Isabel Behncke Explained

Birth Place:Santiago de Chile, Chile.
Known For:Study and conservation of the bonobos
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Isabel Behncke Izquierdo is a field ethologist who studies animal behaviour to understand other animals, as well as to understand humans and our place in nature.[1] Originally from Chile, she is a primatologist,[2] a pioneer adventurer-scientist and the first South American in following great apes in the wild.[3] Behncke is currently director of the Centro de Estudios Públicos (CEP),[4] and advisor to the Chilean government, working on long-term strategies in science, technology, innovation and knowledge as a member of the National Council of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation for Development (CTCI), of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation of Chile[5] She is a board member of the PERC research institute,[6] which is dedicated to promoting environmental conservation, Gruter Institute research fellow,[7] researcher at the Social Complexity Research Center, Faculty of Government, Universidad del Desarrollo,[8] and Member of the conservation area team at Estancia Cerro Guido in Chilean Patagonia.[9]

Education

Behncke has a BSc in Zoology and an MSc in Wildlife Conservation from University College London, an MPhil in Human Evolution from Cambridge and a DPhil in Evolutionary Anthropology from Oxford.[10] [11] [12]

Career

She walked more than 3,000 km following wild bonobos (Pan paniscus) in the Congo jungle. Her PhD for Oxford University was the first comprehensive study of play behaviour in wild bonobos known to science.[13]

Behncke applies an evolutionary lens to derive insights into human behaviour and the modern challenges that humanity and the planet face. Her focus in studying play in non-human primates has been to shed light on the role of play in our own development, as humans are one of the few species that play during adulthood. For Dr Behncke, play is at the root of creativity, social bonding and healthy development.[13]

she is an Academic Collaborator of the Research Centre in Social Complexity (CICS) in Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile;[14] a Fellow of the Bay Area-based Gruter Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Human Behavior & Institutions;[15] and Visiting Researcher at Robin Dunbar's Social Neuroscience Evolutionary Research Group (SNRG) at University of Oxford.

Conservation of Temperate Rainforests

As Director of Huilo-Huilo Foundation, she was part of the emerging private conservation movement of the early 2000s.[16] At 60,000 square km, Huilo-Huilo is a private for profit natural reserve and ecotourism project in southern Chile. For this work, she lived in the field (years 2001-2004), near the shores of Northern Patagonia's Pirihueico Lake with her parrot Tuk.[17] With the aim of enhancing ecosystem resilience Behncke was part of a group of people who were pioneering social and ecosystem integration through the creation of biodiversity corridors and habitat conservation.[18] She worked with organizations such as Senda Darwin and Parques para Chile, and international wilderness conservation Planet Heritage Foundation.

Wild bonobo research

Bonobos, together with chimpanzees, are our living closest relatives. Yet they are the least known of apes. They are highly endangered and live only south of the river Congo in the tropical jungles of DRC. Bonobos are unusual in that they are highly sexual, peaceful, and have a matriarchy where non-related females bond strongly with each other.[19] They, like humans, play throughout their lives. It appears that the regular experience of social fun is core to developing and maintaining bonobo cohesive societies.[13] Behncke has highlighted the importance of the role of females in animal societies not just in bonobos but also in other species such as elephants[20] Behncke worked at Wamba, Luo Reserve, the world's longest running bonobo research site, run by Japanese scientists of Kyoto University. Wamba has survived a number of political upheavals in the region.[21] Chronic bloodshed in Congo meant that at the time of her study Behncke was the first western person in more than 20 years to do bonobo research at Wamba.

