Chimpanzee News - Biology and Behaviour
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Evolution and Genetics | Conservation and Threats | Captive Chimpanzees | Other Great Apes
Study suggests environment may impact apes' ability to understand declarative communication
15-03-2010 - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
When we notice somebody pointing at something, we automatically look in the direction of the gesture. In humans, the ability to understand this type of gesturing (known as declarative communication) may seem to be an automatic response, but it is actually a sign of sophisticated communication behavior. Numerous studies have tried to determine if great apes (for example, chimpanzees and bonobos) are able to understand declarative communication, but results have been mixed. Psychological scientists Heidi Lyn and William Hopkins from Agnes Scott College and Jamie Russell from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center examined if exposure to different human communicative environments would affect understanding of declarative signals in chimpanzees and bonobos. Three groups of apes were tested in this study. One group consisted of chimpanzees that had been raised in standard laboratory housing; although they had regular contact with humans, these interactions were limited to basic animal-care contexts such as feeding. |
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Uncovering the "chimpanzee stone age"
01-03-2010
The discovery of stone tools from places like Brixham Cave in England and France's Somme Valley confirmed that industry was a very old human enterprise, and so some scholars naturally felt quite comfortable in giving out species the honorary title of "Man the Toolmaker." The ability of our species to make and use tools clearly separated us from all other organisms, at least until it was discovered that chimpanzees, too, made and used tools. More than that, studies since the 1960's have confirmed that different populations of chimpanzees have distinctive tool cultures affected by the contingencies of their surroundings, and a recent study published two years ago in PNAS illustrates that these cultures of tool use among non-human primates stretch back at least 4,300 years. |
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If bonobo Kanzi can point as humans do, what other similarities can rearing reveal?
01-03-2010
Pointing study supports and expands on Great Ape Trust assertion that the success of language studies with bonobos is tied to rearing You may have more in common with Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota, three language-competent bonobos living at Great Ape Trust, than you thought. And those similarities, right at your fingertip, might one day tell scientists more about the effect of culture on neurological disorders that limit human expression.
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Chimps are intelligent enough to appreciate a full pint
23-02-2010 - BBC News
Chimpanzees are intelligent enough to appreciate how big a pint of liquid is, or the volume of any other measure. That shows they have an ability to gauge the difference between continuous quantities, such as a pint or half pint of non-alcoholic fruit juice. Previously, apes have only been known to differentiate discrete quantities, such as eight sweets over five. That means chimps are more intelligent than we thought, and shows they have a basic grasp of the physics of liquids. Details of the discovery are published in the journal Animal Cognition. |
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Buddy, can you spare a banana? Study finds that bonobos share like humans
16-02-2010 - ScienceDaily
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Wild bonobo mother ape eats own infant in DR Congo |
01-01-2010 - BBC EarthNews
A wild bonobo has been seen cannibalising her own recently deceased two and a half-year-old infant. Among apes, such behaviour is extremely rare, only being reported before among orangutans, and never by bonobos, our closest relative alongside chimps. Though uncommon, the behaviour may not be aberrant, says the scientist who witnessed it. But it does further challenge a widely perceived notion that bonobos are an especially "peaceful" ape species. The discovery is reported in the American Journal of Primatology. Bonobos (Pan paniscus) were once known as pygmy chimps, due to their similarities with the common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), from which they diverged in the past one million years.
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Congo chimps, The truth about chimps
01-02-2010 - National Geographic
Virtually innocent of human contact, the chimps of Congo's Goualougo Triangle display a sharp curiosity about us—and a sophisticated culture of toolmaking observed nowhere else. A few years ago, while setting up camp deep in the Congolese rain forest, Dave Morgan and Crickette Sanz heard a party of male chimpanzees vocalizing raucously in the distance. The hoots grew louder, and they could tell the group was moving rapidly through the canopy. The chimps, they realized, were headed straight for their camp and would soon be nearly on top of them. Then, just as the group seemed to be closing its distance to a few dozen yards, the forest went silent. A few seconds passed before Sanz and Morgan heard a gentle hoo from a tree almost directly above them. They looked up and saw a perplexed adult chimp peering down. |
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Developmental delay may explain behavior of easygoing bonobo apes
29-01-2010 - ScienceDaily
Altruistic chimpanzees adopt orphans
26-01-2010 - LiveScience
Chimpanzees can be altruistic just like humans, according to a new study that found 18 cases of orphaned chimps being adopted in the wild.
