Targeted helping and cooperation in zoo-living chimpanzees and bonobos
Abstract
Directly comparing the prosocial behaviour of our two closest living relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees, is essential to deepening our understanding of the evolution of human prosociality. We examined whether helpers of six dyads of chimpanzees and bonobos transferred tools to a conspecific. In the experiment ‘Helping’, transferring a tool did not benefit the helper, while in the experiment ‘Cooperation’, the helper only obtained a reward by transferring the correct tool. Chimpanzees did not share tools with conspecifics in either experiment, except for a mother–daughter pair, where the mother shared a tool twice in the experiment ‘Helping’. By contrast, all female–female bonobo dyads sometimes transferred a tool even without benefit. When helpers received an incentive, we found consistent transfers in all female–female bonobo dyads but none in male–female dyads. Even though reaching by the bonobo receivers increased the likelihood that a transfer occurred, we found no significant species difference in whether receivers reached to obtain tools. Thus, receivers' behaviour did not explain the lack of transfers from chimpanzee helpers. This study supports the notion that bonobos might have a greater ability to understand social problems and the collaborative nature of such tasks.
Citation
Nolte , S & Call , J 2021 , ' Targeted helping and cooperation in zoo-living chimpanzees and bonobos ' , Royal Society Open Science , vol. 8 , no. 3 , 201688 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201688
Publication
Royal Society Open Science
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2054-5703Type
Journal article
Description
Funding: European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Seventh Framework 819 Programme (FP7/2017-2013) under grant agreement No. 609819 – SOMICS.Collections
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