The geographic variation in tool use across chimpanzee populations is most parsimoniously explained in terms of culture 3, 4. All chimpanzee populations studied in the wild use tools, although the prevalence of tool use varies significantly across groups 3. The use of tools by our primate relatives can help us to identify the conditions that drove the extraordinary expansion of hominin technology.Ĭhimpanzees are renowned for their extensive use of tools in a wide variety of contexts, including feeding, self-maintenance and social contexts 2. One of the most striking differences is the discrepancy in the reliance on tool use in wild populations of Pan. Yet, despite their evolutionary closeness, chimpanzees and bonobos differ in a number of important ways. Selection for increased intrinsic motivation to manipulate objects likely also played an important role in the evolution of hominin tool use.Ĭhimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes) and bonobos ( Pan paniscus) are humans’ closest living relatives and the two sister species shared a common evolutionary history until about one million years ago 1. Chimpanzees manipulated and played more with objects than bonobos, despite similar levels of solitary and social play. Extrinsic opportunities did not explain the tool use difference, whereas intrinsic predispositions did. Lastly, we investigated predispositions by measuring object manipulation and object play. We examined potential opportunities for social learning in immature apes. We assessed ecological opportunities based on availability of resources requiring tool use. We investigated whether extrinsic (ecological and social opportunities) or intrinsic (predispositions) differences explain this contrast by comparing chimpanzees at Kalinzu (Uganda) and bonobos at Wamba (DRC). Whereas chimpanzees are renowned for their tool use, bonobos use few tools and none in foraging. Chimpanzees and bonobos are our closest living relatives. Tool use in nonhuman apes can help identify the conditions that drove the extraordinary expansion of hominin technology.
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