The kind-hearted chimp parents were discovered in the Taï forest in the West African country Ivory Coast. The adoptive caregivers, both male and female, devoted large amounts of time and effort to protecting their young charges, without any obvious gain to themselves.
"I don't know of any other cases of unrelated orphans being adopted," said research leader Christophe Boesch of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. He said the young chimps had lost their genetic parents to predation, injury and other causes.
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Bananavision! Chimps given special video camera to make their own film
20-01-2010 - Mailonline
| The usual saying is that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
But these chimpanzees are clearly set for a more lucrative career after becoming the first of their species to make their own film using a special video camera. The 11 chimps at Edinburgh Zoo were given the camera in a box to record just how they view the world and were taught how to use video touch screens to help them finish the films. The innovative project saw the hairy directors go through several trials as they made experienced power struggles, bites and fights during the filming. Some of the footage taken was impressive according to researchers at the zoo's Budongo trail, a state-of-the-art chimpanzee facility that links the excitement of seeing the animals close-up with wildlife conservation, science, education and research. |
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Chimps use cleavers and anvils as tools to chop food
29-12-2009 - Ethiopianreview.com
For the first time, chimpanzees have been seen using tools to chop up and reduce food into smaller bite-sized portions.
Chimps in the Nimba Mountains of Guinea, Africa, use both stone and wooden cleavers, as well as stone anvils, to process Treculia fruits.
The apes are not simply cracking into the Treculia to get to otherwise unobtainable food, say researchers.
Instead, they are actively chopping up the food into more manageable portions.
Observations of the behaviour are published in the journal Primates.
PhD student Kathelijne Koops and Professor William McGrew of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK, studied a group of chimps living wild in the Nimba Mountains.
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Wild chimps have near human understanding of fire
23-12-2009 - ScienceDaily
The use and control of fire are behavioral characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. Now, a new study by Iowa State University anthropologist Jill Pruetz reports that savanna chimpanzees in Senegal have a near human understanding of wildfires and change their behavior in anticipation of the fire's movement.
An ISU associate professor of anthropology, Pruetz and Thomas LaDuke, an associate professor of biological sciences at East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University, co-authored the paper, which will be posted online December 18 by the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. It will be published in a 2010 edition of the journal.
Data on the chimps' behavior with seasonal fires was collected by Pruetz during two specific encounters in March and April 2006. She reports that wildfires are set yearly by humans for land clearing and hunting, and most areas within the chimpanzees' home range experience burning to some degree.
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Among apes, teeth are made for the toughest times
22-12-2009 - ScienceDaily
The teeth of some apes are formed primarily to handle the most stressful times when food is scarce, according to new research performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The findings imply that if humanity is serious about protecting its close evolutionary cousins, the food apes eat during these tough periods -- and where they find it -- must be included in conservation efforts.
The interdisciplinary team, which brought together anthropologists from George Washington University (GWU) and fracture mechanics experts from NIST, has provided the first evidence that natural selection in three ape species has favored individuals whose teeth can most easily handle the "fallback foods" they choose when their preferred fare is less available. All of these apes -- gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees -- favor a diet of fruit whenever possible. But when fruit disappears from their usual foraging grounds, each species responds in a different way -- and has developed teeth formed to reflect the differences.
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Hyenas cooperate more easily than chimpanzees
06-12-2009 - Mongabay
Christine M. Drea, an associate professor in the department of Evolutionary Biology at Duke University, started to ask questions about the cooperative hunting habits of hyenas while she was reading The Spotted Hyena: A Study of Predation and Social Behavior by Hanz Kruuk.
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Chimpanzees' grief caught on camera in Cameroon
27-10-2009 - Telegraph
A group of chimpanzees have been photographed seemingly grieving for the death of one of their own in Cameroon.
More than a dozen chimps stand in silence watching from behind their wire enclosure as Dorothy, a chimp in her late 40s who died of heart failure, is wheeled past them. The chimps are from the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon. Locals from the village work as "care-givers" for the orphaned animals whose mothers were all killed for the illegal bushmeat trade. |
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New evidence of culture in wild chimpanzees
22-10-2009 - ScienceDaily
A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study, reported online on October 22nd in Current Biology, shows that neighboring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log.
Kibale Forest chimpanzees use sticks to get at the honey, whereas Budongo Forest chimpanzees rely on leaf sponges -- absorbent wedges that they make out of chewed leaves.
