Two-thirds of a century after Jane Goodall observed 'David Greybeard' break off a twig to fashion a fishing rod for termites, researchers following in her footsteps have found that adult chimpanzees in Senegal literally hand youngsters the tools for learning.
Darwin noted in 1871 that chimpanzees use stones to crack nuts, striking a blow to human hubris. Over the 20th century, a select few animals as diverse as octopuses and parrots have been observed making and using tools. But in agreement with Darwin's observation, tool use seems to have evolved more frequently among monkeys and apes. For example, chimpanzees are known to manufacture leaf sponges to soak up liquids, shape sticks to fish for algae, and sharpen simple spears for hunting.
"Here we show that receiving food and tools from experienced individuals, which we call food or tool transfer, may help chimpanzees learn to use technology to extract foods that are difficult to access," said Andreu Sánchez-Megías, a PhD candidate at the University of Barcelona and the Jane Goodall Institute Spain in Senegal, who is the first author of a new study in Frontiers in Psychology .
"Tool transfers thus appear to be a form of teaching, together with observation and supervised practice. It appears that mothers are the main models and teachers for young chimpanzees in this manner."
