@article{b85d4b43f1164fc193f49826d3bf6608,
title = "Why don't chimpanzees in Gabon crack nuts?",
abstract = "Some populations of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use hammers and anvils of stone or wood to crack open nuts for food. Others do not. The aim of this study was to ask why one non-nut-cracking population, in the Lope Reserve, Gabon, lacks this useful form of tool use. We tested 10 hypotheses: (1) nuts are absent; (2) nuts are few; (3) nuts are unsuitable; (4) hammers are absent; (5) hammers are unsuitable; (6) anvils are absent; (7) anvils are unsuitable; (8) nuts are displaced by better food items; (9) intelligence is insufficient; and (10) knowledge is insufficient. All but the last are clearly falsified, leaving by exclusion the likelihood that Lope's chimpanzees lack the technology-knowledge of appropriate technique-to exploit this resource. Thus, the behavioral differences across populations of these apes are cultural and not environmentally dictated. This explanation is congruent with the distribution of chimpanzee nut-cracking across Africa.",
keywords = "Chimpanzee, Culture, Ecology, Pan troglodytes, Tool use",
author = "McGrew, {W. C.} and Ham, {R. M.} and White, {L. J.T.} and Tutin, {C. E.G.} and M. Fernandez",
note = "Funding Information: NUTI (Noisette Untapped Technology Investigation) was funded by the Boise Fund (University of Oxford), the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the L. S. B. Leakey Trust, and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, to whom we are most grateful. Facilities were generously provided by the Station d'Etudes de Gorilles et Chimpanzes, Centre International de Recherches Medicales de Franceville, and equipment by the University of Stirling. We thank C. Boesch for Fig. 1, W. K. Hart and K. Hauer, Department of Geology, Miami University, for identification of the rock samples, B. Fruth, L. Marchant, and two anonymous referees for critical reading of the manuscript, Carol Kist for word processing the manuscript, and Alphonse Mockanga-Missandzou at the Lope Reserve for cooperation. Finally, we are most grateful to A. C. Hannah, who shared with us her methodology from a similar study in Liberia. Copyright: Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "1997",
doi = "10.1023/A:1026382316131",
language = "English",
volume = "18",
pages = "353--374",
journal = "International Journal of Primatology",
issn = "0164-0291",
publisher = "Springer",
number = "3",
}