Chimp Conservation Study Suggests Chimpanzees' Well-Digging Behavior May Help Protect Them

For Catherine Hobaiter, a primatologist, and her team, one such moment occurred when they observed a subadult female chimpanzee, specifically Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, called Onyofi, digging in the mud of her western Uganda-based rainforest habitat.

There are moments in the lives of the researchers when they realize the importance of something they had not paid much thought to previously, a Mongabay report specified.

Hobaiter, working at the United Kingdom-based University of St. Andrews, said, at first, she thought Onyofi was digging in search of roots. HoweBut then, she saw that the chimpanzee was peering into the hole she had just made.

The primate was "clearly kind of waiting afterward," explained Hobaiter, adding that the other part that drew her attention to it was that there were other chimpanzees around and they appeared fascinated by their behavior. This, the primatologist elaborated, is not gotten so frequently.

Well-Digging Behavior

The primate's expert watched as the hole started to fill with water, and Onyofi drank from it. She had noticed such holes in the ground, but she never thought chimps made these wells.

Past examples of well-digging chimps have been observed in sites where water resource is limited, like in a savanna.

Onyofi's well-digging behavior was the first time to be observed in rainforest-dwelling chimpanzees. Scientists have suspected that several chimps picked up such behavior as they also encounter water shortages, mostly during the dry season, when their seasonal river is drying into a muddy pool. Onyofi, on the other hand, may have introduced this behavior to the group.

The new study published in the Primates journal may back the hypothesis that new behaviors picked up by groups of chimps are frequently introduced by females coming in from other communities.

For Group's Conservation and Long-Term Survival

To Hobaiter, the research underscores the essentiality of studying female chimps who have historically received less attention compared to males who are inclined to become habituated to humans quicker and less shy.

From 2013 to 2019, fifty-six instances were considered "well-digging" events by 20 different chimpanzees of the Waibira community.

Furthermore, most of the well-digging behavior was done by female chimps. Onyofi was the most prolific well digger in the chimp group, with 14 wells recorded between 2015 and 2019.

Hella Péter, the study's co-author and a Ph.D. student at the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent, UK, they are very happy with the 20 chimps.

For Péter, a Smithsonian Magazine report said that 20 chimps learning to dig wells in only seven years is quite impressive. This behavior may help the group's conservation and long-term survival.

Parsley and Péter said that even though they presently do not have to experience droughts, if they hit them, which is a probable scenario, they may have at least a single coping mechanism.

A report about this learned chimp behavior is shown on Mongabay's YouTube video below:

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