UZH study highlights 'greater continuity between chimpanzee and human cultural evolution than previously assumed'

The University of Zurich recently released a study that shows that Chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans, have a culture that is much more like ours than previously known.

The study was led by UZH professor Kathelijne Koops from the Department of Anthropology, and was published on January 24, 2022. It used innovative field experiments in the Nimba Mountains of Guinea to investigate learning patterns of wild chimpanzees, and also shed light on cultural evolution. 

“Our findings suggest that chimpanzees acquire cultural behaviors more like humans and do not simply invent complex tool use behaviors like nut cracking on their own," Koops said.

The zone of latent solutions hypothesis shows that chimpanzees don’t acquire cultural behaviors through social learning, but instead reinvent them individually. The study challenges this hypothesis, however, and suggests that they learn complex cultural behaviors from others like humans do.

The study found that chimpanzees do not invent nut cracking with stones, but instead learned how to do this from their fellow chimpanzee peers. There were four experiments done in the study. The chimpanzees were given oil palm nuts and stoned, and then palm fruit was added to the experiment. The third experiment involved nuts being cracked and put on top of stones. The final experiment involved the chimpanzees being given Coula, which is a species of nut that is easier to crack. The study involved 35 chimpanzee sub-groups, and it was found that they were more likely to take part in the experiments when visiting other larger groups. None of the chimpanzees cracked or at the oil palm or Coula nuts. This shows that they did not know immediately what to do with the nuts and stones.

“The presence of a model from whom to learn appears to be the missing piece in their acquisition of such behaviors,” Koops said. “The study's findings highlight the greater continuity between chimpanzee and human cultural evolution than previously assumed, indicating a shared evolutionary origin of cumulative culture between humans and chimpanzees. This research provides valuable insights into the complexity of chimpanzee culture and its similarities to human culture. By studying our closest living relatives, scientists gain a deeper understanding of the factors that shape cultural evolution and the unique aspects of human culture."