THE ANIMAL FILES

Chimpanzee

Pan troglodytes

A stick can become a feeding tool, but not every group uses it alike.

Chimpanzees use flexible plant stems to obtain insects, stones to open hard nuts and leaves to collect water. Communities differ in some techniques, so one group’s method is not a universal chimpanzee instruction manual.[1][3]

Follow the evidence ↓
Chimpanzee
Image: Giles Laurent · Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tool materials
Sticks, stones and leaves[1]
Plant food
Fruit and other plant parts are important[3]
Communication
Sound, gesture and touch[3]

A tool is matched to a task

Chimpanzees use plant stems to obtain insects, stones or branches to open some nuts, and leaves to collect water. These are different physical tasks requiring different material properties.[1]

Populations do not share one instruction sheet

Chimpanzee communities differ in how they obtain some foods. Some use flexible plant tools to extract termites, while others take termites by hand. Material choice and handling technique vary among these observed practices.[1]

Feeding and social information go together

Plant foods make up much of the menu, while insects and other animal foods are also taken. Chimpanzees communicate through facial expression, posture, touch and sound.[3]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Does one filmed technique show what every chimpanzee does?

No. The source records variation among communities and tasks. A careful account keeps the population and material context attached to the observation instead of presenting one impressive clip as a universal instruction manual.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why compare a stem’s flexibility when studying a feeding tool?

Reveal the explanation

The material has to work with the problem being solved. A tool used to enter a narrow opening faces different mechanical demands from a stone used to crack a hard shell, so material choice is part of the behaviour.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Chimpanzee (fixed revision; adapted and translated)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Pan troglodytes (identity and classification)
  3. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — Chimpanzee: diet, tools and communication

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

BonoboFruit eaten today can become a seed journey through the forest.Pan paniscus ↗Western gorillaA large ape follows a changing fruit calendar.Gorilla gorilla ↗HumanYou are reading about an animal that can pass its discoveries to strangers.Homo sapiens ↗