Chimpanzees select nut-cracking tools taking account of up to five different factors

Female chimpanzee cracking a nut. Credit: MPI f. Evolutionary Anthropology/ Giulia Sirianni

Are chimpanzees sensitive to the effect of an object's properties on nut-cracking efficiency and plan their tool selection accordingly? An international team of researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has now investigated the selection of hammers used for cracking Coula edulis nuts by wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, taking into account the availability of potential tools at the site and time at which each tool selection episode occurred. The researchers found that wild chimpanzees select the optimal tool for the task at hand by considering several variables and conditions at once, including the weight, the material and the hardness of the hammer, the location of the anvil and whether they needed to transport it over a distance...Read more at: /phys.org


Actualización 08-01-15:  Chimpancés: Selección de herramientas (Vía (B&W2)