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Chimps happy to help – you just have to ask
13-10-2009 - NewScientist
If you're looking for help from a chimp, don't forget to say please. Captive chimpanzees readily help others obtain an out-of-reach snack, but only if they beg for it, a new study shows.
Researchers have long debated whether chimpanzees act altruistically. In the wild, the great apes exchange grooming duties, and occasionally food such as meat, but whether these transactions fit the definition of altruism is controversial.
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Brainy chimps, part two: make love, not war?
09-10-2009 - Scoop
Bonobos look like graceful versions of chimpanzees. They are entirely tree dwelling, don’t make tools and primitive war as chimpanzees do, or engage in hunting monkeys for meat. “Bonobos have more style,” says Frans B. M. de Waal in a 1995 article in Scientific American, “Bonobo Sex and Society” They were one of the last large mammals to be discovered by science, and were at first thought to be juvenile chimps. However, though they belong to the same genus (Pan), they’re a distinct species (paniscus). As much as chimpanzees, bonobos show the greatest capacity for self-awareness other than humans, being able to recognize themselves in mirrors and learn sign language. |
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Hyenas cooperate, problem-solve better than primates
29-09-2009 - ScienceDaily
Spotted hyenas may not be smarter than chimpanzees, but a new study shows that they outperform the primates on cooperative problem-solving tests.
Captive pairs of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) that needed to tug two ropes in unison to earn a food reward cooperated successfully and learned the maneuvers quickly with no training. Experienced hyenas even helped inexperienced partners do the trick. When confronted with a similar task, chimpanzees and other primates often require extensive training and cooperation between individuals may not be easy, said Christine Drea, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University.
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Tracing the origins of human empathy
25-09-2009 - The Wall Street Journal
Chimpanzees' Caring Behavior Toward Others Hints at the Emotion's Antiquity; the Mystery of the Contagious Yawn A pioneer in primate studies, Frans de Waal sees our better side in chimps, especially our capacity for empathy. In his research, Dr. de Waal has gathered ample evidence that our ability to identify with another's distress -- a catalyst for compassion and charity -- has deep roots in the origin of our species. It is a view independently reinforced by recent biomedical studies showing that our brains are built to feel another's pain. |
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Chimpanzees suffer psychologically like humans
09-09-2009 - PRNewswire-USNewswire
A recent study documents the severe emotional trauma chimpanzees suffer as a result of laboratory use and confinement. Developmental Context Effects on Bicultural Post-Trauma Self Repair in Chimpanzees was published in the September issue, Vol. 45 (5), of the American Psychological Association journal Developmental Psychology. Psychologists G.A. Bradshaw, Ph.D., Ph.D., Theodora Capaldo, Ed.D., Lorin Lindner, Ph.D., and Gloria Grow, Fauna sanctuary director, examined the case histories of three chimpanzees -- Billy Jo, Tom, and Regis -- all used in research before rescue into sanctuary. The study underscores the ethical implications of cross-fostering nonhuman primates and their use in research. |
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Chimpanzees empathize with animated apes
09-09-2009 - Discovery News
Computer animations stimulate contagious yawning in chimpanzees, according to a new study. The research provides the world's first direct evidence that a non-human animal can empathize with an animated fictional depiction. Since the compulsion to yawn after watching another individual yawn is not a conscious decision, the study suggests even non-living representations of humans and animals can affect the emotions and certain subsequent actions of humans and chimps at a subconscious level. Prior research has found that children who play violent video games may act in a more violent manner later. In this case, however, the experiment just led to a lot of relaxed chimps. |
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Infant chimps 'better behaved' than human counterparts
08-09-2009 - Telegraph
Chimp infants are more in control of their emotions and behaviour than their human counterparts, research suggests. Baby chimpanzees have 16 'smile configurations' compared with 13 in baby humans. A study found that, like human babies, newborn chimpanzees can laugh with joy or become fractious. Professor Kim Bard, from the University of Portsmouth, said: "Chimps don't get colic, they don't get unconsolable crying, they only cry for a reason, and usually when you pick them up they don't fuss any more. |
Photo: PA |
Chimpanzees use tool kits to harvest ants
03-09-2009 - Daily Telegraph
Chimpanzees have developed specialised tool kits which they use to catch and eat army ants in the Congo, scientists have discovered. Not only do the tools prevent the chimps being attacked by angry ants, but they allow them to practise a form of ''sustainable harvesting''. Chimpanzees have been observed using sticks to forage for honey and to fish for termites.
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