Scientists find chimps pass knowledge to next generation
CHIMPS pass knowledge down through the generations, just like humans do, according to scientists.
It is an ability previously believed to be unique to humans but new research shows the great apes also build their own “culture”.
The study published in Evolution and Human Behaviour found a chimpanzee trained to use a complicated tool was watched and copied by its peers – who then taught others. Chimpanzees share about 99 per cent of our DNA, and are so closely related to us some academics have even suggested they should be given human-style rights.
Professor Andrew Whiten, of the University of St Andrews, said: “Perhaps the most fundamental thing this study shows is a group of chimpanzees can appear more intelligent than any single individual.”
The phenomenon of passing on behavioural traditions, known as “animal cultures”, has been seen in chimpanzee tool use and the migratory routes of birds. But our ability to evolve these skills over generations by building on previous knowledge, a process known as “cumulative culture”, was considered to separate us from the rest of nature.
But the latest behavioural experiments suggests these apes may share some of the foundations of our cultural ways.
Study leader Mr Whiten, working with other primatologists at the world’s largest ape research centre in the US, got them to suck through straws to get juice from a large container just outside their enclosure.
To create the potential for cumulative culture, different objects were available.
The most complicated tool was one which needed to be unfolded, with a valve which required unscrewing to create a long straw to reach the appetising reward.
Those presented just with this complex option failed to exploit it. But in groups where one chimpanzee had been trained to use the equipment, others watched and copied them, with this behaviour spreading through the group.