Scientists find cultural differences among chimpanzee colonies
Socially-learned cultural behavior thought to be unique to humans is also found
among chimpanzees colonies, scientists at the University of Liverpool have found.
Historically, scientists believed that behavioural differences between
colonies of chimpanzees were due to variations in genetics. A team at Liverpool,
however, has now discovered that variations in behaviour are down to chimpanzees
migrating to other colonies, proving that they build their ‘cultures’ in a
similar way to humans.
Primatologist, Dr Stephen Lycett, explains: “We knew there were behavioural
differences between chimpanzee colonies, but nobody really knew why. It was
assumed that young chimpanzees developed certain behavioural characteristics
from the genes passed down from their parents, but there was no evidence to
clearly support this. It was also thought that because behaviour was dictated by
biology, chimpanzees did not have a ‘culture’ in the same way that humans
do.”
By looking at how chimpanzees prepare their food, the research team
discovered that one colony used stone tools to crack nuts, whereas another
colony used wooden tools as well as stone. They found these methods of preparing
food have spread 4000km from East to West Africa over the more than 100,000
years. The team also found this true of other techniques, such as grooming. The
research suggests that behavioural variety is due to how chimpanzees socialise
rather than genetics as previously thought.
To investigate the theory further researchers built an evolutionary tree of
chimpanzee behaviour in East and West Africa as well as a genetic family tree.
They had expected to find that those with similar genetic patterns also shared
behavioural similarities. Instead, they found that some chimpanzees shared
behavioural similarities with those that were genetically different from them.
Dr Lycett, added: “This explains why some colonies, for example, use
similar methods for finding food, adopting certain behaviour and adapting
different methods to suit their own environment. In this sense we can see for
the first time that culture exists in our closest relatives.” - U. Liverpool
More information:
 The research is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
USA.
Contact: Charlotte Roberts
charlotte.roberts@liv.ac.uk
01-517-943-044
University of Liverpool
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