Cracking nuts is something we man take for allow , but for power hammer - wielding orangutans ( a small excerption , anyway ) this skill is a Modern string to their bow in the eyes of primatologists . The utilisation of a hammer – or hammer - corresponding object – to fracture nuts had antecedently been know in otherprimate species , but now new research has found that somecaptive orangutansare capable of intuitively work out how to turn their hand to nut smashing without the need to be taught .
The young open access theme , published in theAmerican Journal of Primatology , countersink to find out if these keen ape could utilize tools put up to them when faced with a nut that needed to be snap . They indicate that nut - crack is likely something these brute do n’t practice in the wild owing to the fact that an arborical lifestyle does n’t contribute itself very well to such a way of foraging . After all , it ’s all well and good having break the shell but not much use when the precious contents have pinged off into the abyss .
They put four orang at Leipzig Zoo , Germany , to the test to find out . Each creature was allow with some nuts and hammering but there was no demonstration by the keeper as to how the two could interact . One of the four in their experimentation was able-bodied to start collapse nuts without tutelage , shew that it can emerge in these animals even when they ’ve not learned the behavior from other animal .
The researcher also report data from a antecedently unpublished subject area led by carbon monoxide - author on the newfangled paper Martina Funk , who tested eight orangutans at Zürich Zoo using similar conditions . Here , three orangutan demonstrated an affinity for nut - cracking , intend that out of the full twelve creature tested , at least four person ( one - third ) were able to apply the hammer to crock up nuts .
The determination are n’t the first time Pongo pygmaeus have been indicate to be proficient in tool use . Memorable footage see one orangutang quite happilywielding a handsaw , while a captive orangutan in Dublin Zoo , Ireland , recently find a fresh enjoyment for the teddy bear of one deflated tiddler ( TW : contains scenes ofruthless teddy charge ) .
“ Nut - cracking with hammer tools … has been argue to be one of the most complex tool - use behaviors observed in nonhuman animals , ” write the study source . “ So far , only Pan troglodytes , capuchins , and macaques have been observed using tools to crack nuts in the wild . ”
“ These results demonstrate that nut - cracking can come out in orangutans through single encyclopaedism and certain types of non - copying social erudition . ”
