Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Volume 156, Issue 1, Pages 67-75Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22628
Keywords
chimpanzees; culture; insectivory; ecology
Categories
Funding
- Max Planck Society
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Chimpanzees show cultural differences among populations across Africa but also between neighboring communities. The extent of these differences among neighbors, however, remains largely unknown. Comparing three neighboring chimpanzee community in the Tai National Park, Cote d'Ivoire, we found 27 putative cultural traits, including tool use, foraging, social interaction, communication and hunting behavior, exceeding by far previously known diversity. As foraging behavior is predominantly influenced by the environment, we further compared in detail ecological circumstances underlying insectivore feeding behavior to analyze whether foraging differences on Dorylus ants and Thoracotermes termites seen between neighboring chimpanzee communities were caused by environmental factors. Differences in the prey characteristics of Dorylus ants (aggression level, running speed, and nest structure) that could influence the behavior of chimpanzees were excluded, suggesting that the observed group-specific variation is not ecologically driven. Only one community preyed on Thoracotermes termites despite a similar abundance of termite mounds in all three territories, supporting the idea that this difference is also not shaped by the environment. Therefore, our study suggests that transmission of cultural knowledge plays a role in determining insectivory prey behavior. This behavioral plasticity, independent of ecological conditions, can lead to large numbers of cultural diversification between neighboring chimpanzee communities. These findings not only deepen our understanding of the cultural abilities of chimpanzees in the wild but also open up possible future comparisons of the origin of cultural diversification among humans and chimpanzees. Am J Phys Anthropol 156:67-75, 2015 (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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