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Chimps have culture too


Humans can no longer be said to be the only cultured animal on Earth

Chimpanzees, our closest animal cousins, are even more like humans than previously thought, according to two new studies published today.

Like us, they use visual cues rather than smells or sounds to distinguish between faces, and it seems they also have a culture as rich as humans too.

Just as human societies have particular technologies, food and fashions, different chimpanzee groups have their own distinct ways of grooming, gathering ants, cracking nuts, and using tools.

Having a unique suite of behavioural characteristics that distinguishes one community from another means we humans can no longer consider ourselves the only cultural animal on the planet, the researchers say in the journal Nature.

Their conclusion comes from a major study involving seven chimpanzee sites across Africa.

The team, which includes the famous primate expert Jane Goodall, analysed more than 150 years' worth of observations to reveal remarkable differences in the behaviour between chimps at different localities.

In all they identified 65 behaviours - ranging from clearing nostrils with a stick, to dancing when it starts raining - but 26 were ruled out as because they differed for environmental or ecological reasons.

Chimps who slept in tree nests rather than on the ground, for example, came from areas where hungry lions roamed the forest floor.

But even when such "ecologically explainable" differences were excluded from the list, 39 behaviours remained and these were said to be "truly cultural".

So while chimps in the Mahale Mountains of Tanzania customarily clasp two hands together high above their hears when grooming, the behaviour has never been seen in the same subspecies living 170 kilometres away.

By this assessment, chimpanzee behaviour is among the most varied in the animal kingdom, says Andrew Whiten, from Scotland's University of St Andrews, who headed the research team.

Most behavioural differences that set animal groups apart - such as dialects heard among songbirds - are restricted to just one or two traits, he said.

Dr de Waals said the evidence was "overwhelming" that chimps invented new customs and technologies and passed them on to future generations through social learning rather than genetically - an important feature of a culture.

While the findings emphasise the closeness of humans and apes, they also highlight the need to protect chimps in the wild. They are currently being killed at an alarming rate by clearing of their forest habitat and by hunters who kill them for meat.

"We're not just losing chimpanzees, we're losing a diversity of chimpanzee culture," Dr Whiten said.

In a separate report in Nature, researchers at the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta showed chimpanzees share another feature in common with humans, a trait that is thought to have helped them form one of the most complex social societies known.

The chimps can match black and white photos of faces with their relatives, even if they've never seen them before.

However they could only match mothers with their sons, not with their daughters - a difference thought to reflect the importance of males in chimp hierarchies.

Primate expert Dr Colin Groves, from the Australian National University, said the study of culture providing "very convincing evidence".

"I think it's quite likely that when similar thought is given to gorillas and orangutans, they will be found to have culture too."

However, he doubted other non-primate species, such as lions and dolphins, could be said to have culture because the behavourial differences observed could usually be accounted for on ecological grounds.

Tags: environment