Chimpanzee Engineering Prowess - Making the Best Tools for the Job

This lecture explores the fascinating engineering capabilities of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania, particularly their sophisticated tool-making skills for termite fishing. Learn how chimpanzees deliberately select flexible plant materials rather than rigid sticks to create probes that can navigate the irregular twisting passages of termite mounds—demonstrating what appears to be an intuitive understanding of material properties or "folk physics." Dr. Alejandra Pascual-Garrido, who has studied plant-based material cultures in wild chimpanzees since 2006, presents her interdisciplinary research that bridges primatology, archaeology, and anthropology to understand how these customs emerge and are transmitted across generations. Discover how this research into chimpanzee tool use provides valuable insights into early hominin technologies that rarely preserve in the archaeological record, contributing to our understanding of the "archaeology of the perishable."