Origins Of Human Teamwork Found In Chimpanzees

Lending a hand to your fellow man might seem entirely human, but it turns out the trait has its roots in primates.

Scientists conducting a series of trials have determined that teamwork has its evolutionary roots in our nearest primate relatives - chimpanzees.

Pairs of chimpanzees were given tools to aid in getting grapes out of a box; the scenario was such that the chimps would have to work together to get the grapes.

Scientists found the chimpanzees would solve the problem together, sometimes even swapping tools in order to get the food out of the box.

The study, which sought to find out of there were any evolutionary roots to humans' ability to cooperate and coordinate actions, was recently published in the journal Biology Letters by scientists from the United Kingdom and Germany.

"This study provides the first evidence that one of our closest primate relatives, the chimpanzees, not only intentionally coordinate actions with each other but that they even understand the necessity to help a partner performing her role in order to achieve the common goal, said Dr. Alicia Melis, assistant professor of behavioral science at Warwick Business School, which was involved in the study.

"These are skills shared by both chimpanzees and humans, so such skills may have been present in their common ancestor before humans evolved their own complex forms of collaboration"

Melis and others studied strategic helping in a collaborative task among chimpanzees at a reserve in Kenya. The 12 chimpanzees in the study were all orphaned chimps. The study notes indicate the chimps were never deprived of food or water during the course of the experiment and the chimps had the choice to stop participating at any time.

The chimpanzees were put into pairs and presented a clear plastic box filled with grapes. In order to get the grapes, one chimp has to be on either end of the sealed box. The chimpanzee at the back of the box had to access a hole to push the grapes onto a platform using a rake. The chimpanzee at the front then had to push a stick through another hole to tilt the platform so the grapes would fall to the floor and both could pick them up to eat.

One chimpanzee was handed both tools and had to decide which to pass to a partner. Ten of the 12 chimpanzees studied solved the task by figuring out they had to give one of the tools to their partner. The chimps gave the correct tool to their partner 73 percent of the time.

"There were great individual differences regarding how quickly they started transferring tools to their partner. However, after transferring a tool once, they subsequently transferred tools in 97 per cent of the trials and successfully worked together to get the grapes in 86 per cent of the trials," said Melis.

"This study provides the first evidence that chimpanzees can pay attention to the partner's actions in a collaborative task, and shows they know their partner not only has to be there but perform a specific role if they are to succeed. It shows they can work strategically together just like humans do, working out that they not only need to work together but what roles each chimpanzee has to do in order to succeed," Melis continues. "Although chimpanzees are generally very competitive when trying to gain access to food and would rather work alone and monopolize all the food rewards, this study shows that they are willing and able to strategically support the partner performing their role when their own success is dependent on the partner's."