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Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use tools to probe for out-of-reach food, both in the wild and in captivity. Beyond gathering appropriately-sized materials to create tools, chimpanzees also perform secondary modifications in order to create an optimized tool. In this study, we recorded the behavior of...

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Autores principales: Hopper, Lydia M, Tennie, Claudio, Ross, Stephen R, Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25220050
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22319
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author Hopper, Lydia M
Tennie, Claudio
Ross, Stephen R
Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V
author_facet Hopper, Lydia M
Tennie, Claudio
Ross, Stephen R
Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V
author_sort Hopper, Lydia M
collection PubMed
description Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use tools to probe for out-of-reach food, both in the wild and in captivity. Beyond gathering appropriately-sized materials to create tools, chimpanzees also perform secondary modifications in order to create an optimized tool. In this study, we recorded the behavior of a group of zoo-housed chimpanzees when presented with opportunities to use tools to probe for liquid foods in an artificial termite mound within their enclosure. Previous research with this group of chimpanzees has shown that they are proficient at gathering materials from within their environment in order to create tools to probe for the liquid food within the artificial mound. Extending beyond this basic question, we first asked whether they only made and modified probe tools when it was appropriate to do so (i.e. when the mound was baited with food). Second, by collecting continuous data on their behavior, we also asked whether the chimpanzees first (intentionally) modified their tools prior to probing for food or whether such modifications occurred after tool use, possibly as a by-product of chewing and eating the food from the tools. Following our predictions, we found that tool modification predicted tool use; the chimpanzees began using their tools within a short delay of creating and modifying them, and the chimpanzees performed more tool modifying behaviors when food was available than when they could not gain food through the use of probe tools. We also discuss our results in terms of the chimpanzees’ acquisition of the skills, and their flexibility of tool use and learning. Am. J. Primatol. 77:162–170, 2015. © 2014 The Authors. American Journal of Primatology Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc.
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spelling pubmed-46574932015-12-02 Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees Hopper, Lydia M Tennie, Claudio Ross, Stephen R Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V Am J Primatol Research Articles Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use tools to probe for out-of-reach food, both in the wild and in captivity. Beyond gathering appropriately-sized materials to create tools, chimpanzees also perform secondary modifications in order to create an optimized tool. In this study, we recorded the behavior of a group of zoo-housed chimpanzees when presented with opportunities to use tools to probe for liquid foods in an artificial termite mound within their enclosure. Previous research with this group of chimpanzees has shown that they are proficient at gathering materials from within their environment in order to create tools to probe for the liquid food within the artificial mound. Extending beyond this basic question, we first asked whether they only made and modified probe tools when it was appropriate to do so (i.e. when the mound was baited with food). Second, by collecting continuous data on their behavior, we also asked whether the chimpanzees first (intentionally) modified their tools prior to probing for food or whether such modifications occurred after tool use, possibly as a by-product of chewing and eating the food from the tools. Following our predictions, we found that tool modification predicted tool use; the chimpanzees began using their tools within a short delay of creating and modifying them, and the chimpanzees performed more tool modifying behaviors when food was available than when they could not gain food through the use of probe tools. We also discuss our results in terms of the chimpanzees’ acquisition of the skills, and their flexibility of tool use and learning. Am. J. Primatol. 77:162–170, 2015. © 2014 The Authors. American Journal of Primatology Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 2015-02 2014-09-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4657493/ /pubmed/25220050 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22319 Text en © 2014 The Authors. American Journal of Primatology Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Hopper, Lydia M
Tennie, Claudio
Ross, Stephen R
Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V
Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees
title Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees
title_full Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees
title_fullStr Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees
title_full_unstemmed Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees
title_short Chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: A study with zoo-housed chimpanzees
title_sort chimpanzees create and modify probe tools functionally: a study with zoo-housed chimpanzees
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657493/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25220050
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22319
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