Skip to main content

Tool-Use by Great Apes in the Wild

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Early Evolution of Human Memory

Abstract

Evidence for tool use and tool-making by great apes in the wild is contrasted against the earliest stone artifacts and signs of their use before 2 million years ago by hominins who had attained a cognitive capacity both to envisage how by manipulating one object they could modify another in order to transform it into a tool, and to remember the manual behavior required to carry out the procedure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Arroyo, A., Hirata, S., Matsuzawa, T., de la Torre, I., 2016. Nut cracking tools used by captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and their comparison with Early Stone Age percussive artefacts from Olduvai Gorge. Public Library of Science PLoS ONE 11, e0166788.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beatty, H., 1951. A note on the behavior of the chimpanzees. Journal of Mammalology 32, 118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boesch, C., 2009. The real chimpanzee. Sex strategies in the forest. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boesch, C., Head. J., Robbins, M., 2009. Complex toolsets for honey extraction among chimpanzees in Loango National Park, Gabon. Journal of Human Evolution 56, 560–569.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breuer, T., Ndoundou-Hockemba, M., Fishlock, V., 2005. First observation of tool use in wild gorillas. Public Library of Science Biology 3, e380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, S.M., McGrew, W.C., 1990. Chimpanzee use of a tool-set to get honey. Folia Primatologica 54, 100–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bril, B., Parry, R., Dietrich, G., 2015. How similar are nut-cracking and stone-flaking? A functional approach to percussive technology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society series B Biological Sciences 370, 20140355. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0355.

  • Carvalho, S., Cunha, E., Sousa, C., Matsuzawa, T., 2008. Chaînes opératoires and resource-exploitation strategies in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) nut cracking. Journal of Human Evolution 55, 148–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carvalho, S., Matsuzawa, T., McGrew, W.C., 2013. From pounding to knapping: How chimpanzees can help us to model hominin lithics, in: Sanz, C.M., Call, J., Boesch, C., (Eds.), Tool use in animals. Cognition and ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 225–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cummins-Sebree, S.E., Fragaszy, D.M., 2006. Capuchins as stone-knappers?: Evaluation of the evidence, in: Toth, N., Schick, K. (Eds.), The Oldowan: Case studies into the earliest Stone Age. “Stone Age Institute Publication Series Number 1”, Stone Age Institute Press, Stone Age Institute, Gosport, Indiana, and University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana, 171–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delagnes, A., Roche, H., 2005. Late Pliocene hominid knapping skills: The case of Lokalalei 2C, West Turkana, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 48, 435–472.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedel, S.J., 2017. Did monkeys make the Pre-Clovis pebble tools of northeastern Brazil? Paleoamerica 3, 6–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall, J., 1964a. Tool-using and aimed throwing in a community of free-living chimpanzees. Animal Behavior Processes 36, 409–422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall, J., 1964b. Tool-using and aimed throwing in a community of free-living chimpanzees. Nature 201, 1264–1266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodall, J., 1986. The chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of behaviour. The Belknap Press of Harvard University press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gumert, M.D., Kluck, M., Malaivijtnond, S., 2009. The physical characteristics and usage patterns of stone axe and pounding hammers used by long-tailed macaques in the Andaman Sea region of Thailand. American Journal of Prinmatology 71, 594–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, M., 2014. On the tool use behavior of the bonobo-chimpanzee last common ancestor and the origins of hominine stone tool use. American Journal of Primatology 76, 910–918.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, M., Gumertz, M.D., Biro, D., Carvalho, S., Malaivijtnond, S., 2013. Use-wear patterns on wild macaque stone tools reveal their behavioural history. Public Library of Science PLoS 8, 1–8, e72872.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, M., Hernandez-Aguilar, A., Ling, V., Carvalho, S., de la Torre, I., DeStefano, A., Du, A., Hardy, B., Harris, J., Marchant, L., Matsuzawa, T., McGrew, W., Mercader, J., Mora, R., Petraglia, M., Roche, H., Visalberghi, E., Warren, R., 2009. Primate archaeology. Nature 450, 339–344.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humle, T., Matsuzawa, T., 2001. Behavioural diversity among the wild chimpanzee populations of Bossou and neighbouring areas, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. Folia Primatologica 72, 57–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izawa, K., Itani, J., 1966. Chimpanzees in Kasakati Basin, Tanganyika: I, Ecological study in the rainy season 1963–64. Kyoto University African Studies 1, 73–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, C., Sabater Pi, J., 1969. Sticks used by chimpanzees in Rio Muni, West Africa. Nature 223, 100–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, C., Sabater Pi, J., 1971. Comparative ecology of Gorilla gorilla (Savage and Wyman) and Pan troglodytes (Blumenbach) in Rio Muni, West Africa. “Bibliotheca Primatologica, No. 13”, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kortlandt, A., 1965. How do chimpanzees use weapons when fighting leopards? Yearbook of the American Philosophical Society, 327–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malaivijtnond, S., Lekprayoon, C., Tandavanittj, N., Panha, S., Cheewatham, C., et al., 2007. Stone-tool usage by Thai long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). American Journal of Primatology 69, 227–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matsuzawa, T., 1991. Nesting cups and metatools in chimpanzees. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 14, 570 –571.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrew, W.C., 1974. Tool use by wild chimpanzees in feeding upon driver ants. Journal of Human Evolution 3, 501–508.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrew, W.C., 1992. Chimpanzee material culture: Implications for human evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrew, W.C., Tutin, C.E.G., 1978. Evidence for a social custom in wild chimpanzees? Man 13, 234–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrew, W.C., Tutin, C.E.G., Baldwin, P.J., 1979. Chimpanzees, tools and termites: Cross-cultural comparisons of Senegal, Tanzania and Río Muni. Man 14, 185–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitman, C., 1931. A game warden among his charges. Nisbet, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Proffitt, T., Luncz, L.V., Falótico, T., Ottoni, E.B., de la Torre, I., Haslam, M., 2016. Wild monkeys flake stone tools. Nature 539, 85–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pruetz, J.D., Bertolani, P., 2007. Savanna chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, hunt with tools. Current Biology 17, 412–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahm, U., 1971. L’emploi d’outils par les chimpanzés de l’ouest de la Côte-d’Ivoire. La Terre et la Vie 25, 506–509.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roche, H., 2005. From simple flaking to shaping: Stone-knapping evolution among early hominins, in: Roux, V., Bril, B. (Eds.), Stone knapping, the necessary conditions for a uniquely hominin behaviour. “McDonald Institute Monographs”, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, 35–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabater Pi, J., 1974a. An elementary industry of the chimpanzees in the Okorobikó Mountains, Río Muni (Rep. Equat. Guinea). Primates 15, 351–364.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabater Pi, J., 1974b. Protoculturas materiales e industrias elementales de los chimpancés en la naturaleza. Ethnica 7, 69–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabater Pi, J., 1984a. El chimpancé y los orígenes de la cultura. (2nd edition) “Autores, textos y temas de Antropología 2”, Anthropos Editorial del Hombre, Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabater Pi, J., 1984b. Gorilas y chimpancés del África Occidental. Estudio comparativo de su conducta y ecología en libertad. “Sección de obras de Antropología”, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México D.F.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabater Pi, J., 1992. El chimpancé y los orígenes de la cultura. (3rd edition) “Autores, textos y temas de Antropología 2”, Anthropos Editorial del Hombre, Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabater Pi, J., 1993. Gorilas y chimpancés del África Occidental. Estudio comparativo de su conducta y ecología en libertad. (2nd edition) “Sección de obras de Antropología”, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México D.F.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanz, C.M., Morgan, D.B., 2007. Chimpanzee tool technology in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo. Journal of Human Evolution 52, 420–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanz, C., Morgan, D., Gulick, S., 2004. New insights into chimpanzees, tools, and termites from the Congo Basin. American Naturalist 164, 567–581.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanford, C.B., Gambanezza, C., Nkurunungi, J.B., Goldsmith, M.L., 2000. Chimpanzees in Bwindi-Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, use different tools to obtain different types of honey. Primates 41, 337–341.

