The study notes that chimps were spotted reusing certain tools and would often pick longer tools over shorter ones. Additionally, the chimps took turns to dig holes and sharing excavated fruit with others in the group.
ROSIE McCALL: ‘We know that wild chimps (and bearded capuchins) have learned to use tools to unearth tasty treats like plant roots and tubers. So, to try to understand how these behaviors developed, researchers performed two experiments examining tool use in captive chimps. Not one of the 10 chimps involved in the study had been seen using tools to dig up food beforehand. Eight of the 10 had been born in captivity…
The team observed six “tool use behaviors” over the course of the experiments, digging being the most frequent followed by probing, pounding, perforating, shoveling, and enlarging. What’s more, nine of the 10 chimps managed to excavate the buried fruit at least once, eight of whom used tools to do so. (Digging by hand, however, was still the preferred method.) When tools were not readily provided (experiment two), many chimps went out and sourced their own from natural vegetation in the enclosure.
The study authors also note that chimps were spotted reusing certain tools and would often pick longer tools over shorter ones. The researchers say that while there are problems with comparing an experiment in a captive setting to the real-life development of foraging behaviors in the wild, they believe that our hominin ancestors would have learned to excavate with tools in a similar way to the chimps in the study. Endearingly, in addition to the above behaviors, the researchers also reported chimps taking turns to dig holes and sharing successfully excavated fruit with others in the group’. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: