Captive female bonobos (Pan paniscus) tend to be more social during tool use than males

Abstract

Tool use occurs in several non-human species, including primates. Within the genus Pan, chimpanzees (P. troglodytes) exhibit tool use in both the wild and captivity, while tool use in bonobos (P. pansiscus) has been documented in captivity and suggested to occur in the wild (White et al. 2008). Four conditions have been proposed to facilitate the evolution of material culture: 1) ecological opportunity, 2) motor dexterity, 3) cognition for problem solving and 4) social tolerance to allow for social learning of tool use behavior (van Schaik et al. 1999). Social tolerance behavior varies among the great apes and a recent captive study showed that bonobos had fewer neighbors present during tool use acquisition than what has been reported for chimpanzees and gorillas (Boose et al 2013, Lonsdorf et al. 2009). These captive bonobos also exhibited a female bias in tool use acquisition that has been well documented in Pan (Boose et al. 2013, see also Gruber et al. 2010). We sought to investigate patterns of affiliation and association during tool use within this captive group of bonobos by analyzing sex and age differences. Based on what has been reported for bonobos regarding their affiliative patterns, we predicted females would be more social than males.