Use Among Chimpanzees

Tool Use Among Chimpanzees Jane Goodall was the first person to ever document seeing a non-human animal create and use tools. (Atkinson) We now see that tool use among chimpanzees is not uncommon. Upon this discovery we have figured out they have many ways to use and craft tools. There is a bit of a difference between tool uses and acquisition among wild and captive Pan troglodytes. The wild chimpanzees have all types of materials to choose and work from in the wild and rely more on tool use for survival whereas the captive chimps don not have to worry about that as they are taken well care of. Primatologists believe that the behavior with tool use and development was originated long ago and spread through observation. Chimpanzees learn
He reported that most hives that chimpanzees’ raid are off the ground, in hollows in tree trunks. During raids, the chimpanzees usually stick their arms into the hollows to try and grab handfuls of honeycomb quickly, and then run away. Though they sometimes repeat this and may stay next to the opening if they are not attacked by large swarms.Watts has not seen tool use during arboreal raids, but has seen chimpanzees use tools to remove honey from hives in fallen tree trunks. They use narrow sticks as tools. The chimps scrape them against the inner walls of the hollows to get the honey that they can’t reach with their hands and then eat the honey that adheres to the stick. (Watts
Long-term research revealed that communities of wild chimpanzees have developed unique sets of cultural traditions in their habitats. The traditions are transmitted non-genetically across generations therefore an individual’s knowledge may affect the behavior of others. (Celli 1268) There have been studies conducted by Celli to see if tool use among captive chimpanzees, where the environment is controlled, changes the occurrence of tool use. In Maura’s experiment, they set out tools and restricted the availability of raw materials so the subjects were to choose for their own. (Celli 1268) She experimented on two groups. To conduct the experiment, she put honey in a polyethylene bottle inside polycarbonate boxes attached to the walls of a booth outside. The tools used were all natural, they had access to twigs, branches, leaves and vines. They experimented all four seasons, early in the mornings in summer and autumn, and around midday during winter and spring to avoid low levels of activity during the cold. (Celli 1271) It was seen that the chimps would select tools near the fishing site, anywhere from a 2 meter range around the booth. The results are that Group A preferred twigs over grass throughout all four seasons and was more successful with twigs than grass, they also had less insertion attempts. Group B preferred to use grass throughout summer, fall and winter, but then