Toddlers really are little monkeys

CHILDREN often act like little monkeys – but when it comes to figuring things out, it seems they really do behave in the same way as their primate cousins.

Just like chimpanzees, toddlers use rudimentary tools when faced with tricky tasks – without being taught to do so.

Researchers found two and three-year-olds employed sticks as rakes, skewers, hammers and levers when asked to solve a series of unfamiliar puzzles.

The finding contradicts the theory that children learn how to use tools from watching the adults around them.

It also demonstrates that humans have more in common with the great apes than we may like to think.

Chimpanzees and orangutans instinctively use tools to flush out tasty insects from their nests, to crack nuts, ‘fish’ for honey and extract seeds from fruit.

To find out whether children have similar capabilities, Birmingham University researchers set 50 boys and girls 12 puzzles that mimicked foraging for food in the wild.

Where a chimpanzee would puncture a termite mound, for example the children had to poke a hole in a box.

The youngsters had not seen any of the games before – and none of the tasks could not be completed without using a stick as a tool.

Sticks were left lying about, but the children were not told to use them. Despite this, they picked up the sticks and used them correctly in 11 out of the 12 tasks, the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B reports.

Just like chimpanzees and orangutans, the children found some of the puzzles much easier than others.

Researcher Eva Reindl said: ‘While it is true that more sophisticated forms of human tool use indeed require social learning, we have identified a range of basic tool behaviours which seem not to.

‘Using great ape tasks, we could show that these roots of human tool culture are shared by great apes, including humans, and potentially also their last common ancestor.’

The team now plans to pit children against chimps, on puzzles neither has seen before, to see which is brainier.