Ecological influences on tool use
Working in the forest in Uganda means having to take into account the daily activity of chimpanzees in the wild to understand why they use tools or not. We thus engage in the debate on the ecological bases of chimpanzee tool use behavior. In particular, while several hypotheses (necessity as the mother of invention, or opportunity to use tools) are in competition regarding the occurence of tools in the wild, our data suggest that all hypotheses play their part.
Main papers of interest
Gruber, T., Potts, K.B., Krupenye, C., Byrne, M.-R., Mackworth-Young, C. McGrew, W.C., Reynolds, V. & Zuberbühler, K. (2012) The influence of ecology on animal cultural behaviour: A case study of five Ugandan chimpanzee communities. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 126(4):446-57. doi: 10.1037/a0028702
Gruber, T. (2013) Historical hypotheses of chimpanzee tool use behaviour in relation to natural and human-induced changes in an East African rain forest. Revue de Primatologie, 5, document 66. doi: 10.4000/primatologie.1690
Gruber, T., Zuberbühler, K. & Neumann, C. (2016) Travel fosters tool use in wild chimpanzees. eLife, 5:e16371. doi: 10.7554/ eLife.16371
Grund, C., Neumann, C. Zuberbühler, K. & Gruber, T. (2019) Necessity creates opportunities for tool use in wild chimpanzees. Behavioral Ecology, 30(4), 1136-1144, doi: 10.1093/beheco/arz062
