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16 - Why Taï mangabeys do not use tools to crack nuts like sympatric-living chimpanzees: a cognitive limitation on monkey feeding ecology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2019

By
Karline R.L. Janmaat  and
Richard Byrne
Edited by
Christophe Boesch  and
Roman Wittig
Edited in association with
Catherine Crockford ,
Linda Vigilant ,
Tobias Deschner  and
Fabian Leendertz
Christophe Boesch
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Roman Wittig
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Catherine Crockford
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Linda Vigilant
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Tobias Deschner
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, Germany
Fabian Leendertz
Affiliation:
Robert Koch-Institut, Germany
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Summary

Nuts are high in energetic and nutritional value, but the kernel inside is difficult to access. In the Taï forest, it is estimated that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) can eat 6–10 times as many nuts with the help of a tool as to when they crack them with their own teeth. However, sympatric-living terrestrial monkeys never crack nuts using tools. So this begs the question, why not? In this chapter, we report on the foraging behaviour of the sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys). A quick synopsis goes as follows: they observe nut-cracking chimpanzees at a distance of 5–10 metres, relish in the leftovers of the freshly cracked nuts, and then continue to follow the chimpanzees to different nut-cracking sites. With this information, we go on to consider the underlying reasons for the absence of nut-cracking in sooty mangabeys, with a particular focus on cognitive limitations, and then discuss the implications of field observations for studies on imitation in the laboratory.

Keywords

Sooty mangabeyImitationScavengingNutsFeeding ecologyCognitive limitations
Type
Chapter
Information
The Chimpanzees of the Taï Forest
40 Years of Research
 , pp. 261 - 271
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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