Savanna chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, hunt with tools.

Bibliographic Collection: 
APE
Publication Type: Journal Article
Authors: Pruetz, Jill D; Bertolani, Paco
Year of Publication: 2007
Journal: Curr Biol
Volume: 17
Issue: 5
Pagination: 412-7
Date Published: 2007 Mar 6
Publication Language: eng
ISSN: 0960-9822
Keywords: Animals, Animals, Wild, Female, Male, Pan troglodytes, Predatory Behavior, Senegal, Strepsirhini, Tool Use Behavior
Abstract:

Although tool use is known to occur in species ranging from naked mole rats [1] to owls [2], chimpanzees are the most accomplished tool users [3-5]. The modification and use of tools during hunting, however, is still considered to be a uniquely human trait among primates. Here, we report the first account of habitual tool use during vertebrate hunting by nonhumans. At the Fongoli site in Senegal, we observed ten different chimpanzees use tools to hunt prosimian prey in 22 bouts. This includes immature chimpanzees and females, members of age-sex classes not normally characterized by extensive hunting behavior. Chimpanzees made 26 different tools, and we were able to recover and analyze 12 of these. Tool construction entailed up to five steps, including trimming the tool tip to a point. Tools were used in the manner of a spear, rather than a probe or rousing tool. This new information on chimpanzee tool use has important implications for the evolution of tool use and construction for hunting in the earliest hominids, especially given our observations that females and immature chimpanzees exhibited this behavior more frequently than adult males.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.12.042
Alternate Journal: Curr. Biol.
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