title: Tool transfers are a form of teaching among chimpanzees.
abstract: Teaching is a form of high-fidelity social learning that promotes human cumulative culture. Although recently documented in several nonhuman animals, teaching is rare among primates. In this study, we show that wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Goualougo Triangle teach tool skills by providing learners with termite fishing probes. Tool donors experienced significant reductions in tool use and feeding, while tool recipients significantly increased their tool use and feeding after tool transfers. These transfers meet functional criteria for teaching: they occur in a learner's presence, are costly to the teacher, and improve the learner's performance. Donors also showed sophisticated cognitive strategies that effectively buffered them against potential costs. Teaching is predicted when less costly learning mechanisms are insufficient. Given that these chimpanzees manufacture sophisticated, brush-tipped fishing probes from specific raw materials, teaching in this population may relate to the complexity of these termite-gathering tasks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Musgrave
authors.affiliation: Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, USA.|Congo Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lonsdorf
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mundry
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, USA.|Congo Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
authors.forename: Crickette
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D020049:Isoptera; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D013663:Teaching; D053001:Tool Use Behavior