Chimpanzee culture

Have you ever learned something just by watching? Maybe you picked up a new dance  move from a TikTok video, mastered a recipe from a YouTube tutorial, or adopted a phrase just  because everyone around you was saying it. The way we absorb knowledge — from family, friends, and now, the vast world of social media — shapes how we navigate life. But, what if this kind of learning isn’t uniquely human? What if our ability to pass down traditions and skills isn’t just part of  our culture — but part of our biology?

Recently, research conducted in Guinea-Bissau by Dr. Joana Bessa and her colleagues from the University of Oxford demonstrated that chimpanzees develop distinct cultural traits through social learning — the ability to gather knowledge and skills from peers and group members. To uncover these insights, Dr. Bessa and her team spent 23 months setting up camera traps and conducting observational walks to collect and analyze the tools used by the chimpanzees. Their goal was to understand how chimpanzees from the same subspecies and similar ecological environments develop different behaviors, particularly in their use of tools, such as honey-dipping. Honey dipping involves using sticks or leaves to extract honey from hives, a behavior observed in some chimpanzee groups but absent in others. 

Chimpanzees are not only close relatives of humans, but also fascinating beings that evolve and develop their own unique cultures within different communities. Like humans, they exhibit rich cultural diversity, learning to make and use tools for various purposes. Chimpanzees have the greatest tool diversity in the animal kingdom besides humans. However, what is particularly fascinating is that these behaviors vary significantly between groups, even when they have access to the same resources. “Even though these neighbouring communities inhabit the same forest habitat and ecological variation is minimal, the study showed that there was still marked variation in hammer size and raw material preferences between communities,” explained Dr. Bessa.. Some groups crack nuts with wooden or stone hammers, while others, despite having access to the same resources, do not engage in this behavior at all. 

Long-term research has shown that many chimpanzee communities use multiple  specialized tools for honey extraction, while others in similar environments do not. “These findings challenge the idea that tool use is simply a response to environmental pressures. Instead, it supports the view that chimpanzees, much like humans, learn from one another and pass down traditions through social transmission,” said Dr. Bessa. 

During their research, Dr. Bessa and her team collected and analyzed 204 individual stick tools, highlighting a diverse range of tools including extractive tools, pounding tools, and  exploratory probes. They compared tool usage across four neighboring chimpanzee communities in Cantanhez National Park and noted the types of beehives being exploited. Out of the four communities, only three used tools for honey extraction, while one did not. 

These cultural behaviors in chimpanzees — such as honey-dipping and tool-making  — help explain the vast range of differing human cultures by offering insight into how knowledge and behavior spread. or fail to, within social groups. The variation in tool use among neighboring chimpanzee groups underscores the importance of social transmission in shaping behavioral traditions, much like in early human societies. Just as some human traditions — fashion trends, slang, or recipes — flourish in one region but fail to spread elsewhere, chimpanzee culture evolves in ways that cannot be explained by environment or genetics alone. 

Thinking back to that dance you learned from a TikTok video or the recipe you picked up  online — these moments of cultural transmission shape how we speak, present ourselves, and  connect with others, just as they do for chimpanzees. The ability of chimpanzees to pass on  behaviors across generations reflects the early cultural development of humans, offering a glimpse into humankind’s past. Chimpanzee culture is, in many ways, our story too. The ability to learn, adapt, and pass down traditions is not just what makes us human — it is what connects us to the broader family tree of life.