Isabel Behncke

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.

{{Cite web | url= https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/archaeology-classics-and-egyptology/research/projects/lucy-to-language/people/ |title = British Academy Centenary Research Project}}

{{Cite web | url=https://gruterinstitute.org/research-fellows/#Izquierdo|title =Research fellows}}{{Cite web | url=https://complejidadsocial.udd.cl/2019/news/isabel-behncke-and-her-visit-to-the-congo-it-helped-me-a-lot-to-have-tolerance-for-uncertainty/|title = CV Universidad del Desarrollo}}

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.{{cite journal |last1=Behncke |first1=Isabel |title=Play in the Peter Pan ape |journal=Current Biology |date=January 2015 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=R24–R27 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2014.11.020 |pmid=25562296 |doi-access=free }}

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.

{{As of|2019}} she is an Academic Collaborator of the Research Centre in Social Complexity (CICS) in Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile;{{cite web |title=People |url=http://complejidadsocial.udd.cl/people/ |website=Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social |publisher=Universidad del Desarrollo |access-date=10 April 2019}} a Fellow of the Bay Area-based Gruter Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Human Behavior & Institutions;{{cite web |title=Research Fellows |url=http://gruterinstitute.org/research-fellows |publisher=Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research |access-date=10 April 2019}} and Visiting Researcher at Robin Dunbar's Social Neuroscience Evolutionary Research Group (SNRG) at University of Oxford.

As Director of Huilo-Huilo Foundation, she was part of the emerging private conservation movement of the early 2000s.{{cite web|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Tendencias/2012/03/22/736726/Isabel-Behncke-La-chilena-que-estudia-a-los-chimpances-para-saber-mas-de-los-humanos.html|title=Isabel Behncke: La chilena que estudia a los chimpancés para saber más de los humanos - Emol.com|first=El Mercurio|last=S.A.P|date=22 March 2012|website=Emol}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://diario.elmercurio.com/2013/11/05/ya/revista_ya/noticias/88BCD160-7D35-4FC6-88EC-DEA086615578.htm?id=%7B88BCD160-7D35-4FC6-88EC-DEA086615578%7D|title=Suplemento|website=diario.elmercurio.com}} 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.{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-94-007-7470-4 |title=Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World |year=2013 |isbn=978-94-007-7469-8 |s2cid=23496601 |editor1-last=Rozzi |editor1-first=Ricardo |editor2-first=S.T.A |editor2-last=Pickett |editor3-first=Clare |editor3-last=Palmer |editor4-first=Juan J |editor4-last=Armesto |editor5-first=J. Baird |editor5-last=Callicott }}{{page needed|date=April 2019}} She worked with organizations such as Senda Darwin and Parques para Chile, and international wilderness conservation Planet Heritage Foundation.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

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.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v83WCQAAQBAJ&q=Sakamaki%2C+Tetsuya%2C+Behncke+I.%2C+Marion+Laporte%2C+Mbangi+Mulavwa%2C+Heungjin+Ryu%2C+Hiroyuki+Takemoto%2C+Nahoko+Tokuyama%2C+Shinya+Yamamoto%2C+and+Takeshi+Furuichi.+%22Intergroup+Transfer+of+Females+and+Social+Relationships+Between+Immigrants+and+Residents+in+Bonobo+%28Pan+paniscus%29+Societies.%22+In+Dispersing+Primate+Females%2C+pp.+127-164.+Springer+Japan%2C+2015.&pg=PA127 |title = Dispersing Primate Females: Life History and Social Strategies in Male-Philopatric Species|isbn = 9784431554806|last1 = Furuichi|first1 = Takeshi|last2 = Yamagiwa|first2 = Juichi|last3 = Aureli|first3 = Filippo|date = 2015-06-05}} 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.

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{{Cite web | url=https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2015/02/12/essay-human-females-could-should-be-more-like-elephant-females/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414214146/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2015/02/12/essay-human-females-could-should-be-more-like-elephant-females/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=April 14, 2019 |title = ESSAY: Human Females Could (Should?) be More Like Elephant Females|date = 2015-02-12}}

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.{{Cite web | url= https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-irin-focus-hema-lendu-conflict/ | title = Democratic Republic of Congo: IRIN Focus on Hema-Lendu conflict}} 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.

