Termites and other insects are a valuable source of fat and protein in the diet of wild chimpanzees and also contribute important vitamins and minerals. In this study, researchers examined the transfer of tools between chimpanzees during termite gathering, and compared the population in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo, with the population in Gombe, Tanzania. Different groups of chimpanzees use different types of tools-and likewise, researchers have suggested the teaching process might be customized to facilitate these local skills. “Second, the capacity for helping in chimpanzees may be both more robust and more flexible than previously appreciated.” Chimpanzees as teachersĪmong animals, chimpanzees are exceptional tool users. “First, chimpanzee populations may vary not only in the complexity of their tool behaviors but in the social mechanisms that support these behaviors,” she says. The findings of the current study are important on a number of levels, Musgrave says. In both populations, the chimpanzees use tools to target the same resource-but the task varies in complexity. The study is distinctive because it applies standardized methods to directly compare how processes of cultural transmission may differ between two populations of wild chimpanzees. This year marks the 20-year anniversary of the study of chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo, where researchers have documented some of the most complex tool behaviors of chimpanzees. The Gombe chimpanzee study is one of the longest running studies of animal behavior in the wild. “In contrast, the results from this research indicate that social learning may vary in relation to how challenging the task is: during tasks that are more difficult, mothers can in fact play a more active role, including behaviors that function to teach.”īeginning with Jane Goodall in the 1960s, researchers have been studying chimpanzee tool use for decades at the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania. An adult female chimpanzee and her infant fish for termites at Gombe, Tanzania. “Non-human primates are often thought to learn tool skills by watching others and practicing on their own, with little direct help from mothers or other expert tool users,” says Stephanie Musgrave, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Miami and first author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study helps illuminate chimpanzees’ capacity for prosocial-or helping-behavior, a quality recognized for its potential role in the evolution of human cultural abilities. Wild chimpanzees transfer tools to each other, and this behavior has previously been shown to serve as a form of teaching. LouisĬhimpanzees that use a multi-step process and complex tools to gather termites are more likely to share tools with novices, researchers report.įor most wild chimpanzees, tool use is an important part of life-but learning these skills is no simple feat.
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