Chimps aren’t just using tools. They’re teaching their kids how to use them, and a new paper in the journal Frontiers in Psychology says that’s a deliberate process, not just something that happens by chance.
The paper describes adult chimps deliberately modeling tool use, then handing the tools over to youngsters so they can mimic the same motions. That’s not just passing along a skill. It’s a lesson, with a teacher, a pupil, and a transfer of equipment that makes the whole arrangement look a lot like human instruction.
“Receiving food and tools from experienced individuals, which we call food or tool transfer, may help chimpanzees learn to use technology to extract foods that are difficult to access,” said co-author Andreu Sánchez-Megías, a graduate student at the University of Barcelona and the Jane Goodall Institute Spain in Senegal. “Tool transfers thus appear to be a form of teaching, together with observation and supervised practice. It appears that mothers are the main models and teachers for young chimpanzees in this manner.”
The Mother as Teacher
The paper’s authors focus on mothers as the primary instructors. Mothers are the main models and teachers for young chimps, according to the study. When a mother bends a twig, strips off the leaves, and uses it to spoon termites from a nest, her child is close enough to see exactly how it’s done.
The transfer of the tool itself is part of the arrangement. The youngster gets the actual object, not just a description of it. That physical handover supports the observation and supervised practice that follow.
From Darwin to David Greybeard
Tool use in chimps has a long history of being observed, and it started with Darwin himself. In 1871, Charles Darwin noted that chimpanzees used stones to crack nuts. That was a big deal at the time, since tool use was considered one of the defining features of humans.
Then came the famous observation by Jane Goodall. In 1960, she watched a chimp named David Greybeard bend a twig, strip off the leaves, and use it to scoop termites out of a nest and into his mouth. When Goodall’s mentor, Louis Leakey, heard about it, he responded with a statement that changed how people thought about the distinction between humans and other animals: “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.”
Since then, chimps have been seen doing more than just cracking nuts. They’ve been observed making sponges out of leaves to soak up liquids, shaping sticks to collect algae, and even sharpening rudimentary spears for hunting.
Other Animals and Their Tools
Tool use isn’t unique to chimps. It shows up in other species too, though it seems to have evolved more frequently among monkeys and apes. Dolphins, for example, can toss objects as a form of play. Some scientists consider that to be a kind of tool use, especially when it involves another member of the same species.
The purposes of that behavior are varied. Communication, social bonding, and aggression have all been suggested as reasons why dolphins might throw things around.
Octopuses have also been observed throwing objects. The behavior looks similar to what dolphins do, though the evolutionary context differs.
What the Paper Actually Shows
The Frontiers paper doesn’t just describe tool use. It describes teaching. The difference is the deliberate act of modeling and the supervised practice that follows. Chimps don’t just leave tools lying around for juveniles to find. Adults show the technique, demonstrate it, and then let the juveniles handle the tool themselves.
That sequence — demonstration, transfer, practice — is what the paper identifies as teaching. Observation alone, the paper suggests, isn’t enough. There has to be a deliberate act of showing, followed by the opportunity to try.
What It Means for How We Think About Chimps
The findings challenge a long-held assumption about what separates humans from other animals. For decades, tool use was considered one of the defining traits of humanity. Then chimps were observed doing it, and the definition had to shift.
Goodall’s mentor, Leakey, put it plainly: we could redefine what counts as a tool, we could redefine what counts as a human, or we could accept that chimps share something we thought was uniquely ours. His statement became famous for changing how people thought about the distinction between humans and other animals.
The new paper extends that idea further. It’s not just that chimps use tools. It’s that they pass those tools down in a structured way, with adults acting as intentional teachers and juveniles as willing learners.
| Species | Tool Behavior Observed | Teaching Mechanism |
|---|---|---|
| Chimpanzees | Tools for termite extraction, leaf sponges, stick algae collection | Adults model, transfer tools, supervised juvenile practice |
| Dolphins | Object tossing as play | Some scientists consider it a form of tool use involving other members of the same species |
| Octopuses | Object throwing | Similar to dolphin behavior |
The comparison shows that tool use isn’t confined to one branch of the animal kingdom. It appears across multiple species, though the context and purpose vary widely.
The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that chimpanzees are capable of complex social behaviors, including teaching, that were once thought to be uniquely human. The transfer of tools from adult to juvenile is a deliberate act, and it appears to be a form of teaching.
Whether you call it teaching, instruction, or simply a smart way to pass on a useful skill, the core insight remains the same. Chimps aren’t just using tools. They’re sharing how to use them, and they’re doing it in a way that looks a lot like what we do when we teach our own children.
See the video the story is built around at Ars Technica.
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