Chimpanzee tool use for honey and termite extraction in Central Africa

Abstract

Observations are presented primarily from two study sites located in the extreme southwestern tip of the Central African Republic. The use of flexible stalks and rigid sticks to extract termites from mounds and pounding, prying, and digging tools to penetrate melipone, honey bee, and ground-dwelling bee hives by Pan t. troglodytes are documented or inferred from circumstantial evidence. Functionally, termite extraction tools were similar to other locations in west and central Africa, but the plant species used were considerably different. Extraction of bees using large pieces of wood as pounding tools has not been recorded elsewhere in wild chimpanzees. No environmental factor that differs between the east and west of the range of P. t. troglodytes that would cause the difference in tool use was identified. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.