Culture
is not something unique to humans. Chimpanzees have been observed to
have some basic form of culture as well. These cultural practices, which
can range between dietary choice and mating rituals vary from group to
group. Such practices originate when new innovations by chimps catch on
in their respective communities.
While chimpanzee culture is something that has been observed, cultural exchange between groups in the wild has long been elusive to primatologists. However, recent evidence suggests that cultural exchange might be possible between groups of chimps. These findings might also provide a clue as to the origins of human culture and behaviour.
Ant fishing is the act of inserting a small piece of wood into a hole to extract ants for consumption. In the Kasekala chimp community at Gombe Stream National Park, this behaviour was rare. It was only witnessed twice. Once in 1978 and once in 1994. On the other hand, such tool usage was widespread amongst other groups of chimpanzees.
However, in the late 2000s, primatologist Robert O’Malley noticed that ant fishing behaviour was more commonplace amongst the Kasekala chimps. The frequency of ant fishing continued to increase until all the Kasekala chimps that were born after 1981 (along with some females who joined the group thereafter) were ant fishers.
O’Malley analysed the records of the chimps’ behaviour, including some notes by Jane Goodall herself, interviewed long-term field assistants and collected his own observations for this study. The source of the ant fishing behaviour is likely to be Trezia, an adult female chimp who joined Kasekala in 1991. She had come from the nearby Mitumba group, which had exhibited ant fishing since 1980. This is the first time in half a century that anybody has documented cultural transfer between wild chimpanzee populations. Prior to this, evidence of cultural transfer only came from research in captive chimps. As such, this is the best evidence that wild chimps do trade habits.
Even so, there are skeptics. Animal behaviourist Bennett Galef points out that Kasekala chimps already participated in termite fishing. He thinks the movement to ant fishing “really isn’t a transfer of a novel behaviour.”
The reason that it took so long to document cultural transfer is probably that such events are both rare and difficult to document. Such events depend on migrations from other chimpanzee clans, which are rare. Furthermore, it is normally female chimps with low status that migrate. It is unlikely that their innovations would influence the behaviour of the group. Also, chimps tend to be conformists. Newcomer chimps tend to accept the traditions of their new clan and abandon those of their old group. Even in the occurrence of a transferal event, such key events might simply be missed out by researchers.
In the words of cultural primatologist William McGrew, “It’s something we’ve been waiting for forever.”
Read all about it: http://bit.ly/WCpi3S
Image Source: http://bit.ly/Wumipa
While chimpanzee culture is something that has been observed, cultural exchange between groups in the wild has long been elusive to primatologists. However, recent evidence suggests that cultural exchange might be possible between groups of chimps. These findings might also provide a clue as to the origins of human culture and behaviour.
Ant fishing is the act of inserting a small piece of wood into a hole to extract ants for consumption. In the Kasekala chimp community at Gombe Stream National Park, this behaviour was rare. It was only witnessed twice. Once in 1978 and once in 1994. On the other hand, such tool usage was widespread amongst other groups of chimpanzees.
However, in the late 2000s, primatologist Robert O’Malley noticed that ant fishing behaviour was more commonplace amongst the Kasekala chimps. The frequency of ant fishing continued to increase until all the Kasekala chimps that were born after 1981 (along with some females who joined the group thereafter) were ant fishers.
O’Malley analysed the records of the chimps’ behaviour, including some notes by Jane Goodall herself, interviewed long-term field assistants and collected his own observations for this study. The source of the ant fishing behaviour is likely to be Trezia, an adult female chimp who joined Kasekala in 1991. She had come from the nearby Mitumba group, which had exhibited ant fishing since 1980. This is the first time in half a century that anybody has documented cultural transfer between wild chimpanzee populations. Prior to this, evidence of cultural transfer only came from research in captive chimps. As such, this is the best evidence that wild chimps do trade habits.
Even so, there are skeptics. Animal behaviourist Bennett Galef points out that Kasekala chimps already participated in termite fishing. He thinks the movement to ant fishing “really isn’t a transfer of a novel behaviour.”
The reason that it took so long to document cultural transfer is probably that such events are both rare and difficult to document. Such events depend on migrations from other chimpanzee clans, which are rare. Furthermore, it is normally female chimps with low status that migrate. It is unlikely that their innovations would influence the behaviour of the group. Also, chimps tend to be conformists. Newcomer chimps tend to accept the traditions of their new clan and abandon those of their old group. Even in the occurrence of a transferal event, such key events might simply be missed out by researchers.
In the words of cultural primatologist William McGrew, “It’s something we’ve been waiting for forever.”
Read all about it: http://bit.ly/WCpi3S
Image Source: http://bit.ly/Wumipa
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