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The Independent
09-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Chimpanzees accessorise and follow fashion trends just like humans, scientists find
Chimpanzees have been observed following ' fashion trends ' in the same way humans might do, research has revealed. Eight rescue primates in Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, Zambia, were seen placing grass or twigs into their ears for no particular reason, a study published in the journal Behaviour found. Dr Jake Brooker of Durham University, co-author of the study, told The Times: 'This isn't about cracking nuts or fishing for termites. It's more like chimpanzee fashion. 'It mirrors how human cultural fads spread: someone starts doing something, others copy it and it becomes part of the group identity, even if it serves no clear purpose — and even if it's sometimes uncomfortable.' The researchers said one explanation could be chimpanzees being in captivity not having to pay as much attention to staying alive. 'They don't have to stay as alert or spend as much time searching for food,' Dr Edwin van Leeuwen of Utrecht University, added. 'That may give them more cognitive room for play, experimentation and copying each other.' In a separate study, chimpanzees in Uganda were observed using plants to treat open wounds and tend to each other's injuries. University of Oxford scientists, working with a local team in the Budongo Forest, filmed and recorded the animals using plants for first aid. The footage shows the animals licking and dabbing leaves on wounds. Researchers say the footage adds to a growing body of evidence that primates, including chimps, orangutans and gorillas, use natural medicines in a number of ways to stay healthy in the wild. Dr Elodie Freymann of the University of Oxford, first author of the article in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, said: 'Chimpanzee wound care encompasses several techniques: direct wound licking, which removes debris and potentially applies antimicrobial compounds in saliva; finger licking followed by wound pressing; leaf-dabbing; and chewing plant materials and applying them directly to wounds.' Researchers studied two communities of chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, the Sonso and Waibira. Like all chimpanzees, members of these communities are vulnerable to injuries, whether caused by fights, accidents, or snares set by humans. About 40 per cent of all primates in Sonso have been seen with snare injuries. The researchers spent four months observing each community, as well as drawing on video evidence from the Great Ape Dictionary database, logbooks containing decades of observational data, and a survey of other scientists who had witnessed chimpanzees treating illness or injury.
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
Chimps follow social fads like humans, study finds
Chimpanzees adopt pointless fads, just like humans, researchers have found. The animals were seen wearing grass and sticks in their ears, after copying the habit from other chimps. The practice serves no purpose and shows chimps are capable of socially transmitting arbitrary customs, making them more like humans than previously thought. Dr Jake Brooker of Durham University, said: 'What's remarkable is that these customs have no obvious utility. 'This isn't about cracking nuts or fishing for termites – it's more like chimpanzee fashion. 'It mirrors how human cultural fads spread: someone starts doing something, others copy it, and it becomes part of the group identity even if it serves no clear purpose.' Spontaneous behaviour Researchers spotted the strange behaviour while observing 147 chimpanzees across eight social groups living in the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia, Africa. The team discovered that five of the eight chimpanzees in the group started inserting grass or small sticks into their ears, while six began doing the same with their rectums. The behaviour – which has never been seen in the wild – appeared spontaneously and spread rapidly. Dr Edwin van Leeuwen of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, said: 'In captivity, they have more free time than in the wild. 'They don't have to stay as alert or spend as much time searching for food. Why they do exactly this particular thing, I'm not really concerned about. 'But they are copying the behaviour from each other, that is the important insight.' Culture predates humans The findings suggest that culture may have evolved far earlier than humans, and that the roots of symbolic shared behaviour is embedded in primates. Dr Brooker added: 'In copying these quirky actions, the chimpanzees may be helping strengthen social bonds or signal group belonging. That's something we see in human fads too. 'By studying the seemingly odd but socially meaningful behaviours of chimpanzees, we gain powerful insights into how our own cultures may have evolved. 'Our findings demonstrate just how much we still share with our primate cousins, and challenge the idea that symbolic or arbitrary traditions are uniquely human.'
Times
08-07-2025
- Science
- Times
Chimpanzees fall for futile ‘fashions', just like humans
In a quiet corner of Zambia, a group of chimpanzees has taken to an unusual form of self-expression: carefully placing blades of grass in their ears. It is, by all appearances, a trend with no practical purpose. Yet it may, primatologists believe, say something profound about the origins of human culture. Researchers recorded the odd behaviour within one tightly bonded group of eight captive chimps at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, all of whom had been rescued from the illegal pet trade as juveniles. Within weeks, five of them were inserting grass or twigs into their ears. What was striking was not only the strangeness of the custom but the apparent lack of any functional benefit. When the researchers tried putting grass in their own ears, they decided it was quite unpleasant. 'This isn't about cracking nuts or fishing for termites. It's more like chimpanzee fashion,' said Dr Jake Brooker of Durham University, co-author of a study published in the journal Behaviour. 'It mirrors how human cultural fads spread: someone starts doing something, others copy it and it becomes part of the group identity, even if it serves no clear purpose — and even if it's sometimes uncomfortable.' Chimpanzees were already known for a diverse repertoire of traditions. In the wild, some groups throw rocks at trees, creating collections of stones that have been mistaken for human shrines. Nobody knows why. Others use carefully selected tools to crack nuts or fish for termites. The 'grass in the ear' trend was seen more than a decade ago among a separate group at the Chimfunshi refuge. The fad seems to have been revived and has now been studied in more depth. • Chimps sharing boozy fruit may point to the origins of pub culture The new study, led by Dr Edwin van Leeuwen of Utrecht University, used a statistical approach known as network-based diffusion analysis to show that the behaviour spread through observation rather than individual trial and error. Why engage in something so seemingly pointless? The researchers suspect the explanation lies in the social lives of chimpanzees, especially in captivity. 'They don't have to stay as alert or spend as much time searching for food,' Van Leeuwen said. 'That may give them more cognitive room for play, experimentation and copying each other.' Brooker speculates that these arbitrary acts might function as social glue, much like human trends, from bell-bottom jeans to TikTok dances. 'They may be helping strengthen social bonds or signal group belonging,' he said. 'By studying the seemingly odd but socially meaningful behaviours of chimpanzees, we gain powerful insights into how our own cultures may have evolved.' Chimps are not the only animals with a fondness for fleeting 'fashions'. Orcas living in the Pacific Northwest were recently seen engaging in a peculiar fad for 'salmon hats', which involved them swimming around with dead salmon on their heads. As with the chimpanzees, the behaviour offered no obvious survival benefit but spread socially. It may have suggested an appetite for shared ritual, perhaps even for mischief. 'Our findings demonstrate just how much we still share with our primate cousins and challenge the idea that symbolic or arbitrary traditions are uniquely human,' Brooker said.
