![]() The Gombe chimpanzee study has continued for 60 years, producing over 300 scientific publications and reaching a broad global audience through popular books, magazine articles and films. Leakey's hopes have been rewarded abundantly. What sort of societies did they have? What did they eat? How did they behave? Fossils provide indispensable evidence, but can offer only limited information about the living creatures that left those remains behind. Leakey believed the ape and human lineages had diverged deep in time (Leakey, 1970), but nonetheless thought studies of living apes would provide essential context for understanding human evolution. ![]() Goodall's mentor, Louis Leakey, hoped that studying living apes would shed light on the behaviour of fossil apes such as Proconsul (Peterson, 2006). In 1960, Jane Goodall established the first long-term field study of chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes) at what is now Gombe National Park, Tanzania, just over a century after On the origin of species (Darwin, 1859) laid the foundation for an evolutionary understanding of human origins. Here I consider some possible explanations for these transitions, with an emphasis on contributions from Gombe. Key steps along this path include: (a) changes in diet (b) increased use of tools (c) bipedal gait (d) multilevel societies (e) collective foraging, including a sexual division of labour and extensive food transfers and (f) language. Evidence from primate field studies suggests that the hominin path depends on our heritage as apes: inefficient quadrupeds with grasping hands, orthograde posture and digestive systems that require high-quality foods. In either case, field studies provide opportunities to test hypotheses for how and why our lineage has followed its peculiar path through the adaptive landscape. However, findings emerging from studies of our other closest living relative, the bonobo ( Pan paniscus), indicate that either bonobos are derived in these respects, or the many similarities between chimpanzees and humans evolved convergently. The close phylogenetic relationship between chimpanzees and humans suggests that these traits were present in the last common ancestor of Pan and Homo (LCA PH). Young chimps have been observed to imitate their elders in the use of tools, and to fumble with the activity until they eventually become proficient.Sixty years of research on chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes) at Gombe National Park, Tanzania have revealed many similarities with human behaviour, including hunting, tool use and coalitionary killing. The use of tools by chimpanzees varies from region to region, which indicates that it is a learned behavior. They use stones to smash open nuts, sticks for catching termites, and they peel leaves from bamboo shoots for use as wash cloths to wipe off dirt or blood, and to collect rainwater from tree-cavities. ![]() Chimpanzees (usually males) will regularly kill and eat young pigs, monkeys, and antelopes.Ĭhimpanzees are able to devise simple tools to assist in finding food and for other activities. Animal prey is eaten less regularly than fruits and leaves. Chimpanzees break open the hard shells of nuts with sticks or smash them between two rocks. They also eat quantities of insects that they collect by hand, or in the case of termites, using simple tools. ![]() In the afternoon chimps also spend another hour or two feeding on young leaves. A branch of science, zoopharmacognosy, has recently developed to study the medicinal use of plants by wild animals.įruit is the main component of the chimpanzee diet, and they spend at least four hours a day finding and eating varieties of this food. In the Gombe National Forest in Tanzania, chimps have been seen to eat the plant Apilia mossambicensis to help rid themselves of parasites in their digestive system. Chimpanzees seem to know the medicinal value of certain plants.
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