Weeknights at the Wagner: Growing Old in the Jungle

WEEKNIGHTS AT THE WAGNER

Growing Old in the Jungle: The Challenges of Aging for Wild Chimpanzees with Dr. Ben Finkel

It was once thought that wild animals rarely lived long enough to experience age-related declines. However, substantial evidence has since emerged that senescence does occur in natural populations, and these deteriorations in vitality are nearly universal across the animal kingdom—shaping survival and reproduction in many species. During this talk, Dr. Finkel will use chimpanzees as a window into aging in the wild. Like humans, our closest living relatives are exceptionally long-lived and, at first glance, appear to age gracefully: maintaining body condition and social integration well into old age. Drawing on data from wild male chimpanzees at Ngogo in Kibale National Park, Uganda, Dr. Finkel explores growing old in the wild, challenges of foraging, travel, and mating, and whether chimpanzee’s seemingly graceful aging reflects the adoption of new strategies to compensate for these age-related changes. By identifying the mechanisms that link senescence to behavior in a long-lived wild species, this research offers a lens into how aging has evolved in natural environments and offers a comparative perspective on the evolutionary foundations of longevity, including in humans. An evening lecture series, Weeknights at the Wagner, invites experts into our Victorian lecture hall to speak on a range of science and history of science related subjects. Each talk includes a Q&A with the speaker.

About the Speaker

Ben Finkel is a biological anthropologist and primatologist whose research focuses on the evolution of senescence and life-history theory. He is currently a Lecturer at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2024, where his dissertation examined the functional challenges of aging in wild chimpanzees at Ngogo, Uganda. Ben’s broader research interests include foraging behavior, dental wear, fecal particle size, the social function of testosterone, and conservation psychology, with particular attention to the media portrayal of primates.