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Monkeying around: Chimps adopt pointless social fads such as wearing grass in their ears, hilarious pictures show
From Crocs to bleached eyebrows, we're no strangers to bizarre and pointless social fads. But humans aren't the only primates who like to keep up with the latest trends. Chimpanzees living in a wildlife sanctuary in Zambia have started wearing grass or sticks in their ears. Hilarious images show the fashion-forward chimps taking part in the latest craze. The researchers behind the discovery say that the group weren't doing this for any practical reason, such as to relieve a hard-to-reach itch. Instead, the impractical habit has spread as a purely social trend. Dr Jake Brooker, a primatologist at Durham University and co-author of the study, says: 'What's remarkable is that these customs have no obvious utility. 'This isn't about cracking nuts or fishing for termites – it's more like chimpanzee fashion.' Chimpanzees are exceptionally adept at spreading new techniques and skills through social learning. This allows them to acquire complex skills that help them survive, just by watching others. However, scientists are now beginning to show that chimpanzees also pick up habits that are totally useless. In 2010, keepers at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, Zambia, spotted that a female chimpanzee had started placing a piece of grass or stick in her ear. Soon, all the chimpanzees in her social circle were doing the same, and the behaviour persisted even after the original trendsetter died. Now, scientists have seen this same trend come back into fashion among chimps in the same sanctuary, despite not having been seen in over a decade. Scientists from Durham University and Utrecht University observed 136 chimps split across eight groups. In one of the tight-knit social groups, chimps suddenly started wearing grass in their ears. In a bizarre twist, some chimpanzees in the group even took to wearing pieces of grass or sticks in their behinds Within weeks, five of the eight chimpanzees started wearing grass in their ears. Meanwhile - in a bizarre twist - six even began inserting grass or sticks into their rectums. Since this odd behaviour was not seen in any of the other chimpanzee groups, the scientists believe it is being spread socially like a trend spreading through a human school. This practice might serve a social function, allowing chimps to show they are paying attention to other members of the group and strengthening social bonds. 'It mirrors how human cultural fads spread: someone starts doing something, others copy it, and it becomes part of the group identity even if it serves no clear purpose,' says Dr Brooker. Based on their observations, the researchers think that the chimpanzees might have picked up this habit from their caretakers. In interviews, the caretakers said they would sometimes use a blade of grass or a matchstick to clean their ears while out with the chimpanzees. These caretakers only looked after the groups where the trend started, and none of the other groups' caretakers said they did the same thing. The fact that this fashion serves no purpose shows that chimpanzees will pass on pointless habits, in a similar way to how human trends catch on and spread Once the chimpanzees learned to put sticks in their ears, the researchers suggest that a few individuals might have figured out they could put them in another place as well. However, what is really important about these observations is not how the specific trend started, but what it reveals about chimpanzees' social lives. This discovery might place the origins of 'symbolic' behaviour, and the seeds of human culture, farther back in the evolutionary past than had been thought. That could allow a greater understanding of how human culture evolved and why modern humans behave the way they do today. Dr Edwin van Leeuwen, a primatologist at Utrecht University and co-author of the paper, says: 'Why they do exactly this particular thing, I'm not really concerned about. But them copying the behaviour from each other, that is the important insight.' 'This shows that, like humans, other animals also copy seemingly pointless behaviours from one another, and that, in turn, may offer insights into the evolutionary roots of human culture.' WHICH ARE SMARTER: CHIMPS OR CHILDREN? Most children surpass the intelligence levels of chimpanzees before they reach four years old. A study conducted by Australian researchers in June 2017 tested children for foresight, which is said to distinguish humans from animals. The experiment saw researchers drop a grape through the top of a vertical plastic Y-tube. They then monitored the reactions of a child and chimpanzee in their efforts to grab the grape at the other end, before it hit the floor. Because there were two possible ways the grape could exit the pipe, researchers looked at the strategies the children and chimpanzees used to predict where the grape would go. The apes and the two-year-olds only covered a single hole with their hands when tested. But by four years of age, the children had developed to a level where they knew how to forecast the outcome. They covered the holes with both hands, catching whatever was dropped through every time.
