Scientists from Germany have found that orangutans are able to use tools to get their own food. So, some of them, without training, were able to crack the nuts with the help of the “hammer”. The researchers' article was published in the American Journal of Primatology.
Using an object to crack a nut is one of the most challenging tool-using behaviors in the animal kingdom. At the moment, it is known that only chimpanzees, capuchins and macaques are capable of doing this in the wild.
Researchers at the University of Tübingen have found that orangutans also have this skill. Scientists observed the behavior of 12 monkeys – four from Leipzig and eight from Zurich zoos. The primates were provided with nuts, a stump of a tree trunk – a “hammer” – and a stump that would serve as an anvil. Four orangutans were able to independently and successfully use the wooden hammers extended by the researchers. However, no one succeeded in repeating this action after them – that is, to learn -; all the other individuals used their teeth to split the nut.
“The orangutans themselves were able to develop this complex behavior only through self-study,” – said lead author Eliza Bandini. Scientists noted that the results of their research refute the prevailing scientific idea that such skills require the transfer of knowledge between individuals.
