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Tool-use in free-ranging baboons of Nairobi National Park

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Abstract

A free-ranging male olive baboon (P. c. anubis) was observed as he used a small twig to locate, extract, and sort pea-sized stone fragments from a clay matrix prior to chewing and swallowing them. Occurrence of this behavior in a feral cercopithecine monkey, albeit in a single instance, indicates that the capacity for tool-use extends more broadly and deeply into the order Primates than heretofore recognized.

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Author notes

  1. Ordean J. Oyen

    Present address: Department of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, Case Western Reserve University, 44106, Cleaveland, Ohio, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, USA

    Ordean J. Oyen

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  1. Ordean J. Oyen
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Oyen, O.J. Tool-use in free-ranging baboons of Nairobi National Park. Primates 20, 595–597 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02373442

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02373442

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