From Ars Technica · · 2m
How chimps teach their kids tool tricks
Adult chimpanzees deliberately model tool use and hand over their tools so youngsters can learn the same skills.
In brief
Adult chimpanzees deliberately model tool use and hand over their tools so youngsters can learn the same skills. Chimpanzees teach their young through deliberate modeling, tool transfer, and supervised practice, a form of active teaching once thought unique to humans. Originally reported by Ars Technica.
Chimps pass down tool skills
Adult chimps deliberately model tool use, then hand their tools to youngsters so they can copy the behavior. This social learning helps young chimps access hard-to-reach foods.
Tool use isn't just human
Jane Goodall watched a chimp named David Greybeard strip leaves from a twig and use it to fish termites from a nest in 1960. Her mentor said we must redefine tool, man, or accept chimps as humans.
“Now we must redefine 'tool,' redefine 'man,' or accept chimpanzees as humans.”
Other animals use tools too
Dolphins toss objects for play and communication. Crows remember faces and use complex tools. A Swiss cow named Veronika even scratches herself with sticks.
Chimps mirror human learning
Chimpanzee mirror neurons fire in response to actions with objects, just like humans. This makes them ideal subjects for studying how social learning drives tool transfer.
Eight years of footage analyzed
Researchers collected nearly 15 hours of video from camera traps at 14 locations in Senegal between 2017 and 2025. They captured 33 tool transfers and three failed attempts.
Mothers are the main teachers
Most tool transfers involved adult females handing tools to infants. About 30 percent were mothers teaching their own offspring, usually for ant dipping, algae fishing, or termite fishing.
Soukki teaches ant dipping
Adult female Soukki dipped a twig into an ant nest and left it there for her infant Saïsaï to pull out. Later footage showed Saïsaï fully mimicking her mother's technique.
Juvenile helps Fotti crack fruit
When infant Fotti failed to break open a baobab fruit, a male juvenile grabbed it, pounded it on rocks, then guided Fotti's hand to copy the motion. Fotti eventually succeeded.
Teaching evolved for complexity
Teaching requires the teacher to actively modify their behavior to help the learner. It likely evolved to transfer skills too complex for youngsters to pick up through simple observation alone.
“Teaching is thought to have evolved to transfer information that is too complex to be acquired through simpler mechanisms.”
The essence
Chimpanzees teach their young through deliberate modeling, tool transfer, and supervised practice, a form of active teaching once thought unique to humans.
