Naive, captive long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis fascicularis) fail to individually and socially learn pound-hammering, a tool-use behaviour.

ABSTRACT: A subspecies of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis aurea; Mfa) has been reported to use stone tools and a specific technique to process nuts in Southeast Asia, a behaviour known as 'pound-hammering'. The aim of this study was to examine the development of pound-hammering in long-tailed macaques: whether this behavioural form can be individually learnt or whether it has to rely on some forms of social learning. Given the absence of Mfa from captivity, long-tailed macaques of a highly related subspecies (Macaca fascicularis fascicularis; Mff) were experimentally tested by providing them with the ecological materials necessary to show pound-hammering. A baseline was first carried out to observe whether pound-hammering would emerge spontaneously without social infor

SUBMITTER: Bandini E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5990768 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature