Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar. ~Bradley Millar

Friday, June 13, 2014

Chimpanzees Spontaneously Exhibits Cooperative Behavior In Their community

Wondering... If chimpanzees can why can't humans?

Researchers have spent years studying the unique behavior in chimpanzee,and have come up with a conclusion that chimpanzees have tendencies to cooperate with others within their community. This was for the first time ever, that this group of researchers have discovered that chimpanzees that have been captivated in a socially complex set up have shown spontaneous cooperation with their partners of their own choices, and that too without any training and socialization. However, the researchers, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, had created no constraints for the chimpanzees to choose their own partner(s).


The team leader Malini Suchak, PhD said, "Cooperation among primates has attracted considerable research because of the evolutionary implications that such research has for human behavior and the ubiquity of cooperation among wild primates". She also said: "Cooperation is often regarded as less puzzling than altruistic behavior, but only in an evolutionary sense. In the moment, cooperation often consists of a series of potentially complex decisions involving a choice of partners. When multiple partners are available, an individual must consider with whom to cooperate, if that individual has been a good partner previously, how much to invest in the partner, what to expect in return and if the cooperation will yield more benefits than solitary effort".

During the study, Suchak's team discovered that the chimpanzees cooperated around 3565 time over the course of 94 on-hour study sessions, where chimpanzees were critically observed while they mingle with each other, and especially with their chosen partners. Most interestingly, according to the researchers, the frequency, efficiency and the rate of success of cooperation were found to have been enhanced eventually over time. Alongside the cooperation tendencies, the team also discovered that that frequency of pulling incedences in the absence of a partner had gradually diminished. This concluded that the chimpanzees had eventually understood that they a partner is always needed for success.


Suchak's study was initiated with 11 members of a chimpanzee social group, her team mates Frans de Waal, PhD, Matt Campbell, PhD, and Tim Eppley and the chimpanzees, being well looked after and captivated in a huge alfresco enclosure, creating a socially complex environment for those animals that could move around without any barrier. The specialty of the outcome of this study is that it typically explored various levels of female cooperation, all of which, according to the researchers, will aid by offering better insight on the evolution of cooperative behavior.

As a conclusion Sichak stated that since the previous research that she and her team had carried out could only elicit cooperation in a restricted setting, they thought that "more complex and cooperative behavior might have uniquely evolved in humans". Suchak concluded: "This study demonstrates chimpanzees are more cooperative than we realized, and we've yet to fully explore the extent of the similarities between chimpanzee and human behavior in this regard".
Buzz this

In love of Animals

In Love of Animals is an animal lovers' blog that talks about animals and endangered species. This blog intend to share information about animals and spread out awareness about the protection of endangered animals. We want to raise our voice against animal killing and secret trading. Let the wild live in wild!


Note: Most of the pictures in this site are taken from net

Content in this animal blog

Welcome to 'In Love of Animals'. This is an animal blog run by a single person (an animal lover). The content in this animal blog (In love of animals) are all well researched, with the information taken from various sources - both online and offline. All information about animals here are all well researched and the content are original, except the images that have been taken from the net. The motive is to make this animal blog a rich resource of animal information for animal lovers.

My animal blogs

I am an animal lover first - then a dog lover! I can hardly scoop time out of my tremendously busy schedule. This has made me too slow with blogging. I have a few animal blogs and this is one of them. You can find posts in these animal blogs not very frequently. My animal blogs are:
In love of animals
Welcome dog lovers
German shepherd dog information
Amazing animal videos
About German Shepherd Dog

  © Blogger templates The Professional Template by ourblogtemplates 2008

Back to TOP