Amazing stuff!
"Orangutans ... seem to be able to use a bunch of tools in the wild and even make complex choices about these tools. So a team of researchers ... wanted to test their stone tool-making ability. The researchers tested out their hypothesis on ... orangutans at [zoos] ...
despite being proficient tool users and using a variety of raw materials as tools, they do not use stone tools in the wild. ...
It’s the first time cutting behavior has been observed in untrained, unenculturated orangutans. ..."
despite being proficient tool users and using a variety of raw materials as tools, they do not use stone tools in the wild. ...
It’s the first time cutting behavior has been observed in untrained, unenculturated orangutans. ..."
From the abstract:
"... However, despite their importance, it is still unclear how these early lithic technologies emerged and which behaviours served as stepping-stones for the development of systematic lithic production in our lineage. ... To this end, we tested both the individual and the social learning abilities of five orangutans to make and use stone tools. Although the orangutans did not make sharp stone tools initially, three individuals spontaneously engaged in lithic percussion, and sharp stone pieces were produced under later experimental conditions. Furthermore, when provided with a human-made sharp stone, one orangutan spontaneously used it as a cutting tool. Contrary to previous experiments, social demonstrations did not considerably improve the stone tool making and using abilities of orangutans. Our study is the first to systematically investigate the stone tool making and using abilities of untrained, unenculturated orangutans showing that two proposed pre-requisites for the emergence of early lithic technologies–lithic percussion and the recognition of sharp-edged stones as cutting tools–are present in this species. ..."
Strangely, the headline of this article claims Orangutans act "instinctively"!
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