Researchers, who remotely videotaped a generation of wild chimpanzees learning to use tools, gain insights into how technology came to define human culture.
Researchers, who remotely videotaped a generation of wild chimpanzees learning to use tools, gain insights into how technology came to define human culture.
Using the now-ubiquitous manmade technology of motion-activated cameras, researchers who remotely watched 25 immature chimpanzees grow up have documented how humankind’s closest relatives living in the Congo Basin acquire their unique tool skills for harvesting termites, a favorite nutrient-rich element of the chimpanzee diet.
Unlike chimpanzees in East and West Africa, who use a single tool to extract termites, chimpanzees in Central Africa’s Congo Basin use tool sets—puncturing sticks or perforating twigs plus fishing probes—to harvest the insects from underground nests or towering earthen mounds scattered across lowland forests. Arguably, chimpanzees living in this region have the most sophisticated arsenal of tool-using skills documented in the animal kingdom. Not only do they use specialized tool sets to harvest termites, ants, and honey, but they customize the implements with different modifications to improve their efficiency.
Read more at University Of Miami
Image: Chimpanzees make these puncturing tools to access underground nests. Photo courtesy of Crickette Sanz
