Lecture 5 - Nat Geo Movie PDF

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Evolution & Natural Selection
pat barkley...

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Lecture 5 Thursday, September 24, 2020

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2:32 PM

Nat Geo Video (1996) - The New Chimpanzees Video content will be tested Chimp social life reflects ours ○ Poli struggles, wars Gestures, expressions - all seem strangely familiar to that of humans Their invention of tools forces us to see the real distinction between humans and chimps ○ Chimps develop tools, medicine and also cultures which they pass on ○ They feel sorrow after death Chimps share more than 97% of our genes and it shows Invention of tools is supposed to set us apart from animals, but chimps have developed tools too ○ They make and use their own tools, this skill passed down from mother to child § The child watches mother to learn how ○ Eg chimp's fishing tools Goodall was the first human to be accepted by wild chimps ○ Her findings revolutionised how we see chimps and humans ○ Many have followed her lead ○ Began her study in Gombe, Tanzania ○ Male chimps stay in the groups of their birth and cooperate when there is a common cause ○ Every week, they form a military patrol to defend their area § To see if there are any trespassers, to protect their women ○ Goodall showed that there is warfare in chimps; a painful legacy from our primate forebearers Bonobos ○ Human like appearance, less aggressive Primitive kind of medicine may be in some chimps Our paths diverged 6 million years ago, as our human ancestors left the forest to go to the plaines Chimps can develop cultures, nations

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New gen of scientists ○ Trying to decipher meaning from the chimps convo § How specific are the meaning of these calls? Food, come here, meeting point, directed at family etc ○ To our ears, hard to differentiate their chimp sounds Chimp males perform big displays to intimate rivals + show their dominance Mothers are needed ○ Chimp orphans find it hard to live ○ Chimp mothers show affection to their babies (bond between them) Alliances are seen with who grooms who Dominant chimps get the best food Some part of human evolution, meat became a big part of our diet ○ Studying hunting in chimps can help us answer how this happened ○ Chimps kill other monkeys § The chimps are showing individual selfish behaviour in a communal hunting setting Have hunting techniques ○ They often eat leaves when they eat meat § They consume 20% of the colobus monkeys in their area each year § Taste for meat arises from young age Have high levels of cooperation ○ Hunt in groups to solve the problem of them potentially falling from the tree branches when chasing colobus monkeys ○ Makes a trap for the colobus monkey (driver, blockers and the monkey that comes in the front to close the trap, kill the monkey) § Only the experienced hunters can do this § After a capture, the chimps make a call to announce that there is meat = huge excitement for all ○ Division of the spoils based on right, not might § Females + infants get food, sometimes bypasses the alpha male § Similar to that of humans Chimp babies have a love of play Alpha male steals baby??? ○ Beats the mother back with the baby, even though both were b f th al h

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members of the alphas group ○ Male chimps have been known to kill babies § Infanticide and cannibalism § Aggressive impulses Bonobos are different from chimps studies by Goodall ○ Can walk on both 4 and 2 legs ○ Upright gait and more slender limbs = human like ○ Groups leader = alpha female Females play a different role in ○ Power is equal in male and female ○ High ranking mothers and their adult sons Use sex to defuse aggression ○ Love, not war society ○ Have largely separated sex from its reproductive role ○ Used to mitigate tension by all aged bonobos ○ Makes strategic alliances with each other Bonobo mothers rarely discipline their babies Orphans are forces out to the edges of their community ○ Males stay with their mothers for their whole lives, and rely on them Males can rise to power using their mothers if they are the alpha female Teen bonobo females leave their birth place and go to different groups ○ While the males stay with their moms in their same birth group Social life of bonobos are very different from that of chimps ○ Bonobos show that violence is not inevitable How deep is the mind of the chimp? ○ Chimps have hammers as tools to break nuts (but also need expertise to learn how to actually crack the nut - takes a decade of learning) § Taught by the mother, then the infant tries □ Highest form of active teaching (correcting infants mistakes) is observed in chimps ○ Sexual difference in favour of females, the females crack more nuts than males § More tool use in females § Tool use in our human ancestors by females?? ○ Cultural exchange between chimp groups § Passing along of learned traditions when the teen chimps leave their birth group

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leave their birth group ○ Each chimp group has their own unique tool kit § Some use sticks to get ants, others use fruit as sponges etc § This is traditional knowledge based on chimp nation ○ Chimps eat some leaves that are not palatable, so they swallow them whole § Why would they do this? The leaves may help them pass worms ○ Have symbolic gestures § Kisses, hand salutes, leaf grooming - all have meanings to the chimps § If these are cultural, they should change. Which has been seen Chimps are disappearing so fast that their cultures are disappearing too, but this is where we have the most to learn ○ Predation and disease but also death due to poaching by humans ○ When chimps are forced to deal with death, they show compassion and empathy Science has tried to separate us from nature but the findings have brought us closer to the chimps

Bonobos and chimps come from same genus • Specifics will not be tested from movie, more so broad over arching topics...