Widespread tool-using chimp culture discovered in Democratic Republic of Congo

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Researchers spent 12 years documenting the behaviors exhibited by a population of Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) whose range extends across more than 50,000 square kilometers (over 19,300 square miles) of northern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The paper published this month in the journal Folia Primatologica detailing the team’s findings includes a description of an entirely new chimpanzee tool kit featuring four different kinds of tools: a long ant probe, a short probe, a thin wand, and a digging stick.

These tools are used to harvest five different food types, including a variety of driver and ponerine ant species as well as honey from the nests of ground-dwelling and arboreal bees. And they’re not the only evidence of unique behaviors discovered among this chimp population.



https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/widespread-tool-using-chimp-culture-discovered-in-democratic-republic-of-congo/

[htuttle]

1. I think this emphasizes how long humans were using wood tools

Long before the Paleolithic age.

Tool use almost certainly did not start with stone tools.