    Google Scholar 

  • Struhsacker, T., Hunkeler, P., 1971. Evidence of tool-using by chimpanzees in the Ivory Coast. Folia Primatologica 15, 212–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sugiyama, Y., Koman, J., 1979. Tool-using and making behavior in wild chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. Primates 20, 513–524.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toth, N., Schick, K., Semaw, S., 2006. A comparative study of the stone tool-making skills of Pan, Australopithecus, and Homo sapiens, in: Toth, N., Schick, K. (Eds.), The Oldowan: Case studies into the earliest Stone Age. “Stone Age Institute Publication Series Number 1”, Stone Age Institute Press, Stone Age Institute, Gosport, Indiana, and University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana, pp. 156–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Lawick-Goodall, J., 1970. Tool using in Primates and other vertebrates, in: Lehrmann, D.S., Hinde, R.A., Shaw, E. (Eds.), Advances in the study of behavior, Volume 3. Academic Press, New York and London, pp. 195–249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visalberghi, E., Fragaszy, D., 2013. The Etho-Cebus Project: Stone-tool use by wild capuchin monkeys, in: Sanz, C.M., Call, J., Boesch, C., (Eds.), Tool use in animals. Cognition and ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 203–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiten, A., 2015. Experimental studies illuminate the cultural transmission of percussive technologies in Homo and Pan. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series B Biological Sciences 370, 20140359.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Héctor M. Manrique .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Manrique, H.M., Walker, M.J. (2017). Tool-Use by Great Apes in the Wild. In: Early Evolution of Human Memory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64447-9_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics