Spontaneous innovation of hook-bending and unbending in orangutans (Pongo abelii).

ABSTRACT: Betty the crow astonished the scientific world as she spontaneously crafted hook-tools from straight wire in order to lift a basket out of vertical tubes. Recently it was suggested that this species' solution was strongly influenced by predispositions from behavioural routines from habitual hook-tool manufacture. Nevertheless, the task became a paradigm to investigate tool innovation. Considering that young humans had surprising difficulties with the task, it was yet unclear whether the innovation of a hooked tool would be feasible to primates that lacked habitual hook making. We thus tested five captive orangutans in a hook bending and unbending task. Orangutans are habitually tool-using primates that have been reported to use but not craft hooked tools for locomotion in the wild. Two ora

SUBMITTER: Laumer IB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6224503 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature