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First records of tool-set use for ant-dipping by Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Uganda

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Abstract

Chimpanzees at numerous study sites are known to prey on army ants by using a single wand to dip into the ant nest or column. However, in Goualougo (Republic of Congo) in Central Africa, chimpanzees use a different technique, use of a woody sapling to perforate the ant nest, then use of a herb stem as dipping tool to harvest the army ants. Use of a tool set has also been found in Guinea, West Africa: at Seringbara in the Nimba Mountains and at nearby Bossou. There are, however, no reports for chimpanzees in East Africa. We observed use of such a tool set in Kalinzu, Uganda, for the first time by Eastern chimpanzees. This behavior was observed among one group of chimpanzees at Kalinzu (S-group) but not among the adjacent group (M-group) with partly overlapping ranging areas despite the fact that the latter group has been under intensive observation since 1997. In Uganda, ant-dipping has not been observed in the northern three sites (Budongo, Semliki, and Kibale) but has been observed or seems to occur in the southern sites (Kalinzu and Bwindi), which suggests that ant-dipping was invented by and spread from the southern region after the northern and southern forest blocks became separated. Use of a tool-set by only one group at Kalinzu further suggests that this behavior was recently invented and has not yet spread to the other group via migrating females.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the National Forestry Authority of Uganda and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology for permits and support for the research. We thank the research assistants and other workers in Bushenyi, Uganda, for support for data collection and maintenance of the study sites. We thank, Dr. T. Kano, Dr. T. Matsuzawa, and other members of the Primate Research Institute for support and encouragement. This study was financially supported by the Japan Ministry of the Environment Global Environment Research Fund (F-061 to Nishida; D-1007 to Furuichi), JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (17570193, 19405015, 40379011 to Hashimoto; 17255005, 22255007, 26257408 to Furuichi; 24255010 to Yamagiwa; 21255006, 25257409 to Ihobe; 25257407 to Yumoto), the JSPS Asia-Africa Science Platform Program (2009–2011, 2012–2014 to Furuichi), the JSPS HOPE project of the Primate Research Institute (PRI) of Kyoto University (to Matsuzawa), a MEXT special grant “Human Evolution” and a JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Strategic Young Researcher Overseas Visits Program for Accelerating Brain Circulation (to the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University). K. Koops was supported by grants from the Lucie Burgers Foundation for Comparative Behaviour Research (The Netherlands) and Homerton College (Cambridge) and by MEXT (#20002001, #24000001) and JSPS-U04-PWS grants to T. Matsuzawa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan

    Chie Hashimoto, Mina Isaji & Takeshi Furuichi

  2. Anthropological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Kathelijne Koops

  3. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Kathelijne Koops

Authors
  1. Chie Hashimoto
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  2. Mina Isaji
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  3. Kathelijne Koops
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  4. Takeshi Furuichi
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Correspondence to Chie Hashimoto.

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An adult male chimpanzee at Kalinzu dipping for army ants from bent shrubs (copyright: Chie Hashimoto) (WMV 111475 kb)

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Hashimoto, C., Isaji, M., Koops, K. et al. First records of tool-set use for ant-dipping by Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the Kalinzu Forest Reserve, Uganda. Primates 56, 301–305 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-015-0478-y

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