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Wild chimpanzees select tool material based on efficiency and knowledge
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dc.contributor.author | Lamon, Noemie | |
dc.contributor.author | Neumann, Christof | |
dc.contributor.author | Gier, Jennifer | |
dc.contributor.author | Zuberbühler, Klaus | |
dc.contributor.author | Gruber, Thibaud | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-10-12T19:30:09Z | |
dc.date.available | 2018-10-12T19:30:09Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2018-10-10 | |
dc.identifier | 255900692 | |
dc.identifier | 983f423a-ed1a-40e3-bf3e-dac500bf454f | |
dc.identifier | 85054780473 | |
dc.identifier | 000446864300018 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Lamon , N , Neumann , C , Gier , J , Zuberbühler , K & Gruber , T 2018 , ' Wild chimpanzees select tool material based on efficiency and knowledge ' , Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , vol. 285 , no. 1888 , 20181715 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.1715 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 0962-8452 | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0001-8378-088X/work/64360709 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/16211 | |
dc.description | This work was funded by the European Research Council (FP7/2007-2013/ERC n°283871) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants 310030_143359 to KZ; CR13I1_162720 and P300PA_164678 to TG). | en |
dc.description.abstract | Some animals have basic culture, but to date there is not much evidence that cultural traits evolve as part of a cumulative process as seen in humans. This may be due to limits in animal physical cognition, such as an inability to compare the efficiency of a novel behavioural innovation with an already existing tradition. We investigated this possibility with a study on a natural tool innovation in wild chimpanzees: moss-sponging, which recently emerged in some individuals to extract mineral-rich liquids at a natural clay-pit. The behaviour probably arose as a variant of leaf-sponging, a tool technique seen in all studied chimpanzee communities. We found that moss-sponges not only absorbed more liquid but were manufactured and used more rapidly than leaf-sponges, suggesting a functional improvement. To investigate whether chimpanzees understood the advantage of moss- over leaf-sponges, we experimentally offered small amounts of rainwater in an artificial cavity of a portable log, together with both sponge materials, moss and leaves. We found that established moss-spongers (having used both leaves and moss to make sponges) preferred moss to prepare a sponge to access the rainwater, whereas leaf-spongers (never observed using moss) preferred leaves. Survey data finally demonstrated that moss was common in forest areas near clay-pits but nearly absent in other forest areas, suggesting that natural moss-sponging was at least partly constrained by ecology. Together, these results suggest that chimpanzees perceive functional improvements in tool quality, a crucial prerequisite for cumulative culture. | |
dc.format.extent | 9 | |
dc.format.extent | 714860 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | en |
dc.subject | Tool use | en |
dc.subject | Efficiency | en |
dc.subject | Sponges | en |
dc.subject | Field experiment | en |
dc.subject | Subculture | en |
dc.subject | Pan troglodytes | en |
dc.subject | Schweinfurthii | en |
dc.subject | BF Psychology | en |
dc.subject | QL Zoology | en |
dc.subject | DAS | en |
dc.subject | BDC | en |
dc.subject.lcc | BF | en |
dc.subject.lcc | QL | en |
dc.title | Wild chimpanzees select tool material based on efficiency and knowledge | en |
dc.type | Journal article | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. School of Psychology and Neuroscience | en |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1098/rspb.2018.1715 | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
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