How chimps teach their kids tool tricks

Chimpanzees exhibit the use of rudimentary tools for foraging, as detailed in a recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology. These behaviors are taught from one generation to the next through social learning, with adult chimps modeling the actions for their offspring. The study's co-author, Andreu Sánchez-Megías, explains that food or tool transfer, where experienced chimps share resources with the younger ones, aids in teaching them to utilize technology for accessing difficult-to-reach foods.

This discovery reveals that tool transfers constitute a form of teaching, alongside observation and guided practice. The primary educators in this context are the mothers. Tools have historically been considered exclusive to humans, but Charles Darwin noted chimpanzees using stones to crack nuts in 1871. Jane Goodall further documented a chimp named David Greybeard using a twig to extract termites from a nest in 1960, leading Louis Leakey to remark, "Now we must redefine 'tool,' redefine 'man,' or accept chimpanzees as humans."

Since then, chimps have demonstrated various tool-making skills, such as crafting sponges from leaves to collect liquids, shaping sticks for algae collection, and creating rudimentary spears for hunting.