Burning Man and ethology in festivals

Behncke highlights how social gatherings are a natural and fundamental part of our lives as highly social animals. Doing human ethology at festivals like Burning Man in the desert or Carnival in Brazil, she has studied how the function of parties isn't for excessive indulgence; rather, parties enable social and economic interaction and integrate and build our social complexity[22]

Applied human sciences

Behncke has developed a style of knowledge integration that she applies to current human issues. She uses evolutionary, behavioural and ecological sciences to derive principles relevant to the capacity to adapt to change both of individuals and organisations.[23] She is often an invited guest to teach and participate in think-tanks issues that require trans-disciplinary approaches, such as the future of cities as social habitats,[24] depression and mental health,[25] behavioural economics and engagement or how to design rituals for organizational change[26]

Other activities

Behncke studies play as an ethologist and as a direct participant to gain insights on creativity, collaboration, and well-being. In NYC she took up Improv and did a TED Residency talk on the parallels of the creative process of nature and those arising by the rules of improv, titled 'Does nature have a sense of humour?'[27] Behncke has been avid traveller all her life, and enjoys music, wilderness, large dogs, horses, mountains, and connecting people and ideas.[28]

Patagonia expeditions and history of exploration

Behncke often participates and co-leads expeditions to Patagonia, highlighting its wild nature as well as its role in the history of exploration.[29] [30] [31] In collaboration with Congreso Futuro in January 2017 she took a group of scientists including Richard Dawkins[32] on board the world's only 1:1 replica[33] of HMS Beagle, the ship that took Captain FitzRoy and Charles Darwin around the world, and from whose journey the Origin of Species was eventually born.[34]

Public speaking

In 2011 she was a TED Fellow and gave a talk "Evolution's gift of play, from bonobo apes to humans".[35] [36]

TED main event, 2017, Español session 'Why we party?', on the natural history of human festivals.[37]

TEDx BRC 2014 and TEDx BRC 2016 (together with Esther Perel).[38]

Behncke has delivered keynote plenaries at stages as diverse as the Gruter Institute, SUMMIT LA, and Aspen Circles. Other speaking invitations include the United Nations General Assembly NYC, Google Zeitgeist, House of Lords London, SXSW, WIRED, G20, as well as academic meetings such as Human Evolution and Behaviour Society (HBES) and Human Ethology (ISHE).[27]

Radio, film, newspapers & TV

Radio

Podcast

Documentaries

Newspapers

Prizes and awards

[50]

[51]

Behncke's has also been featured in publications highlighting female achievement and women in science.[52] [53]

