Is culture uniquely human? Many people would instinctively answer yes, but there is now a well established body of research that questions whether we may be wrong to assume this. Over the years a number of behaviours have been proposed as the answer to the puzzle of what makes us human – planning, tool use – all have fallen by the wayside as observations of their use by other species ruled them out. In recent years some of the hottest scientific debate has centered around the question of culture. Frequently hindered by the lack of agreement over what exactly culture is, there is still no doubt that the debate has stimulated exciting observations and experimental research in species that range from chimpanzees to crows. Some primatologists argue that there are group-specific behaviours seen in chimpanzees that can not be explained away by ecological or genetic factors; these must be transmitted socially from generation to generation, and that this constitutes a form of culture.
Observations such as the nut-cracking in wild west African chimps inspired a body of experimental research – now Sonso PhD researcher Thibeaud Gruber has added to the debate with new evidence recently published in the journal Current Biology. He and his colleagues present the findings from a series of experiments conducted with two Ugandan chimpanzee communities: one in Kanyawara and here with our own Sonso group. Both groups are the same sub-species of chimpanzee and live in similar forest environments but show some interesting behavioural differences. Kanyawara chimpanzees regularly use stick tools to extract honey, a behaviour never seen at Sonso. When both groups were presented with the same controlled task of extracting honey from holes that had been drilled in logs, the Kanyawara chimps spontaneously manufactured stick-tools while the Sonso chimps used either their fingers or the leaf sponges that are normally used for collecting drinking water from tree holes. Given the absences of differences in genetic or environmental factors, the researchers concluded that the chimps must be relying on their local cultural knowledge to solve the new task.
For more information the full article is currently available in the online journal of Current Biology as: Gruber et al. 2009. Wild Chimpanzees Rely on Cultural Knowledge to Solve an Experimental Honey Acquisition Task.
