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Malherbe M, Samuni L, Ebel SJ, Kopp KS, Crockford C, Wittig RM. Protracted development of stick tool use skills extends into adulthood in wild western chimpanzees. PLoS Biol 2024; 22:e3002609. [PMID: 38713644 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 03/28/2024] [Indexed: 05/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Tool use is considered a driving force behind the evolution of brain expansion and prolonged juvenile dependency in the hominin lineage. However, it remains rare across animals, possibly due to inherent constraints related to manual dexterity and cognitive abilities. In our study, we investigated the ontogeny of tool use in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), a species known for its extensive and flexible tool use behavior. We observed 70 wild chimpanzees across all ages and analyzed 1,460 stick use events filmed in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire during the chimpanzee attempts to retrieve high-nutrient, but difficult-to-access, foods. We found that chimpanzees increasingly utilized hand grips employing more than 1 independent digit as they matured. Such hand grips emerged at the age of 2, became predominant and fully functional at the age of 6, and ubiquitous at the age of 15, enhancing task accuracy. Adults adjusted their hand grip based on the specific task at hand, favoring power grips for pounding actions and intermediate grips that combine power and precision, for others. Highly protracted development of suitable actions to acquire hidden (i.e., larvae) compared to non-hidden (i.e., nut kernel) food was evident, with adult skill levels achieved only after 15 years, suggesting a pronounced cognitive learning component to task success. The prolonged time required for cognitive assimilation compared to neuromotor control points to selection pressure favoring the retention of learning capacities into adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Malherbe
- Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, UMR5229 CNRS, Lyon, France
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Taï Chimpanzee Project, CSRS, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
| | - Liran Samuni
- Taï Chimpanzee Project, CSRS, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
- Cooperative Evolution Lab, German Primate Center, Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Sonja J Ebel
- Comparative Cultural Psychology, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Human Biology & Primate Cognition, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Kathrin S Kopp
- Comparative Cultural Psychology, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Human Biology & Primate Cognition, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Catherine Crockford
- Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, UMR5229 CNRS, Lyon, France
- Taï Chimpanzee Project, CSRS, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
| | - Roman M Wittig
- Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, UMR5229 CNRS, Lyon, France
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Taï Chimpanzee Project, CSRS, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
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Musgrave S, Koni D, Morgan D, Sanz C. Planning abilities of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in tool-using contexts. Primates 2023:10.1007/s10329-023-01106-4. [PMID: 38103142 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-023-01106-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023]
Abstract
Planning is a type of problem solving in which a course of future action is devised via mental computation. Potential advantages of planning for tool use include reduced effort to gather tools, closer alignment to an efficient tool design, and increased foraging efficiency. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Goualougo Triangle use a variety of different types of tools. We hypothesized that procurement strategy (brought to the termite nest, manufactured or acquired at the termite nest, or borrowed from others) reflects planning for current needs, with tool transport behavior varying by tool type and by age and sex class. It is also possible that chimpanzees anticipate the need for tools at future times, which would be evidenced by transporting multiple tool types for a sequential task. One year of video recordings at termite nests were systematically screened for tool procurement; data comprised 299 tool procurement events across 66 chimpanzees. In addition, we screened video recordings of leaf sponging and honey gathering, which resulted in another 38 procurement events. Fishing probes, which are typically used during a single visit, were typically transported to termite nests, while puncturing tools, which are durable and remain on site, were more often acquired at termite nests. Most tools transported in multiples were fishing probes, perhaps in anticipation that a single probe might not last through an entire foraging bout or might be transferred to another chimpanzee. We further documented that chimpanzees transported tool sets, comprising multiple different tool types used in sequence. Mature chimpanzees transported tools more often than did immatures. These observations suggest that chimpanzees plan tool use flexibly, reflecting the availability of raw materials and the likelihood that specific tool types will be needed for particular tasks. Developmental studies and further integration of behavioral, spatial, and archaeological data will help to illuminate the decision making and time depth of planning associated with tool technologies in living primates and hominin ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie Musgrave
- Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, P.O. Box 248106, Coral Gables, FL, 33124-2005, USA.
| | - David Koni
- Wildlife Conservation Society, Congo Program, B.P. 14537, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
| | - David Morgan
- Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, 2001 N. Clark Street, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA
| | - Crickette Sanz
- Wildlife Conservation Society, Congo Program, B.P. 14537, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
- Department of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, 1 Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, MO, 63130, USA
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Vale GL, Coughlin C, Brosnan SF. The importance of thinking about the future in culture and cumulative cultural evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210349. [PMID: 36314144 PMCID: PMC9620744 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0349] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Thinking about possibilities plays a critical role in the choices humans make throughout their lives. Despite this, the influence of individuals' ability to consider what is possible on culture has been largely overlooked. We propose that the ability to reason about future possibilities or prospective cognition, has consequences for cultural change, possibly facilitating the process of cumulative cultural evolution. In particular, by considering potential future costs and benefits of specific behaviours, prospective cognition may lead to a more flexible use of cultural behaviours. In species with limited planning abilities, this may lead to the development of cultures that promote behaviours with future benefits, circumventing this limitation. Here, we examine these ideas from a comparative perspective, considering the relationship between human and nonhuman assessments of future possibilities and their cultural capacity to invent new solutions and improve them over time. Given the methodological difficulties of assessing prospective cognition across species, we focus on planning, for which we have the most data in other species. Elucidating the role of prospective cognition in culture will help us understand the variability in when and how we see culture expressed, informing ongoing debates, such as that surrounding which social learning mechanisms underlie culture. This article is part of the theme issue 'Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny'.