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{{Cite web | url=https://burningman.org/event/volunteering/teams/census/ |title = Census}}

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.{{Cite web | url=https://www.ted.com/profiles/725540 |title = Isabel Behncke Izquierdo}} 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,{{Cite web | url=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=228025 | title=EyN: "La diversidad es el alimento de la evolución"}} depression and mental health,{{Cite web | url=https://thelostconnections.com/the-interviews/interviews-page-four/ |title = Interviews Page Four – Lost Connections}} behavioural economics and engagement or how to design rituals for organizational change{{Cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/ritual-design-lab-secular-atheist/559535/ |title = A Design Lab is Making Rituals for Secular People|website = The Atlantic|date = 2018-05-07}}

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?'{{Cite web | url=https://www.ted.com/speakers/isabel_behncke_izquierdo |title = Isabel Behncke | Speaker | TED}}

Behncke has been avid traveller all her life, and enjoys music, wilderness, large dogs, horses, mountains, and connecting people and ideas.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tvn.cl/programas/10chilenos/capitulos/isabel-behncke-una-aventurera-que-estudia-el-comportamiento-humano-2375978|title = 10 Chilenos}}

File:Isabel on replica of Beagle.jpg

Behncke often participates and co-leads expeditions to Patagonia, highlighting its wild nature as well as its role in the history of exploration.{{Cite web | url=https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141210-chile-patagonia-cape-horn-biosphere-reserve | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141212031653/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141210-chile-patagonia-cape-horn-biosphere-reserve/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=December 12, 2014 | title=Chilean Patagonian Expedition to Foster Stewardship of the Unique Cape Horn Region| date=2014-12-10}}{{Cite web | url=http://radchile.cl/expedicion-puerta-de-entrada-a-la-antartida-laboratorio-natural-de-vidas-invisibles/ |title = Expedición Científica Puerta de Entrada a la Antártida / Biósfera Cabo de Hornos. 23/11/14 – Fundación RAD}}{{Cite web | url=http://radchile.cl/expedicion-cientifica-antartica-y-patagonia-chilena/ |title = Expedición Científica Antártica y Patagonia Chilena / Cambio Climático. 15/1/16 – Fundación RAD}}

In collaboration with [https://www.congresofuturo.cl/ Congreso Futuro] in January 2017 she took a group of scientists including Richard Dawkins{{Cite web | url=https://www.congresofuturo.cl/noticias/lun-nobel-de-fisica-encontro-que-magallanes-es-igualito-escocia | title=LUN: Nobel de Física encontró que Magallanes es igualito a Escocia | Congreso Futuro}} on board the world's only 1:1 replica{{Cite web |url=http://naovictoria.cl/ |access-date=2024-04-22|title=Home page | publisher=Nao Victoria Museo |website=naovictoria.cl |url-status=unfit | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418070953/http://naovictoria.cl/?lang=en | archive-date=18 April 2019 }} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.futuro360.com/videos/antartica-un-laboratorio-estrategico-para-el-futuro-de-la-humanidad_20190121/|title = [Reportajes Congreso Futuro 2019] Antártica, un laboratorio estratégico para el futuro de la humanidad}}

In 2011 she was a TED Fellow and gave a talk "Evolution's gift of play, from bonobo apes to humans".{{cite web|title=Isabel Behncke Izquierdo, primatologist|url=http://www.ted.com/speakers/isabel_behncke_izquierdo|publisher=TED|access-date=1 December 2014}}{{cite web|title=What we can learn from the bonobos|url=http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2011/id20110211_246118.htm#p1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221071612/http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2011/id20110211_246118.htm#p1|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 21, 2011|publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek|access-date=1 December 2014|date=16 February 2011}}

TED main event, 2017, Español session 'Why we party?', on the natural history of human festivals.{{Cite web | url=https://blog.ted.com/connection-and-meaning-the-talks-of-ted-en-espanol-at-ted2017/ |title = Connection and meaning: The talks of TED en Español at TED2017|date = 2017-04-26}}

TEDx BRC 2014 and TEDx BRC 2016 (together with Esther Perel).{{Cite web | url=https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/19150 |title = TEDxBlackRockCity | TED}}

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).

• In October 2013 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity.{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 - The Museum of Curiosity, Series 7, Episode 6 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nrmgx |website=BBC |access-date=15 April 2023}} Her hypothetical donation to this fictional museum was "a laughing tree", a tree in which Bonobos congregated and laughed such that the tree itself seemed to laugh.{{cite web|title=Museum of Curiosity: Gallery 7 - Meeting Forty-Two|url=http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/radio/museum_curiosity/episodes/7/6/|publisher=British Comedy Guide|access-date=15 April 2023}}

