Study reveals overlooked breadth of chimpanzee culture
A long-term study suggests chimpanzee culture includes many everyday behaviors essential for survival
Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
image:
Infant chimpanzee (left) peering at the hands of a juvenile (right) engaging in ectoparasite inspection with a leaf.
view moreCredit: Nora Slania
Scientists have identified dozens of previously overlooked cultural behaviors in wild chimpanzees, suggesting that the great ape’s culture extends far beyond complex skills like tool use. In a single community, they found nearly 70 behaviors that chimpanzees appear to learn from one another—almost doubling previous estimates of cultural behaviors across African chimpanzee populations.
Researchers spent several years observing wild chimpanzees in the Ugandan rainforest to document the range of skills that chimpanzees learn by observing others. They discovered that chimpanzees culturally learn a wide array of “basic” skills including foraging, grooming, playing, and wound care, many of which are essential for survival.
“Animal culture doesn’t have to be rare or complex. It can include basic skills used every day, like finding food and knowing how to eat it,” says first author Nora Slania from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.
Chimpanzees possess the largest known culture in the animal kingdom. Historically, chimpanzee cultural research has focused on striking behaviors such as using sticks to fish for termites, first famously documented by Jane Goodall in Gombe National Park. These behaviors were considered clear examples of culture, because neither genetic nor environmental factors could explain why some chimpanzee communities showed them and others did not. “Excluding genetic and environmental causes of behavioral variation was an important first methodological step to demonstrate social transmission and as such the existence of animal culture,” adds Slania.
Using this approach, previous research had identified 39 chimpanzee behaviors as cultural. But the new study suggests these earlier numbers may have greatly underestimated the true cultural breadth of chimpanzees. The researchers propose that cultural transmission can be shown through directly studying behaviors that are part of this process, irrespective of genetic and environmental influences.
“In humans, our everyday lives are full of culture, including the way we speak, dress, or eat. We don’t require behaviors to be especially remarkable or independent of our environment,” says Dr. Caroline Schuppli, senior author of the study. “Animals, however, have long been held to stricter standards. By adopting a more inclusive view of culture—and standards more comparable to those applied to humans—future research may reveal that many animals possess richer cultures than previously recognized.”
The team of international researchers focused on peering, which is when one animal watches the behavior of another closely and attentively. Peering is particularly well studied in orangutans and capuchin monkeys as a method of learning. In chimpanzees, peering had previously been shown to help individuals acquire complex skills such as using tools, but it has never been studied as a way for assessing the full scope of chimpanzee cultural learning.
For over two years, the research team followed 28 wild chimpanzees of all ages, from infants to older adults, at the Budongo Conservation Field Station in Uganda. From morning to late afternoon, they observed the daily lives of the apes in detail, recording the behavior of focal individuals as well as others within five meters. This allowed them to track what and whom chimpanzees observed closely.
The team accumulated over 1,000 hours of observations, finding 366 instances of peering. While they could not directly test whether peering caused learning, several patterns strongly suggest it plays a key role in knowledge acquisition. Chimpanzees peered during development, when they need to acquire their skill sets. Young chimpanzees paid special attention to learning-intensive behaviors, such as very rare and complex skills, and peered only at experienced chimpanzees, often their mothers but also – whenever they had the chance – at other group members.
When the researchers analyzed the behaviors that were the focus of peering, they identified 69 distinct actions. Only two of these – using leaves for wound care and to inspect parasites – had been recognized as cultural in earlier research. While some of the behaviors were rare, most observations comprised everyday activities such as exploring, playing, grooming, and feeding. Strikingly, the majority of behaviors— around 60%—were related to identifying, processing, or consuming food, including fruits, leaves, and other plant materials.
“The fact that so much of a chimpanzee’s diet is socially learned highlights how important social learning is for their development,” says Schuppli, a group leader at MPI-AB. “While some behaviors may be simple and learned quickly, acquiring the full range of their culture still takes young chimpanzees many years,” she adds.
The authors say that recognizing these broader cultural elements is important not only for understanding animal minds and how closely they resemble those of humans, but also for conservation efforts. In future, the team would like to extend this approach to other populations of chimpanzees and primates.
“Behavior allows animals to respond flexibly to the world around them, and cultural transmission offers a fast way to learn new behaviors. Ultimately, understanding the full scope of animal culture will help us protect the diverse ways these species adapt to changing environments,” adds Slania.
Peering at grooming [VIDEO]
Infant King (middle) peering at his mother Kutu grooming the adult female Janie, including the removal of a parasite with her mouth and stroking Janie’s fur for inspection.
Credit
Nora Slania
Nora Slania
Journal
iScience
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Animals
Article Title
Chimpanzee culture beyond the conspicuous: Evidence for broad-scale observational social learning in wild individuals
Article Publication Date
20-May-2026
