Journal
PRIMATES
Volume 51, Issue 2, Pages 175-178Publisher
SPRINGER JAPAN KK
DOI: 10.1007/s10329-009-0178-6
Keywords
Tool use; Percussive technology; Chimpanzee; Material culture
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Funding
- MEXT [12002009, 16002001, 20002001]
- JSPS-ITP-HOPE
- Gates Cambridge Trust
- St. John's College
- Lucie Burgers Foundation
- Schure-Beijerinck-Popping Foundation
- International Primatological Society
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [12002009] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are renowned for their use of tools in activities ranging from foraging to social interactions. Different populations across Africa vary in their tool use repertoires, giving rise to cultural variation. We report a new type of percussive technology in food processing by chimpanzees in the Nimba Mountains, Guinea: Treculia fracturing. Chimpanzees appear to use stone and wooden cleavers as tools, as well as stone outcrop anvils as substrate to fracture the large and fibrous fruits of Treculia africana, a rare but prized food source. This newly described form of percussive technology is distinctive, as the apparent aim is not to extract an embedded food item, as is the case in nut cracking, baobab smashing, or pestle pounding, but rather to reduce a large food item to manageably sized pieces. Furthermore, these preliminary data provide the first evidence of chimpanzees using two types of percussive technology for the same purpose.
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