Elemental variation in the termite fishing of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Elemental variation in the termite fishing of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
复制标题
野生黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes）白蚁捕捞的元素变异
作者：
C. Sanz;D. Morgan
黑猩猩的工具行为在其复杂性和地理分布范围上有很大差异。使用具有特定设计特征的工具集收集白蚁的做法在中非的大部分地区都有。对这些复杂工具任务的组成和一致性进行详细的研究，有可能促进我们对工具使用者的认知能力和维护技术技能的过程的理解。在这项研究中，我们研究了黑猩猩的工具使用白蚁收集从视频记录的序列，得分的功能不同的行为元素的水平的变化。总的来说，我们发现在这个人口中的个人所表现出的工具使用技术的高度相似性。每个人的剧目中的元素的数量往往超过了完成任务所需的数量，不同年龄段的剧目大小存在一致的差异。成年人和亚成年人有最大的剧目，更一贯表现出元素字符串比年轻的个人。更大的剧目通常与罕见变异的结合有关，其中一些表明灵活性和智能。这些使用猿类的工具帮助我们理解技术的进化，包括我们人类祖先的进化，这些进化在大空间尺度上表现出高度的一致性。
Chimpanzee tool behaviours vary dramatically in their complexity and extent of geographical distribution. The use of tool sets with specific design features to gather termites extends across a large portion of central Africa. Detailed examination of the composition and uniformity of such complex tool tasks has the potential to advance our understanding of the cognitive capabilities of tool users and processes underlying the maintenance of technological skills. In this study, we examined variation in chimpanzee tool use in termite gathering from video-recorded sequences that were scored to the level of functionally distinct behavioural elements. Overall, we found a high degree of similarity in tool-using techniques exhibited by individuals in this population. The number of elements in each individual's repertoire often exceeded that necessary to accomplish the task, with consistent differences in repertoire sizes between age classes. Adults and subadults had the largest repertoires and more consistently exhibited element strings than younger individuals. Larger repertoires were typically associated with incorporation of rare variants, some of which indicate flexibility and intelligence. These tool using apes aid us in understanding the evolution of technology, including that of our human ancestors, which showed a high degree of uniformity over large spatial scales.