Toshisada Nishida (3 March 1941 – 7 June 2011) was a Japanese primatologist who established one of the first long term chimpanzee field research sites.

As a graduate student, Toshisada Nishida studied primatology at Kyoto University under Junichiro Itani, a successor of Japanese primatologist Kinji Imanishi.

[2] However, baboons did not possess many of the characteristics deemed important for human evolution, such as tool technology, cooperative hunting, food sharing, territoriality, cultural traditions, and certain cognitive capacities, such as planning and theory-of-mind.

Early primatologists had observed chimpanzees traveling through trees, eating fruits at their leisure, but rarely noted anything of interest in their behaviour.

During Nishida's first visit to Mahale, he observed chimpanzees living in communities with territorial boundaries, noting the existence of hostility between neighbouring groups.

[2] At the Mahale site, scientists followed Kinji Imanishi's methods to identify and name individual chimpanzees, following them over a long period of time in order to understand relationships within the community.

Based on their visit, McGrew and Tutin were the first to seriously question the assumption of "typical" chimpanzee behaviour, an important step towards culture studies on the great apes.

[citation needed] In 2008, Toshisada Nishida and primatologist Jane Goodall were made co-recipients of Leakey Prize, which recognizes accomplishments in human evolutionary science.

De Waal, who attended his lectures often, stated that they were "riveting, especially given the historical details of how our knowledge has grown over the years and the critical role Japanese scientists have played in modern primatology".

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