Primate Culture and Tool Use Questions
Answer the following questions based on the reading from Chapter 6, the web reading, the video clips, and the documentary. You must provide detailed answers to each question for full credit. Try your best to summarize the information and write what you have learned in your own words. Any text that you directly copy needs to be in quotation marks, but copying from the textbook or website will not be enough to get a high grade (see the grading rubric below). For full credit, you should either explain the information in your own words, or if you copy any text, you should also provide your own interpretation. Please number your answers to correspond with the question numbers
From Chapter 6:
1. What is the definition of culture? Would you say that “culture” is unique to humans – why or why not?
2. Describe the cultural traditions that have been observed in chimpanzee communities.
3. How do primatologists think that chimpanzee cultures develop? How does cultural transmission occur?
4. Summarize the two examples of cultural transmission in macaques that are described in your textbook.
From the Web Reading and Video Clips:
5. Describe the termite fishing tool-using behavior seen in chimps (watch the video clip).
6. What is the definition of a tool?
7. Aside from termite fishing, describe some other examples of chimpanzee tool use.
From the Ape Genius Documentary:
8. Describe how chimpanzees have been observed hunting bushbabies (=galagos, which are Strepsrihine primates).
9. Describe the experiment that was done to test whether a chimpanzee has the ability to copy another chimpanzee.
10. Explain why researchers believe that human children learn more efficiently than chimpanzees.
A 90-100% Outstanding work with thorough, detailed, and clearly written answers
Web Reading + 3 video clips
“The Animal’s Tool Box”:
https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/sciencepanorama/animals-tool-box
Also, watch these videos from the website:
A Jane Goodall video describing the discovery of tool usage (~2 min)
A video of chimpanzees hunting bush babies (~3 min)
A video of a nut-cracking capuchin (~3 min)
Ape Genius”:
http://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Ape%20Genius&fbclid=IwAR2U8MDXOAtbQNqpLccDE5XPLZ8RAJ_9OattXNBx-PnEduGPzT0UYWSBoKo
