Chimpanzees in three West African countries—Guinea Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast), and Liberia, have been observed taking part in strange behavior. They store a great number of rocks in the hollows of trees. Then, usually a male, takes one of the rocks, walks a distance away, grunts an utterance, and hurls the rock at the tree, leaving a mark on it.
The rock is then placed back in the hollow to be reused in this manner again.No chimps east of these countries have been observed doing this. What’s more, there seems to be no reason for it tied to survival. It has nothing to do with acquiring food, mating, or furthering one’s status. Researchers say it might be a unique display of male power, marking the border of their troop’s territory, or even a spiritual ritual.
A team of 80 international scientists, led by Hjalmar S. Kuhl and Ammie K. Kalan, conducted the study. Kuhl and Kalan hail from the Max Planck Institute in Germany. The team set up camera traps in four remote locations in West Africa, where they caught footage of chimps taking part in this unusual and so far, unexplained behavior. Their findings were published in Scientific Reports, part of the journal Nature.
Tool usage among chimps is commonplace. Getty Images.
The authors write, “We found four populations in West Africa where chimpanzees habitually bang and throw rocks against trees, or toss them into tree cavities, resulting in conspicuous stone accumulations at these sites.” Chimps have been known to use rocks as tools, to bash open fruits or nuts for instance.
Certain groups have even been seen using sticks removed of leaves and sharpened as spears, for hunting.But they’ve never been observed taking part in behavior outside of that tied to survival. Over time, researchers found that this so-called ritualistic practice caught on in troops where males had taken part in it, with even a few females doing so. So could it be a spiritual ritual? Researchers on Kuhl and Kalan’s team have likened the…
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