua as a young adult-Jill did field work and then she got hooked-Jill went to volunteer with chimpanzees and she said that she....

Jill as a young adult continued...............would explore chimpanzees one day and then she ultimately did-Jill says that one of the things that changed her life was doing fieldwork in belize-Jill went to college at Southwest Texas State University-Jill graduated college with B.A in Anthropology and Sociology-Jill ran cross country and track

Chimpanzee

Timeline of Jill's life

-Born 1965 Yoakum, South Texas-Graduated Yoakum High School 1984-Attended Southwest Texas State University (1984-1989) and graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology and a B.A. in Sociology (ran cross-country and track in college)-Worked as research assistant at Michael Keeling Center in Bastrop, TX with captive chimps.

Timeline of Jill's life continued....-Attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1990-1999) and graduated with a Ph.D. In Anthropology-Worked as a postdoctoral scholar at Miami University, Department Zoology (1999-2000). Surveyed chimp sites in Senegal. -Started work in Anthropology department at Iowa State University (2001-present). Started research at Fongoli, Senegal chimpanzee site (ongoing)!

Jill Pruetz

Jill's thoughts

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-Jill always loved the idea of going to Africa and to explore wild animals, she feels that it is more free in Africa and people aren't the controllers of nature-When Jill was a little girl she thought the only way in terms of a career with working with animals was to either to be a veterinarian or a rancher

Jill Pruetz

Jill as an adult

- When Jill was an adult she started to study animals but ever since 2001 she has been studying chimpanzees -Jill as an adult returned a baby chimpanzee back to its mother

- Jill has one nephew and 2 identical twin nieces, 2 dogs in the United States and 3 dogs and 1 cat in Africa!-Jill is not married because it would interfere with her exploring

Jill Pruetz with a chimpanzee skull

how Jill's exploring has changed the world- Jill introduced people to the amazing savanna chimpanzees. That she studies in Fongoli, so she was really just a voice for them in a way. They have always been out there and doing some pretty amazing things-like hunting other animals with "spear"

Difference between Savanna chimpanzees and deep forest Chimpanzees

Life changing moments of jill

-One of the things that changed Jill's life was going to the field in Belize to do archeology she realized that, that was what she wanted to do -Another life changing moment was when she started working with chimpanzees she knew that she wanted to work with chimps the rest of her life- One of the most life changing moments for Jill was when she got to confiscate a baby chimpanzee named Aimee and return Aimee to her mother. Jill says,"It was one of the best moments of my life returning Aimee back to its mother."

The baby Chimpanzee that jill brought back to its mother

Evolution

Jill's Studies

-Jill noticed that chimpanzees make,and use spears out of sticks to hunt bushbabies -Jill recorded 37 tool type hunting attempts on bushbabies. Jill noticed that it happens more often in the beginning of the rainy season at Fongoli, Africa-Jill has studied that chimpanzees have different calls for things.For example, when they are surprised by something they will call out a noise compared to when they are happy.

Chimpanzee using a spear

The EndQuestions or comments??