The project

Charting behavioral variation in non-human great apes (chimpanzees: Whiten et al. 1999 Behav, 2001 Nature; gorillas: Robbins et al. 2016 PLOS ONE; orangutans: van Schaik et al. 2009; bonobos: Hohmann and Fruth 2003 Curr Anthropol) is necessary to understand primate culture. Specifically, we are interested in finding out if great apes possess culture dependent traits (Reindl et al. 2017 Sci Rep): behaviors that rely on copying to be acquired. To achieve that goal we (Dr. Alba Motes Rodrigo and Dr. Claudio Tennie, Universtiy of Tübingen) have compiled a list of behaviors that are only found in one great ape population or population cluster. Populations clusters are composed by populations that are connected by migration or where individuals have the possibility to observe/interact with each other because they are close by. If a behavior is locally restricted we think that it might be a sign that individuals can not come up with this behavior on their own but they need to copy a model. On the other hand, if a behavior occurs in different unconnected populations, it is likely that the behavior does not need to be copied, as the innovators in each population could not have copied each other. The list we are producing is an important first step to determine whether non-human apes have cultural dependent traits like humans do (Motes-Rodrigo and Tennie, 2021 Biological Reviews https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12710).

New data from wild apes is constantly being published and studies in captivity provide a valuable source for studying ape behavioral repertoires. With your help, we would like to update our list of locally restricted behaviors and perhaps add new ones. We have carried out an exhaustive literature search on the topic, but we realized that the best source of knowledge regarding where behaviors appear, is the experts themselves (e.g. researchers, animal keepers, vets, etc). And so, we decided to create a collaborative space where we will keep updating this list.

We hope you will collaborate with us to better understand great ape cultures.

P.S. Maybe you have noticed that some seemingly obvious examples of locally restricted behaviors that quickly come to mind are missing from our tables. Although it may seem surprising, many of the behaviors originally thought to be locally restricted, such as "leaf-in-ear" behavior or "algae scooping" have actually been found in unconnected populations (Bandini and Tennie 2017 PeerJ). Therefore they could not be classified as locally restricted and they are not included in our tables. Nevertheless, if you believe that we have missed to include potential locally restricted behavior in our list, please let us know following the instruction in the Tables of behaviors page.