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Tool use in chimpanzees essay
Tool use in chimpanzees essay
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Introduction: General description and geographic distribution
There are many individuals around the world who are unaware of the intellectual capacity of chimpanzees and other primates. According to National Geographic, chimpanzees are one of our closest living relatives; we share ninety-eight percent of our DNA with them (“Chimpanzees”). Chimpanzees can be naturally found in Southern Senegal, the Congo River, Western Uganda, and Western Tanzia; Gombe National Park in Tanzia is the first park in Africa that was specifically developed for chimpanzees (“Chimpanzee”). Although it can be shocking for some, chimpanzees are dexterous individuals and are capable of manufacturing tools and putting them to use. Tool-usage for chimpanzees ranges from foraging to hygiene purposes, but uses of tools vary among each population (Watts). Chimpanzees use twigs, stones, branches, leaves, rocks, and much more to create the tools they need to assist them with certain tasks such as retrieving termites from their mounds with stripped twigs (Atkinson). Jane Goodall was the first person to document such tool use in the wild.
Development of Tool Use
A team of researchers did a study on chimpanzees where they showed that the technologies they introduced would spread into the different ape communities. In the study they “trained a high-ranking female from each of two groups of captive chimpanzees to adopt one of two different too-use techniques for obtaining food from the same ‘pan-pipe’ apparatus, then re-introduced each female to her respective group” (Whiten, Horner, and Waal). There were two tool-use techniques: lift or poke; each high-ranking female had to use one or the other exclusively. The rest of the high-ranking female’s group watched her for t...
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...e. These reasons contribute to why wild chimpanzees have a higher frequency of tool usage than captive chimpanzees.
Conclusion
Drawing from extensive findings in both the wild and captive chimpanzee, one can see that tool use and tool manufacturing are important and practiced in both cases. Wild chimpanzees use more complex techniques than captive chimpanzees, which is evident in nut-cracking at the Tai National Park. The wild chimpanzees use the discretion of weight of branches or hammers and the hardness of the nuts to make the decision of which tools to use for each nut. In contrast, captive chimpanzees do not use these same complex techniques; they learn a lot from observation of their mothers or others. All in all, chimpanzees have great intelligence and it is shown in their ability of tool use and tool manufacturing, regardless of being wild or captive.
There are contrasts in tool kits used by different groups of chimpanzees, which seem to be a result of the environment in which they live as well as information that is shared by the group. For example, in 1973 it was reported that chimpanzees in Gombe did not use hammer stones, but those of Cape Palmas did. We will explore the tool use of Chimpanzees from the wild, including Gombe, Tai National Forest, and the Congo Basin---and contrast those with Chimpanzees in captivity in locations of Zoo’s both in the United States and abroad.
They have wide chests and their arms are longer than their legs. Chimpanzees’ hands have four long fingers plus an opposable thumb. Their feet have five toes which includes an opposable big toe. Chimpanzees’ can grasp things with both their hands and their feet. Male chimpanzees are larger than female chimpanzees and are slightly sexually dimorphic. Chimpanzees are quadrupeds that typically walk using the soles of feet and the knuckles of their hands. They sometimes walk upright only when they need to use their arms to carry things but this is a rare occurrence. Chimps are also good at brachiating and climbing trees which is where they spend most of their time even when they sleep. Their dental formula is 2.1.2.3. Chimpanzees’ have y5/x4 molars, making them frugivores, and a diastema to fit their upper canines. Their diet includes fruit, leaves, flowers, seeds, smaller mammals, birds, insects, and grubs. When chimps aren’t resting, they can be very active. I enjoyed watching the Chimpanzees’ swing on the ropes and climb up and down the trees. Chimpanzees are
Dr. Goodall is a well-known British primatologist who has discovered a substantial amount about primates in her many years of research. She has written numerous books, including one that we will be going into depth about called, “Through a Window.” Her book contains personal experiences, research findings, and even pictures to help the readers visualize her scientific breaking moments from her thirty years with the chimpanzees of Gombe. She states that there is are minor differences, and several similarities between humans and the chimpanzees. We will discuss these differences and similarities through their social behavior, intellectual ability, and emotions. To conclude, examine Goodall’s research to adopt what her findings can tell us about our early ancestors, and whether or not her study coincided to the steps of scientific methodology.
As our neighboring living families, chimpanzees as well as bonobos have been extensively used as prototypes of the behavior of early hominids. However, In modern years, as statistics on the social behaviors or conduct and ecosystem of bonobos has evidently come to light, a lot of interspecific assessments have been done. Chimpanzees have been described in terms of their intercommunity struggle, meat eating, infanticide, anthropogy, male position-striving, and supremacy over females. Bonobos, for the meantime, have been depicted as the ‘‘creator of love, but not a war’’ ape, categorized by female power-sharing, a deficiency of hostility between either characters or groups, expounded sexual behavior that happens without the restraint of a thin window of fruitfulness, and the usage of sex for communicative determinations. This paper evaluates the indication for this contrast and reflects the reasons that distinct portrayals of the two great apes have advanced.