• The Tim Ferris Show. Primatologist Isabel Behncke on Play, Sexual Selection, and Lessons from Following Bonobos for 3,000 Kilometers in the Jungles of Congo (#598). June 1, 2022.{{Cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT4WtvvXzJ0/ |title = Isabel Behncke — Lessons from Sex and Play, What We Can Learn from Bonobos and Chimpanzees, and More}}{{Cite web | url=https://tim.blog/2022/06/01/primatologist-isabel-behncke// |title = Primatologist Isabel Behncke on Play, Sexual Selection, and Lessons from Following Bonobos for 3,000 Kilometers in the Jungles of Congo}}
• NPR TED Hour ('Play, social health and Burning Man'). Podcasts: Mating Grounds with Geoffrey Miller and Tuker Max{{Cite web | url=http://thematinggrounds.com/the-mating-grounds-podcast-episode-12-isabel-behncke-interview/ |title = Isabel Behncke Interview}}

• ´Animals in Love' (BBC),{{Cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8512736/ | title=Isabel Behncke| website=IMDb}} Ape Man (National Geographic),{{Cite web | url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/tv/ape-man/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160523123339/http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/tv/ape-man/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=May 23, 2016 |title = Ape Man}} ´Animals At Play´ (BBC, 2019) and Independent film ´Bounce: How the ball taught the world to play´.{{Cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2880596/ |title = Bounce: How the Ball Taught the World to Play|website = IMDb}}

• In 2020, she was interviewed by BBC News to find out her opinion and observation of human behavior in the pandemic caused by Covid-19. "What I'm seeing with humans in confinement isn't too dissimilar to caged parrots I've seen plucking their feathers." This interview was listed by BBC Mundo as one of the 12 best interviews it published during 2020.{{Cite web | url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-53433052|title = "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|website = BBC}}{{Cite web | url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-55395931|title = 12 de las mejores entrevistas que BBC Mundo publicó en 2020|website = IMDb}}

• ENEL Premio Energía Mujer (2018) (National recognition for women for commitment to social and cultural developments){{Cite web | url=https://www.udd.cl/noticias/2018/03/08/investigadora-isabel-behncke-recibio-premio-energia-mujer-2018/ | title=Investigadora Isabel Behncke recibió premio Energía de Mujer 2018| date=2018-03-08}}
• Chilenos Sin Frontera (2017) (Initiative that recognizes 30 Chilean talents who are innovating in various disciplines)

{{Cite web | url=https://pulsosocial.com/2017/08/01/chilenos-sin-fronteras-visibiliza-el-talento-nacional-en-el-metro-de-santiago/ |title = 'Chilenos Sin Fronteras' visibiliza el talento nacional en el Metro de Santiago|date = August 2017}}

• 10 Chileans who are changing the world (2017) (1-hr homage documentary produced by the Chilean public television broadcaster TVN)
• 100 Women Leaders by El Mercurio newspaper (2012) (National recognition for a group of women for their contributions in science, innovation and academic trajectory)
• 100 Young Leaders by El Mercurio newspaper (2010) (National recognition for a group of young promising talents)

{{Cite web | url=http://www.redlideres.cl/lider/isabel-behnke/ | title=Isabel Behnke: Red de Líderes Jóvenes}}

Behncke's has also been featured in publications highlighting female achievement and women in science.{{Cite web | url=https://mujeresbacanas.tumblr.com/post/148346933115/isabel-behncke-1977-esta-cient%C3%ADfica. | title=Tumblr| date=August 2016}}{{Cite web | url=https://www.24horas.cl/tendencias/luces-al-fin-del-mundo-el-libro-que-buscar-acercar-la-ciencia-a-los-chilenos-2535213 |title = "Luces al fin del mundo", el libro que buscar acercar la ciencia a los chilenos|date = 2017-10-16}}

