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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/cp-cp053107.php

'Cultured' chimpanzees pass on novel traditions

The local customs that define human cultures in important ways also
exist in the ape world, suggests a study reported online June 7th in
Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Indeed, captive
chimpanzees, like people, can readily acquire new traditions, and
those newly instituted "cultural practices" can spread to other
troops.

"We have robust evidence that in chimpanzees there is a considerable
capacity for cultural spread of innovations," said Dr. Andrew Whiten
of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "This strengthens the
interpretation of cases of behavioral diversity in the wild as
socially transmitted traditions. Moreover, we have now shown that
chimpanzees can sustain cultures that are made up of several
traditions. This again is consistent with what is seen in the wild,
where chimpanzees are thought to show up to 20 traditions that define
their unique local culture."

Documented examples of behavioral differences among chimpanzees in
nature include various types of tool use, including hammers and
pestles; social behaviors like overhead hand-clasping during mutual
grooming; courtship rituals like leaf-clipping, in which leaves are
noisily clipped with the teeth; and methods for eradicating parasites
by either stabbing or squashing them. However, the idea that such
behaviors constitute traditions passed on through observational
learning "relies heavily on circumstantial evidence that alternative
genetic or environmental explanations are implausible."

Now, Whiten's international team, including colleagues in Scotland and
others from Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center
and the University of Texas, has tackled the question experimentally
by "seeding" novel forms of tool use and food extraction in different
captive chimpanzee communities.

Over time, the researchers saw ten of these new behaviors spread and
become full-fledged, local traditions. As a result, the communities at
Yerkes and the University of Texas now display their own unique
cultures.

At the University of Texas, where several groups are next-door
neighbors within eyeshot of each other, four of the new traditions
proved catching. The learned foraging practices spread from one group
to another, and then on to a third.

The findings have important implications for understanding the ability
of primates to adapt over time.

"Social learning is important for evolutionary adaptation because it
can be so much faster than that which occurs through genetic change;
and, unlike learning by one's own efforts—for example, by trial and
error—it can be very efficient because one is standing on the
shoulders of what previous generations achieved," Whiten said.

###

The researchers include Andrew Whiten and Antoine Spiteri of
University of St Andrews in St Andrews, UK; Victoria Horner of
University of St Andrews in St Andrews, UK and Emory University in
Atlanta, GA; Kristin E. Bonnie and Frans B. M. de Waal of Emory
University in Atlanta, GA; Susan P. Lambeth and Steven J. Schapiro of
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Bastrop, TX.

Studies reported here were supported by the BBSRC and Leverhulme Trust
(UK), NIH grants to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and
the Living Links Center of Emory University. AW was supported by a
Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Fellowship. The Bastrop colony
is supported by NIH/NCRR through cooperative agreement with the NIH
National Center for Research Resources.

Whiten et al.: "Transmission of Multiple Traditions within and between
Chimpanzee Groups." Publishing in Current Biology 17, 1–6, June 19,
2007. DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.031 www.current-biology.com