Her infant simultaneously manipulates a puncturing stick. An adult female chimpanzee in the Goualougo Triangle pushes a puncturing stick into the soil to create an access tunnel into a subterranean termite nest, while holding a fishing probe in her mouth. They also make tools from specific plant species and customize fishing probes to improve their efficiency. Termites build complex nest structures that encompass a network of below-ground chambers, sometimes topped with a towering, freestanding mound reaching several meters high.Ĭhimpanzees in both locations use fishing-probe style tools to harvest termites, but Goualougo chimpanzees use multiple, different types of tools sequentially. 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. (Photo: Courtesy of Chris Walker, North Carolina State University) An adult female chimpanzee and her infant fish for termites at Gombe, Tanzania. Different groups of chimpanzees use different types of tools - and likewise, researchers have suggested that 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.” Maintaining chimpanzee culturesĪmong 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 said. The findings of the current study are important on a number of levels, Musgrave said. 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. 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “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,” said Stephanie Musgrave, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Miami, and first author of the study published the week of Dec. An infant chimpanzee fishes for termites at Gombe, Tanzania. The study helps illuminate chimpanzees’ capacity for prosocial - or helping - behavior, a quality that has been recognized for its potential role in the evolution of human cultural abilities. The research was conducted in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Lincoln Park Zoo and the Jane Goodall Institute. Louis, the University of Miami and Franklin & Marshall College finds that chimpanzees that use a multi-step process and complex tools to gather termites are more likely to share tools with novices. Wild chimpanzees transfer tools to each other, and this behavior has previously been shown to serve as a form of teaching.Ī new study led by researchers at Washington University in St. Teach her a better way to use tools in gathering prey, and you may change the course of evolution.įor most wild chimpanzees, tool use is an important part of life - but learning these skills is no simple feat. Teach a chimpanzee to fish for insects to eat, and you feed her for a lifetime.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |