Chimpanzees do not automatically know what to do when they come across nuts and stones and must learn the complex behaviour from others, a study has found.
According to researchers, their findings show that the ape culture has more similarities than ever thought. Skills are accumulated over time and can become more complex or efficient.
A study revealed that wild chimpanzees didn’t crack nuts when presented with stones tools even though they had been used in a nearby group.
The researchers believe that wild chimpanzees may not be able to grasp the concept of using tools, which could suggest that social learning is required for this behavior.
Study has shown that Chimpanzees are not able to automatically recognize what to do when faced with stones or nuts.
Watching others is a way for humans to learn tools and skills, but it is still contested whether such a cumulative culture is truly unique.
In experiments, captive apes were able to learn how to use tools from their environment. Scientists believe the animals can also observe human tools being used and might be taught this behavior by them.
Kathelijne Koops of the University of Zurich conducted an extensive field experiment at the Nimba Mountains of Guinea. This was to see if wild Chimpanzees could invent complex behaviors such as cracking nuts on their own.
With the help of her collaborators, she and others provided Seringbara’s wild chimpanzee population with all they need to crack nuts.
Researchers also gave the chimpanzees nuts and recorded the results with camera traps.
It was observed that the chimpanzees initially were curious about the tools, but didn’t use them to crack nuts. This interest waned over time.
However, a separate chimpanzee community in Bossou, Guinea — only 3.7 miles (6km) — do use tools to crack nuts.
According to the authors, chimpanzee culture may have evolved from learning from their peers in similar ways as human culture.
Professor Koops said that the findings suggested that chimpanzees learn cultural behavior more like humans.
She stated that the missing piece was the model she could learn from.
“Our research on wild chimpanzees, which are our nearest living relatives help us to understand what this is and is not.” Human culture is unique.
“Specifically they indicate greater continuity between human and chimpanzee cultural evolution and suggest that cumulative culture and the ability to create it may be shared with chimpanzees.”
Study found that wild chimpanzees didn’t crack nuts when given stone tools even though another group was using them.
University of Zurich specialists provided tools to the Nimba Mountains of Guinea wild chimpanzee population with which they could crack nuts.
There were 35 parties of chimpanzees who visited the experiment, 11 of whom closely examined the experimental objects.
According to researchers, the scientists found that the apes were less likely to engage in experiments with larger groups.
The Nimba group was curious and tried different methods, but they couldn’t crack the nuts. This suggests that peers need to teach chimps how to use tools.
The experiment by researchers revealed that the chimpanzees exhibit ‘cumulative cultures’. This is a dependence on social learning behaviours and complex social interactions that was previously thought to only be human.
The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.