This is tangentially related: January 3 2003 >THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE ------------------------------------------------------- >Orangutan Culture The possession of culture, in the form of regional differences in socially transmitted behavior, has been shown to exist in only one nonhuman animal, the chimpanzee. Van Schaik et al. now demonstrate cultural variation in orangutans based on a study of six wild populations in Borneo and Sumatra. Behaviors involving tool use, such as the use of leaves as napkins or sticks for scratching, showed geographical differences, with patterns that would be expected if these variants were socially transmitted. The authors conclude that human-like cultures date to at least 14 million years (the time at which ancestors of chimps and orangs diverged), which is much older than had been assumed. _______________________________________________________ >Copyright (c) 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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