Transport of tools and mental representation: is capuchin monkey tool behaviour a useful model of Plio-Pleistocene hominid technology?

Jalles-Filho, Euphly; Cunha, Rogério Grassetto Teixeira da; Salm, Rodolfo

doi:10.1006/jhev.2000.0461

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In addition, females acquire tool-use skills earlier in life and are more attentive to observing tool use during their development than are males [Lonsdorf, 2005;Lonsdorf et al, 2004]. In contrast, a male bias in tool use has been observed in wild and captive capuchins, where males exhibit more frequent and proficient tool use than females (Cebus libidinosus and C. nigritus) [Falótico & Ottoni, 2010;Fragaszy et al, 2004Fragaszy et al, , 2010JallesFilho, 1995;Jalles-Filho et al, 2001;Moura & Lee, 2010;Ottoni & Izar, 2008;Ottoni & Mannu, 2001;Spagnoletti et al, 2011;Visalberghi et al, 2010]. This variation across species indicates that wellconserved sex differences in tool use do not exist across tool-using primates, suggesting the specific conditions affecting a species might have a large influence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Sex differences in the stone tool‐use behavior of a wild population of burmese long‐tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea)

Gumert

Hoong

Malaivijitnond

2011

American J Primatol

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We investigated sex differences in how Burmese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea) used stone tools to open shelled food items along the shores of two islands in Laemson National Park, Thailand. Over a 2-week period in December 2009, we collected scan and focal samples on macaques when they were visible along the shores and mangroves. We found females used stones more often while feeding and used smaller tools than males. Females also processed sessile oysters more than males, whereas males processed unattached foods more than females. It was unclear which sex was overall more proficient at stone tool use, but males did perform significantly better at opening unattached food items with large pounding stones. Females also struck food items more times during tool-use bouts and at a faster rate, but no significant difference was found in average tool-use bout duration. Males processed foods slightly faster within a tool-use bout, but we were unable to detect a significant difference in the rate of food processing while foraging with tools. In summary females chipped open sessile oysters with an axing technique more than males, while males used larger stones to pound open unattached shelled food more often than females. Despite using pounding more than females, males also regularly utilized the axing technique on sessile oysters. Our results are the first assessment of sex differences in macaque stone tool use, providing a basis for comparison with tool use in other primates, and to nonfunctional forms of stone use in other macaques.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Sex differences in the stone tool‐use behavior of a wild population of burmese long‐tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea)

Gumert

Hoong

Malaivijitnond

2011

American J Primatol

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“…Jalles-Filho and collaborators 65 questioned the usefulness of capuchins as models for early human tool use based on experiments in which captive subjects failed to transport stone tools. However, more recent studies have shown that under some experimental circumstances captive capuchins will transport tools.…”

Section: Box 2: Bipedalism and The Transport Of Toolsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Capuchin monkey tool use: Overview and implications

Ottoni

Izar

2008

Evolutionary Anthropology

368

212

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Nutcracking capuchins are mentioned in reports dating as far back as the sixteenth century,1, 2 as well as in Brazilian folklore.3 However, it was barely a decade ago that primatologists “discovered” the spontaneous use of stones to crack nuts in a semi‐free ranging group of tufted capuchin monkeys. Since then, we have found several more capuchin populations in savanna‐like environments which employ this form of tool use.5–7 The evidence so far only weakly supports genetically based behavioral differences between populations and does not suggest that dietary pressures in poor environments are proximate determinants of the likelihood of tool use. Instead, tool use within these capuchin populations seems to be a behavioral tradition that is socially learned and is primarily associated with more terrestrial habits. However, differences in the diversity of “tool kits” between populations remain to be understood.

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“…An early study by Jalles-Filho et al (2001) suggested that captive capuchins did not transport tools: they transported nuts to stones, but not stones to a box containing food. However, other studies have shown that captive capuchins transport tools under appropriate conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Distribution of potential suitable hammers and transport of hammer tools and nuts by wild capuchin monkeys

et al. 2009

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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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Transport of tools and mental representation: is capuchin monkey tool behaviour a useful model of Plio-Pleistocene hominid technology?

Cited by 24 publications

References 40 publications

Sex differences in the stone tool‐use behavior of a wild population of burmese long‐tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea)

Sex differences in the stone tool‐use behavior of a wild population of burmese long‐tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea)

Capuchin monkey tool use: Overview and implications

Distribution of potential suitable hammers and transport of hammer tools and nuts by wild capuchin monkeys

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