Every few years, Hollywood releases a new Planet of the Ape movie, which is always a blockbuster hit. Moviegoers flock to see these movies of how apes rise together and how they are actually more intelligent than meets the eye. Most people do not know the premise behind these movies of how smart and closely related apes are to humans. This is because people probably have never taken a physical anthropology class and have not done research on apes –our closet kins. Known for his immense studies in the fields of apes and monkeys, his long term research in the behavior of chimpanzees and mountain gorillas, and his experience in the forests with the apes, the co-director of the Jane Goodall Research Center and writer of our textbook, primatologist
Humans are not the only species with the ability of making tools. Early on in her research, Jane Goodall observed an older male chimp, she called him David Greybeard. Through her observation of David, she witnessed two forms of the use of tools. The first was the use of grass as a tool to extract termites from their mounds. The second was the making of a tool by stripping the leaves off a twig, modifying it for the same purpose. When Louis Leakey heard this, he wrote her “Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or except chimpanzees as humans” (Goodall, 2002). There is a definite correlation between man and chimps in this respect. Human culture involves learned behaviors through observation, imitation and practice, the use of tools with chimpanzees show the same ability for learned beh...
Primates housed in organizations like zoos and laboratories have developed catastrophic behavior; due to the lack of their natural habitat and the lose of freedom to pursue their own lives. Chimpanzees have directed themself to attempt abnormal and often revolting behavior. During their life in captivity they exibit biting themselves, drinking urine, eating feces, pating genitals, rocking, plucking hair, and fumpling niples (Birkett and Newton-Fisher). Another factor that gives chimpanzees
Thesis Statement: Despite the rampant protests of animal welfare organizations on encaging primates in zoos since primates typically show abnormal behavior, zoos in the National Capital Region claim that human interaction and enrichment programs help alleviate the stress and trauma primates experience.
Quiatt, D., & Reynolds, V. (1993). Primate behaviour: information, social knowledge, and the evolution of culture. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press].
Throughout situations and research conducted by not only Robert Sapolsky or Jane Goodman, but from many other credited sources, we can blatantly see the, if not identical, similarities between the two species of humans and baboons. The most apparent likewise characteristics of this can be read and documented in Professor Sapolsky’s book, A Primate’s Memoirs. Sapolsky, who spent hundreds if not thousands, of hours studying these Savanna Baboons, sheds a vast insight into ideas of social dominance, mating strategies, instinctual prowess, community settings, hygiene, and reform of an entire generation; many of which can be unknowingly seen directly in the common occurrence of a humans daily life.
The first person to see a chimpanzee use a tool was Jane Goodall in 1960. She saw David Greybeard a chimpanzee she named and saw him get a piece grass and used it for fishing termites. The chimpanzee inserted the piece of grass into the hole it made on a termite mound. David Greybeard did the process a couple of times until he got full then Jane Goodall went to the mount to figure out what the chimpanzee was doing. Over a couple of days, David and other chimpanzees were observed using a piece of a twig to get termites out of the mount. The chimpanzees removed the leaf and straighten the twig before inserted it into the mount. When chimpanzees find a hard dirt mound, they use their foot to penetrate the piece of wood, so they can reach the bottom of the mount. The use of rock as a tool among chimps is unique feature among primates. Scientists have discovered chimpanzees use rocks as tools. Chimpanzees sharpen rocks by hitting them to a tree or another rock, so it got strong, enough and durable. The sharpen rocks is for breaking food apart into little proportions, so the babies can eat the food easier. When the monkeys hit the rocks on another rock, little chips come off and it becomes sharp. Scientist studied chimpanzees in the Nimbia Mountains of Guinea, Africa the chimps were seeing using the rocks and wooden cleavers to break hard nuts into smaller proportions eat. There have been many instances where a scientists have seen chimps use sharp rocks to kill other animals when they’re on the hunt. The rocks are used as defense weapons when they’re under attack and the chimpanzees use male dominance to show who’s responsible. Chimpanzees in the captive have to find new ways to use the tools that are made. Chimpanzees in captivity ...
Apes have over and over again surpassed other primates in comprehension tests carried out in the laboratory. They are capable of reacting to stimuli in an appropriate manner. Researchers have measured intelligence in primates in a number of situations in an effort to determine the level of cognition these primates possess. Russon and Begun, researchers who have explored ape intelligence state, “In the physical domain, great apes do use tools in ways that require their grade of cognition but they devise equally complex manual techniques and solve equally complex spatial problems” (Russon and Begun 2004). Apes have the abilit...
Grass made up their environment around which they traveled mostly on all fours, on their feet and their knuckles. They stood erect on two feet to walk when using their hands to carry something. I wasn’t surprised to see that there was an enormous termite mound in the middle of their habitat because I had read about it in the anthropology textbook, and how chimps are adept tool users in that they not only construct them, but also use them strategically. With these tools, they reach into the termite hillock and seek out and ingest their newfound grub.
This article, titled Common Ground, written by Barbara Smuts, points out the main differences between humans and apes, such as our upright stance, large brains, and capacity for spoken language and abstract reasoning. However, the main point of this article is to emphasize the many similarities that apes share with us. Smuts goes into great detail about how human social and emotional tendencies are very reflective in the family of apes.
Jane Goodall Among the Wild Chimpanzees Jane Goodall is a woman who has and still does work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, South Africa. The first time she went to Tanzania was on July 14, 1960 when she was just 26 years old. Because of her research and studies of many different chimpanzees, we as humans will be able to better understand ourselves and other primates. At first, Jane just sat on a peak at the top of a mountain, so that she could observe the chimps. The chimpanzees would keep a safe distance away so they were able to watch Jane and make sure that she wasn’t going to hurt them in any way.