'Cultured' chimpanzees pass on novel traditions
“We have robust evidence that in chimpanzees there is a considerable capacity for cultural spread of innovations,” said Dr. Andrew Whiten of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “This strengthens the interpretation of cases of behavioral diversity in the wild as socially transmitted traditions. Moreover, we have now shown that chimpanzees can sustain cultures that are made up of several traditions. This again is consistent with what is seen in the wild, where chimpanzees are thought to show up to 20 traditions that define their unique local culture.”
Documented examples of behavioral differences among chimpanzees in nature include various types of tool use, including hammers and pestles; social behaviors like overhead hand-clasping during mutual grooming; courtship rituals like leaf-clipping, in which leaves are noisily clipped with the teeth; and methods for eradicating parasites by either stabbing or squashing them. However, the idea that such behaviors constitute traditions passed on through observational learning “relies heavily on circumstantial evidence that alternative genetic or environmental explanations are implausible.”
Now, Whiten's international team, including colleagues in Scotland and others from Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the University of Texas, has tackled the question experimentally by “seeding” novel forms of tool use and food extraction in different captive chimpanzee communities.
Over time, the researchers saw ten of these new behaviors spread and become full-fledged, local traditions. As a result, the communities at Yerkes and the University of Texas now display their own unique cultures.
At the University of Texas, where several groups are next-door neighbors within eyeshot of each other, four of the new traditions proved catching. The learned foraging practices spread from one group to another, and then on to a third.
The findings have important implications for understanding the ability of primates to adapt over time.
“Social learning is important for evolutionary adaptation because it can be so much faster than that which occurs through genetic change; and, unlike learning by one’s own efforts—for example, by trial and error—it can be very efficient because one is standing on the shoulders of what previous generations achieved,” Whiten said.
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The researchers include Andrew Whiten and Antoine Spiteri of University of St Andrews in St Andrews, UK; Victoria Horner of University of St Andrews in St Andrews, UK and Emory University in Atlanta, GA; Kristin E. Bonnie and Frans B. M. de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, GA; Susan P. Lambeth and Steven J. Schapiro of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Bastrop, TX.
Studies reported here were supported by the BBSRC and Leverhulme Trust (UK), NIH grants to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and the Living Links Center of Emory University. AW was supported by a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Fellowship. The Bastrop colony is supported by NIH/NCRR through cooperative agreement with the NIH National Center for Research Resources.
Whiten et al.: “Transmission of Multiple Traditions within and between Chimpanzee Groups.” Publishing in Current Biology 17, 1–6, June 19, 2007. DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.031 www.current-biology.com
"Take your filthy paws off me, you damn, dirty ape!"
Dolphins do as well. Bottle Nosed Dolphins living off Miami have developed a unique fishing method that involves surrounding their prey with a ring of mud they slap up from the surface - the fish leap the mud barrier instead of swimming through it and the dolphins are try and pick them out of the air when they make the leap. They have been observed teaching the trick to their young. No other Dolphins any where else have been observed to do this - even in places where the conditions are right.
Dolphins that hunt along the beaches of Australia face a problem of catching fish that get up near the beach where its too shallow for the Dolphins to follow. Some Dolphins have worked out a way of going after them - what they do is they build up some significant speed and then they water plane through the shallows trying to grab a fish along the way.
Presumably all the dolphins in these pods have some idea what some of their members are doing (from watching them - experiments using mirrors and such on Dolphins have determined that Dolphins have a very good sense of individuality - much better then your dog for example which develops, for them, after about the age of four) but the technique requires skill and daring (screw up and you'll be beached) so most members of the Pods won't do it.
I saw that show too. Fascinating. Males kidnapping females. Forming gangs.
A sacrificial offering to a believed deity perhaps?
Here I was just chalking it up to racism.
That could explain the killing. Why offer it up?
Here I was just chalking it up to racism.That could explain the killing. Why offer it up?
I'm no expert, but I understand that the dolphins killing porpoises thing is usually thought to be some combination of training and practice for killing competing dolphins and general recreation.
Here I was just chalking it up to racism.That could explain the killing. Why offer it up?
As a threat. "Come into my hood and this will happen to you."-Random Dolphin
Also chimps creep me out. very very badly. They are like short hairy humans....with the strength of 10 men. Only a matter of time until we must bow to our chimp overlords.
They have also been known to kill a Porpoises and push the corpse over to a researcher to have.
Sadly, the truth of this is horrific. You see, the lowly porpoise has long been a silent sentinel, a guardian protecting mankind from the tentacled horrors lurking in the darkest depths of our oceans. The dolphin, on the other hand, while seeming friendly, is actually a vicious and evil servant of other-wordly powers who's only passage way into our world is currently a secret portal hidden in the Marianas Trench. The power of the porpoises has limited what can come through the portal, and put a damper on the influence of the fell beings on the other side of it. But that power is weakening. Everytime a dolphin kills a porpoise, the portal grows larger. Soon, when the last porpoise dies, the fiendish beings will be free to enter our world and conquer it with the help of their seemingly oh-so-friendly servitors......
I'm no expert, but I understand that the dolphins killing porpoises thing is usually thought to be some combination of training and practice for killing competing dolphins and general recreation.
Reminds me of another species.
I saw that show too. Fascinating. Males kidnapping females. Forming gangs.
I didn't see this show...but it sounds awesome. What was it called?
I saw that show too. Fascinating. Males kidnapping females. Forming gangs.I didn't see this show...but it sounds awesome. What was it called?
It was on Animal Planet. I do not remember the name of it.
Animal Planet and Cake Boss are about the only t.v. the little person and I can agree on. Oh, and How It's Made.
Overheard conversation:
"Now, that evolution theory, I don't buy it. From what I understand, monkeys in the zoo spend all their time playing with themselves and crapping in their hands and throwing it all around. Other than that, I don't see any resemblance..."