Welcome to chimp school! Video captures the moment wild chimpanzee mothers teach their young to 'fish' for food using tools for first time

Footage shows mothers teaching young chimps to use 'fishing probes'
These tools are used by the chimps to fish for termites in mounds
Mothers sometimes brought multiple tools, or divided theirs in half
Researchers say this indicates they anticipated the needs of their young

For the first time ever, researchers have captured footage of wild chimpanzee mothers teaching their offspring to use tools.

The videos taken at the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo shed new light on the evolution of teaching, showing how young chimpanzees learn from their mothers to catch termites with ‘fishing probes.’

Mother chimpanzees were found to bring multiple tools or divide their own in half, allowing them to address the needs of their young without hindering their own ability to gather food.

Based on research conducted with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Max Planck Institute and Franklin and Marshall College, anthropologists from Washington University in St. Louis set up video camera to record chimpanzees’ tool-using activity.

Numerous examples captured in the wild now show how chimpanzee mothers transfer their knowledge of termite-gathering tools to their less-skilled offspring.

According to the researchers, such transfers are ‘costly’ to the instructor but beneficial to the tool recipient, and meet the scientific criteria for teaching in wild apes.

‘Wild chimpanzees are exceptional tool users, but in contrast to humans, there has been little evidence to date that adult chimpanzees teach youngsters tool skills,’ said Stephanie Musgrave, the study’s first author and an anthropology graduate student in Arts & Sciences.

We found that mother chimpanzees in the Goulougo Triangle teach by transferring termite-fishing probes to their offspring.

‘In this population, chimpanzees select specific herb species to make their fishing probes, and they produce probes that have a particular brush-tipped design. By sharing tools, mothers may teach their offspring the appropriate material and form for manufacturing fishing probes.’

Read full article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3834788/Welcome-chimp-school-Video-captures-moment-wild-chimpanzee-mothers-teach-young-fish-food-using-tools-time.html

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