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. 2022 Jul;63(4):355-364.
doi: 10.1007/s10329-022-00992-4. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Well-digging in a community of forest-living wild East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)

Hella Péter  1   2 , Klaus Zuberbühler  1   3   4 , Catherine Hobaiter  5   6
Affiliations

Well-digging in a community of forest-living wild East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)

Hella Péter et al. Primates. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Access to resources shapes species' physiology and behaviour. Water is not typically considered a limiting resource for rainforest-living chimpanzees; however, several savannah and savannah-woodland communities show behavioural adaptations to limited water. Here, we provide a first report of habitual well-digging in a rainforest-living group of East African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and suggest that it may have been imported into the community's behavioural repertoire by an immigrant female. We describe the presence and frequency of well-digging and related behaviour, and suggest that its subsequent spread in the group may have involved some degree of social learning. We highlight that subsurface water is a concealed resource, and that the limited spread of well-digging in the group may highlight the cognitive, rather than physical, challenges it presents in a rainforest environment.

Keywords: Culture; Hydration; Pan troglodytes; Social transmission; Water access.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1a–c
Fig. 1a–c
Light detection and ranging scan of the water hole area from two perspectives. a Overview of the water hole; camera trap 1 location is the small tree on the right. Camera trap 2 locations varied around the area of water below the base of the large tree, centre-left. b Perspective along the seasonal riverbed, camera trap 1 location is the tree in the foreground. c Photograph showing the two soil types found at the water hole in a dried-out section of the seasonal riverbed; the reddish sandy/gravel substrate in the centre is surrounded by the darker soil/loamy mud
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The number of recorded digging-related behaviours [peering at well-digging (Observing), play digging, digging, and well-digging] across the dry seasons 2012/2013 to 2018/2019. No well-digging was observed before 2014/2015; three well-digging events were recorded in 2016/2017, fourteen in 2017/2018, and eight in 2018/2019. Digging and play digging were recorded from 2012/2013; there were no recorded digging-related events of any kind in 2013/2014
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Timeline of recorded well-digging events across dry seasons 2012/2013 to 2018/2019, with the individual’s identity indicated. Red circles indicate females, blue circles indicate males, large circles indicate adult individuals, small circles indicate immature (subadult and juvenile) individuals. Dotted circles indicate individuals who could not be clearly identified [unknown (unk)]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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