Abstract
Selection and transport of objects to use as tools at a distant site are considered to reflect planning. Ancestral humans transported tools and tool-making materials as well as food items. Wild chimpanzees also transport selected hammer tools and nuts to anvil sites. To date, we had no other examples of selection and transport of stone tools among wild nonhuman primates. Wild bearded capuchins (Cebus libidinosus) in Boa Vista (Piauí, Brazil) routinely crack open palm nuts and other physically well-protected foods on level surfaces (anvils) using stones (hammers) as percussive tools. Here we present indirect evidence, obtained by a transect census, that stones suitable for use as hammers are rare (study 1) and behavioral evidence of hammer transport by twelve capuchins (study 2). To crack palm nuts, adults transported heavier and harder stones than to crack other less resistant food items. These findings show that wild capuchin monkeys selectively transport stones of appropriate size and hardness to use as hammers, thus exhibiting, like chimpanzees and humans, planning in tool-use activities.
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Acknowledgments
Permission to work in Brazil granted by IBAMA and CNPq to D.F. and E.V. Thanks to Fundacão BioBrasil and to the Familia M for permission to work at Boa Vista and to Jozemar, Arizomar, and Junior for their assistance in the field. Thanks to Luca Mantovani for his help during study 1. Funded by National Geographic Society, Leakey Foundation, CNPq, FAPESP, CNR, EU-Analogy (STREP Contr. No. 029088), Università La Sapienza di Roma, and Ethoikos. D. Fragaszy acknowledges support of Kyoto University, where she was Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Letters during the period of writing this manuscript. We also thank Bill McGrew and two anonymous referees whose comments greatly improved the manuscript.
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Visalberghi, E., Spagnoletti, N., Ramos da Silva, E.D. et al. Distribution of potential suitable hammers and transport of hammer tools and nuts by wild capuchin monkeys. Primates 50, 95–104 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-008-0127-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-008-0127-9