Other honors

Selected publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Isabel Behncke Izquierdo: About Isabel. TED. 10 April 2019.
  2. Web site: Museum of Curiosity - series 7 - episode 6. Radio Times. 1 December 2014.
  3. Web site: Isabel Behncke: Una aventurera que estudia el comportamiento humano - 10 Chilenos - Capítulos - Televisión Nacional de Chile. www.tvn.cl.
  4. Web site: CEP Chile.
  5. Web site: Board CTCI.
  6. Web site: Board member.
  7. Web site: Research fellows.
  8. Web site: Researcher at the Social Complexity Research Center, Faculty of Government, University for Development.
  9. Web site: Member of the conservation area team.
  10. Web site: British Academy Centenary Research Project.
  11. Web site: Research fellows.
  12. Web site: CV Universidad del Desarrollo.
  13. Behncke . Isabel . Play in the Peter Pan ape . Current Biology . January 2015 . 25 . 1 . R24–R27 . 10.1016/j.cub.2014.11.020 . 25562296 . free .
  14. Web site: People . Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social . Universidad del Desarrollo . 10 April 2019.
  15. Web site: Research Fellows . Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research . 10 April 2019.
  16. Web site: Isabel Behncke: La chilena que estudia a los chimpancés para saber más de los humanos - Emol.com. El Mercurio. S.A.P. 22 March 2012. Emol.
  17. Web site: Suplemento. diario.elmercurio.com.
  18. Book: 10.1007/978-94-007-7470-4 . Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World . 2013 . 978-94-007-7469-8 . 23496601 . Rozzi . Ricardo . S.T.A . Pickett . Clare . Palmer . Juan J . Armesto . J. Baird . Callicott .
  19. Book: Dispersing Primate Females: Life History and Social Strategies in Male-Philopatric Species. 9784431554806. Furuichi. Takeshi. Yamagiwa. Juichi. Aureli. Filippo. 2015-06-05.
  20. Web site: ESSAY: Human Females Could (Should?) be More Like Elephant Females. https://web.archive.org/web/20190414214146/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2015/02/12/essay-human-females-could-should-be-more-like-elephant-females/ . dead . April 14, 2019 . 2015-02-12.
  21. Web site: Democratic Republic of Congo: IRIN Focus on Hema-Lendu conflict.
  22. Web site: Census.
  23. Web site: Isabel Behncke Izquierdo.
  24. Web site: EyN: "La diversidad es el alimento de la evolución".
  25. Web site: Interviews Page Four – Lost Connections.
  26. Web site: A Design Lab is Making Rituals for Secular People. The Atlantic. 2018-05-07.
  27. Web site: Isabel Behncke | Speaker | TED.
  28. Web site: 10 Chilenos.
  29. Web site: Chilean Patagonian Expedition to Foster Stewardship of the Unique Cape Horn Region. https://web.archive.org/web/20141212031653/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141210-chile-patagonia-cape-horn-biosphere-reserve/ . dead . December 12, 2014 . 2014-12-10.
  30. Web site: Expedición Científica Puerta de Entrada a la Antártida / Biósfera Cabo de Hornos. 23/11/14 – Fundación RAD.
  31. Web site: Expedición Científica Antártica y Patagonia Chilena / Cambio Climático. 15/1/16 – Fundación RAD.
  32. Web site: LUN: Nobel de Física encontró que Magallanes es igualito a Escocia | Congreso Futuro.
  33. Web site: Home page . 2024-04-22. Nao Victoria Museo . naovictoria.cl . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20190418070953/http://naovictoria.cl/?lang=en . 18 April 2019 .
  34. Web site: [Reportajes Congreso Futuro 2019] Antártica, un laboratorio estratégico para el futuro de la humanidad.
  35. Web site: Isabel Behncke Izquierdo, primatologist. TED. 1 December 2014.
  36. Web site: What we can learn from the bonobos. https://web.archive.org/web/20110221071612/http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2011/id20110211_246118.htm#p1. dead. February 21, 2011. Bloomberg Businessweek. 1 December 2014. 16 February 2011.
  37. Web site: Connection and meaning: The talks of TED en Español at TED2017. 2017-04-26.
  38. Web site: TEDxBlackRockCity | TED.
  39. Web site: BBC Radio 4 - The Museum of Curiosity, Series 7, Episode 6 . BBC . 15 April 2023.
  40. Web site: Museum of Curiosity: Gallery 7 - Meeting Forty-Two. British Comedy Guide. 15 April 2023.
  41. Web site: Isabel Behncke — Lessons from Sex and Play, What We Can Learn from Bonobos and Chimpanzees, and More.
  42. Web site: Primatologist Isabel Behncke on Play, Sexual Selection, and Lessons from Following Bonobos for 3,000 Kilometers in the Jungles of Congo.
  43. Web site: Isabel Behncke Interview.
  44. Web site: Isabel Behncke. IMDb.
  45. Web site: Ape Man. https://web.archive.org/web/20160523123339/http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/tv/ape-man/ . dead . May 23, 2016 .
  46. Web site: Bounce: How the Ball Taught the World to Play. IMDb.
  47. Web site: "Lo que estoy observando con humanos en confinamiento no es muy distinto a los loros enjaulados a los que vi sacarse las plumas": entrevista con la científica chilena Isabel Behncke. BBC.
  48. Web site: 12 de las mejores entrevistas que BBC Mundo publicó en 2020. IMDb.
  49. Web site: Investigadora Isabel Behncke recibió premio Energía de Mujer 2018. 2018-03-08.
  50. Web site: 'Chilenos Sin Fronteras' visibiliza el talento nacional en el Metro de Santiago. August 2017.
  51. Web site: Isabel Behnke: Red de Líderes Jóvenes.
  52. Web site: Tumblr. August 2016.
  53. Web site: "Luces al fin del mundo", el libro que buscar acercar la ciencia a los chilenos. 2017-10-16.
  54. Web site: Meet our first class of TED Residents. 2016-04-25.

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