Chimpanzee Mothers Teach Young to Use Tools Through Imitation

Chimpanzees do more than use simple tools to find food: They appear to teach these skills to their young through imitation, observation, and supervised practice. According to a new paper published in Frontiers in Psychology, adult chimpanzees intentionally imitate actions and transfer food or tools to young chimpanzees so they can learn to perform the same tasks.

“Receiving food or tools from an experienced person, which we call food or tool transfer, could help chimpanzees learn how to use technology to retrieve hard-to-find food,” said co-author Andreu Sánchez-Meguias, a graduate student at the University of Barcelona and the Jane Goodall Institute Spain in Senegal.

“In this way, tool locomotion, along with observation and supervised practice, appears to be a form of education. In this method, the mother appears to be the young chimpanzee’s primary model and teacher.”

How chimpanzees learn tool use

Chimpanzees are known to use rudimentary tools while foraging. This behavior is learned socially and passed from adults to offspring. By watching experienced chimpanzees, receiving tools, and practicing under supervision, young chimpanzees can learn techniques for retrieving food that is otherwise difficult to access.

Researchers have long documented chimpanzee tool use. Charles Darwin observed chimpanzees cracking nuts with stones in 1871, although tool use was once considered a defining characteristic of humans. In 1960, the late primatologist Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee named David Greybeard bend and strip twigs, then use them to collect termites from their nests.

When Goodall’s mentor, Louis Leakey, learned of the behavior, he famously said, “Now we either need to redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘human,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.”

Chimpanzees make and use different tools

Since then, chimpanzees have been observed making leaf sponges to soak up liquids, using sticks to collect algae, and sharpening rudimentary spears for hunting. These examples show that chimpanzee tool use can involve both selecting objects and modifying them for specific purposes.

Tool use across animal species

Tool use has also been observed in a variety of other species, but the behavior appears to have evolved more frequently among monkeys and apes. Dolphins, for example, can throw objects as a form of play. Some scientists consider this a type of tool use, especially when another member of the same species is involved.

Such behavior may serve several purposes, including communication, social bonding, and aggression. Octopuses have also been observed engaging in similar throwing behavior.