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Affiliation(s)
- G. L. Vale
- Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL 60614, USA
- Department of Psychology, Language Research Center, Neuroscience Institute and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, USA
| | - C. Coughlin
- Center for Learning and Memory, University of Texas at Austin, 100 East 24th Street, Austin, TX 78712, USA
| | - S. F. Brosnan
- Department of Psychology, Language Research Center, Neuroscience Institute and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010, USA
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Lonsdorf EV, Sanz CM. Behavioral and cognitive perspectives on the evolution of tool use from wild chimpanzees. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Carvajal L, Schuppli C. Learning and skill development in wild primates: toward a better understanding of cognitive evolution. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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Péter H, Zuberbühler K, Hobaiter C. Well-digging in a community of forest-living wild East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). Primates 2022; 63:355-364. [PMID: 35662388 PMCID: PMC9273564 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-022-00992-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2021] [Accepted: 05/07/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Access to resources shapes species' physiology and behaviour. Water is not typically considered a limiting resource for rainforest-living chimpanzees; however, several savannah and savannah-woodland communities show behavioural adaptations to limited water. Here, we provide a first report of habitual well-digging in a rainforest-living group of East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and suggest that it may have been imported into the community's behavioural repertoire by an immigrant female. We describe the presence and frequency of well-digging and related behaviour, and suggest that its subsequent spread in the group may have involved some degree of social learning. We highlight that subsurface water is a concealed resource, and that the limited spread of well-digging in the group may highlight the cognitive, rather than physical, challenges it presents in a rainforest environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hella Péter
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.,School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Klaus Zuberbühler
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.,Department of Comparative Cognition, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.,Budongo Conservation Field Station, PO Box 362, Masindi, Uganda
| | - Catherine Hobaiter
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK. .,Budongo Conservation Field Station, PO Box 362, Masindi, Uganda.
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Lockman JJ, Tamis-LeMonda CS. Young Children's Interactions with Objects: Play as Practice and Practice as Play. ANNUAL REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 3:165-186. [PMID: 37859666 PMCID: PMC10586717 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-devpsych-050720-102538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
Objects permeate human culture and saturate the imagination. This duality offers both opportunity and challenge. Here we ask how young human children learn to exploit the immense potential afforded by objects that can exist simultaneously in both physical and imaginary realms. To this end, we advance a new framework that integrates the presently siloed literatures on manual skill and play development. We argue that developments in children's real and imagined use of objects are embodied, reciprocal and intertwined. Advances in one plane of action influence and scaffold advances in the other. Consistent with this unified framework, we show how real and imagined interactions with objects are characterized by developmental parallels in how children a) gradually move beyond objects' designed functions, b) extend beyond the self, and c) transcend the present to encompass future points in time and space. As well, we highlight how children's real and imagined interactions with objects are intertwined and reciprocally influence each other throughout development: Play engenders practice and skill in using objects, but just the same, practice using objects engenders advances in play. We close by highlighting the theoretical, empirical and translational implications of this embodied and integrated account of manual skill and play development.
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Musgrave S, Lonsdorf E, Morgan D, Sanz C. The ontogeny of termite gathering among chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2020; 174:187-200. [PMID: 33247844 PMCID: PMC7818130 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2020] [Revised: 05/15/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Objectives Acquiring tool‐assisted foraging skills can potentially improve dietary quality and increase fitness for wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In contrast to chimpanzees in East and West Africa, chimpanzees in the Congo Basin use tool sets and brush‐tipped fishing probes to gather termites. We investigated the ontogeny of these tool skills in chimpanzees of the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo, and compared it to that for chimpanzees at Gombe, Tanzania. We assessed whether chimpanzees acquired simple tool behaviors and single tool use before more complex actions and sequential use of multiple tool types. Materials and Methods Using a longitudinal approach, we scored remote video footage to document the acquisition of termite‐gathering critical elements for 25 immature chimpanzees at Goualougo. Results All chimpanzees termite fished by 2.9 years but did not manufacture brush‐tipped probes until an average of 4.3 years. Acquisition of sequential tool use extended into juvenility and adolescence. While we did not detect significant sex differences, most critical elements except tool manufacture were acquired slightly earlier by females. Discussion These findings contrast with Gombe, where chimpanzees learn to both use and make fishing probes between ages 1.5–3.5 and acquire the complete task by age 5.5. Differences between sites could reflect tool material selectivity and design complexity, the challenge of sequential tool behaviors, and strength requirements of puncturing subterranean termite nests at Goualougo. These results illustrate how task complexity may influence the timing and sequence of skill acquisition, improving models of the ontogeny of tool behavior among early hominins who likely used complex, perishable technologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie Musgrave
- Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Elizabeth Lonsdorf
- Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - David Morgan
- Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Crickette Sanz
- Congo Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.,Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.,Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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