Three thousand years of wild capuchin stone tool use

Falótico, Tiago; Proffitt, Tomos; Ottoni, Eduardo Β.; Staff, Richard A.; Haslam, Michael

doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0904-4

Cited by 65 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…While capuchin monkeys are phylogenetically distant from hominins, they offer an intriguing comparative perspective on how an extant arboreal primate copes with a substantial degree of terrestrial activity, including transporting and using tools. Recent findings indicate that this feature of bearded capuchin monkeys' behavior has persisted for at least three thousand years (Falótico, Proffitt, Ottoni, Staff & Haslam, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Positional behavior and substrate use in wild adult bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)

Wright

Biondi

Visalberghi

et al. 2019

American J Primatol

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Natural selection for positional behavior (posture and locomotion) has at least partially driven the evolution of anatomical form and function in the order Primates.Examination of bipedal behaviors associated with daily activity patterns, foraging, and terrestrial habitat use in nonhuman primates, particularly those that adopt bipedal postures and use bipedal locomotion, allows us to refine hypotheses concerning the evolution of bipedalism in humans. This study describes the positional behavior of wild bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus), a species that is known for its use of terrestrial substrates and its habitual use of stones as tools. Here, we test the association of terrestrial substrate use with bipedal posture and locomotion, and the influence of sex (which co-varies with body mass in adults of this species) on positional behavior and substrate use. Behavior and location of 16 wild adult bearded capuchins from two groups were sampled systematically at 15 s intervals for 2 min periods for 1 year (10,244 samples). Despite their different body masses, adult males (average 3.5 kg) and females (average 2.1 kg) in this study did not differ substantially in their positional behaviors, postures, or use of substrates for particular activities.The monkeys used terrestrial substrates in 27% of samples. Bipedal postures and behaviors, while not a prominent feature of their behavior, occurred in different forms on the two substrates. The monkeys crouched bipedally in trees, but did not use other bipedal postures in trees. While on terrestrial substrates, they also crouched bipedally but occasionally stood upright and moved bipedally with orthograde posture. Bearded capuchin monkeys' behavior supports the suggestion from anatomical analysis that S. libidinosus is morphologically better adapted than its congeners to adopt orthograde postures. K E Y W O R D S bipedality, locomotion, posture, terrestriality

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Positional behavior and substrate use in wild adult bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)

Wright

Biondi

Visalberghi

et al. 2019

American J Primatol

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“…Excavations of chimpanzee nut-cracking sites suggest that the basic behavioural form has remained constant for at least 4,000 years, and likely even longer (Mercader et al, 2007). Similarly, excavations of capuchin nut-cracking sites have demonstrated that their nutcracking form has remained the same for 3,000 years, with only the tools (hammerstones) changing in shape over time (Falótico et al, 2019). Indeed, if the behavioural form of nut-cracking were being copied between individuals, we would expect to see some changes to its form over time due to copying error alone (see Eerkens & Lipo, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the individual and social learning abilities of task-naïve captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes sp.) in a nut-cracking task

Neadle

Bandini

Tennie

2020

PeerJ

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Nut-cracking is often cited as one of the most complex behaviours observed in wild chimpanzees. However, the cognitive mechanisms behind its acquisition are still debated. The current null hypothesis is that the form of nut-cracking behaviour relies on variants of social learning, with some researchers arguing, more precisely, that copying variants of social learning mechanisms are necessary. However, to date, very few experiments have directly investigated the potentially sufficient role of individual learning in explaining the behavioural form of nut-cracking. Despite this, the available data provides some evidence for the spontaneous acquisition of nut-cracking by chimpanzees; later group acquisition was then found to be at least facilitated by (unspecified) variants of social learning. The latter findings are in line with both suggested hypotheses, i.e., that copying social learning is required and that other (non-copying) social learning mechanisms are at play. Here we present the first study which focused (initially) on the role of individual learning for the acquisition of the nut-cracking behavioural form in chimpanzees. We tested task-naïve chimpanzees (N = 13) with an extended baseline condition to examine whether the behaviour would emerge spontaneously. After the baseline condition (which was unsuccessful), we tested for the role of social learning by providing social information in a step-wise fashion, culminating in a full action demonstration of nut-cracking by a human demonstrator (this last condition made it possible for the observers to copy all actions underlying the behaviour). Despite the opportunities to individually and/or socially learn nut-cracking, none of the chimpanzees tested here cracked nuts using tools in any of the conditions in our study; thus, providing no conclusive evidence for either competing hypothesis. We conclude that this failure was the product of an interplay of factors, including behavioural conservatism and the existence of a potential sensitive learning period for nut-cracking in chimpanzees. The possibility remains that nut-cracking is a behaviour that chimpanzees can individually learn. However, this behaviour might only be acquired when chimpanzees are still inside their sensitive learning period, and when ecological and developmental conditions allow for it. The possibility remains that nut-cracking is an example of a culture dependent trait in non-human great apes. Recommendations for future research projects to address this question are considered.

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“…Performance of stone pounding tool use, in contrast, is far more conspicuous -in both the immediate and longitudinal sense. Nut-cracking often takes place in a group context, produces a lot of sound, which attracts attention (Coelho et al, 2015;Eshchar et al, 2016;Fragaszy et al, 2017), and produces profound non-perishable effects on the environment including accumulations of hammers and nut casings, on and around anvils, distinguishable patterns of pitting on anvil surfaces, and in cashew processing, longlasting CNSL (cashew nut shell liquid) stains on tools and anvils (Falo´tico et al, 2019;Haslam et al, 2014;Visalberghi et al, 2013). 14 The reliability of artefact contexts and the strength of their canonical affordances is likely to directly influence the potential for emergent artefact categorisations, which may in turn impact cultural expression through cultural override.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primate tool use and the socio-ecology of thinging: how non-humans think through tools

Mosley

2020

Adaptive Behavior

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While ecological psychology and embodied approaches to cognition have gained traction within the literature on non-human primate tool use, a fear of making assumptions on behalf of animal minds means that their application has been conservative, often retaining the methodological individualism of the cognitivist approach. As a result, primate models for technical and cognitive evolution, rooted in the teleological functionalism of the Neo-Darwinist approach, reduce tool use to the unit of the individual, conflating technology with technique and physical cognition with problem-solving computations of energetic efficiency. This article attempts, through the application of material engagement theory, to explore non-human primate technology as a non-individualistic phenomenon in which technique is co-constructed through the ontogenetic development of skill within a dynamic system of structured action affordances and material interactions which constitute an emergent, species-specific mode of technical cognition.

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Three thousand years of wild capuchin stone tool use

Cited by 65 publications

References 26 publications

Positional behavior and substrate use in wild adult bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)

Positional behavior and substrate use in wild adult bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)

Testing the individual and social learning abilities of task-naïve captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes sp.) in a nut-cracking task

Primate tool use and the socio-ecology of thinging: how non-humans think through tools

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