• TED Fellowship (2011)
• TED Residency, Inaugural class Spring 2016, at TED HQ in Soho, NYC.{{Cite web | url=https://blog.ted.com/meet-our-first-class-of-ted-residents/ |title = Meet our first class of TED Residents|date = 2016-04-25}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Behncke |first1=Isabel |title=Play in the Peter Pan ape |journal=Current Biology |date=January 2015 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=R24–R27 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2014.11.020 |pmid=25562296 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-4-431-55480-6_6 |chapter=Intergroup Transfer of Females and Social Relationships Between Immigrants and Residents in Bonobo (Pan paniscus) Societies |title=Dispersing Primate Females |pages=127–164 |series=Primatology Monographs |year=2015 |last1=Sakamaki |first1=Tetsuya |last2=Behncke |first2=Isabel |last3=Laporte |first3=Marion |last4=Mulavwa |first4=Mbangi |last5=Ryu |first5=Heungjin |last6=Takemoto |first6=Hiroyuki |last7=Tokuyama |first7=Nahoko |last8=Yamamoto |first8=Shinya |last9=Furuichi |first9=Takeshi |isbn=978-4-431-55479-0 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=David-Barrett |first1=Tamas |last2=Rotkirch |first2=Anna |last3=Carney |first3=James |last4=Behncke Izquierdo |first4=Isabel |last5=Krems |first5=Jaimie A. |last6=Townley |first6=Dylan |last7=McDaniell |first7=Elinor |last8=Byrne-Smith |first8=Anna |last9=Dunbar |first9=Robin I. M. |last10=Jiang |first10=Luo-Luo |title=Women Favour Dyadic Relationships, but Men Prefer Clubs: Cross-Cultural Evidence from Social Networking |journal=PLOS ONE |date=16 March 2015 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=e0118329 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0118329 |pmid=25775258 |pmc=4361571 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1018329D |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Dávid-Barrett |first1=Tamas |last2=Rotkirch |first2=Anna |last3=Carney |first3=James |last4=Izquierdo |first4=Isabel Behncke |title=Mating strategies in Mozart's Figaro |journal=Human Ethology Bulletin |volume=30 |issue=1 |year=2015 |pages=83–98 |url=http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/mating-strategies-in-mozarts-figaro(831e09dc-a4fc-48d1-88cf-f1512b6ade10)/export.html }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Sullivan |first1=Richard |last2=Behncke |first2=Isabel |last3=Purushotham |first3=Arnie |title=Why do we love medicines so much? |journal=EMBO Reports |date=16 July 2010 |volume=11 |issue=8 |pages=572–578 |doi=10.1038/embor.2010.108 |pmid=20634806 |pmc=2920438 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Behncke |first1=I |last2=Hooley |first2=J.L |last3=Hooley |first3=G.J. |year=2006 |title=Lord of the Thesis: Lessons from Middle Earth for Research Students |website=Academia |url=https://www.academia.edu/304751}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Behncke |first1=I. |last2=Armesto |first2=J. |year=2004 |title=Conservation Innovation in South-Central Chile |journal=The Report on Conservation Innovation. Harvard Forest, Harvard University |pages=12–20 |url=https://www.academia.edu/304750 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Armesto |first1=Juan |last2=Behncke |first2=Isabel |title=Innovación en conservación en Chile |trans-title=Innovation in conservation in Chile |language=Spanish |journal=Revista Ambiente y Desarrollo |date=2004 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=5–11 |url=http://bases.bireme.br/cgi-bin/wxislind.exe/iah/online/?IsisScript=iah/iah.xis&src=google&base=REPIDISCA&lang=p&nextAction=lnk&exprSearch=29362&indexSearch=ID }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Cabello |first1=Gertrudis |last2=Vilaxa |first2=Arnaldo |last3=Spotorno |first3=Angel E. |last4=Valladares |first4=John |last5=Pickard |first5=Mark |last6=Sinha |first6=Arun |last7=McArthur |first7=John |last8=Behncke |first8=Isabel |last9=Duerr |first9=Annette |last10=Sullivan |first10=Richard |last11=Gomperts |first11=Bastien D. |title=Evolutionary adaptation of a mammalian species to an environment severely depleted of iodide |journal=Pflügers Archiv: European Journal of Physiology |date=April 2003 |volume=446 |issue=1 |pages=42–45 |doi=10.1007/s00424-002-0972-0 |pmid=12690461 |s2cid=20664097 }}

{{reflist}}

• {{TED speaker|2=Isabel Behncke Izquierdo}}
• {{TED talk|isabel_behncke_evolution_s_gift_of_play_from_bonobo_apes_to_humans|Evolution's gift of play, from bonobo apes to humans}} (2011)
• National Geographic. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2015/02/12/essay-human-females-could-should-be-more-like-elephant-females/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414214146/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2015/02/12/essay-human-females-could-should-be-more-like-elephant-females/ |date=2019-04-14 }}
• BBC Earth (2015) Animals in Love: Play, laughter & bonding in bonobos (animal behavior documentary participation) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hs792/player
• BBC Mundo (2020) Coronavirus Pandemic: perspectives from evolution and animal behavior (’12 best interviews of the year award’, in Spanish)https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-55395931
• Teatro del Lago (2023) ‘Under the Volcano’ interview (by Leonidas Montes, CEP, in Spanish) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blFwpAIUvVU
• Planet Heritage http://www.planetheritage.org
• Puerto Ideas (2020) ‘Humboldt and the Invention of Nature’ Andrea Wulf interview https://puertodeideas.cl/es/programa/el-maravilloso-mundo-natural-de-humboldt
• Humanidades dialoga sobre el origen de la vida junto a la primatóloga Isabel Behncke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCdMP9coEHU&t=1s

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Behncke, Isabel}}

Category:Living people

Category:Chilean mammalogists

Category:Women primatologists

Category:Primatologists

Category:Chilean women scientists

Category:Alumni of University College London

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge

Category:Academic staff of the University for Development

Category:Date of birth missing (living people)

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)