Study Finds Sex Differences in Chimpanzee Learning

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=1&u=/nm/20040414/sc_nm/science_chimps_dc ^ | 2004-04-14 | Science - Reuters

[Junior]

LONDON (Reuters) - Young female chimpanzees learn certain hunting and gathering skills from their mothers much faster than their male counterparts -- who prefer to spend their time playing, researchers said Wednesday.

In a study of wild chimps from the Gombe National Park in Tanzania, researchers found distinct sex-based differences in the way the young animals developed the skill of fishing for termites, despite their mothers paying equal attention to both sexes and being as tolerant with males as females.

"To our knowledge, this is the first systematic evidence of a difference between the sexes in the learning or imitation of a tool-use technique in wild chimpanzees," researchers Elizabeth Lonsdorf, Lynn Eberly and Anne Pusey wrote in the Nature scientific journal.

"A similar disparity in the ability of young males and females to learn skills has been demonstrated in human children and may be indicative of different learning processes."

In a four-year-long field study, Lonsdorf and her colleagues observed 14 young chimps and their mothers engaged in "fishing" in termite mounds with tools they make out of nearby vegetation.

They found that although the mothers had the same amount of social interaction with both sexes, and were equally patient with males and females, the young females learned the skill as much as 27 months earlier than their male siblings.

The young females also chose to spend more time watching and learning from their mothers, while the males spent significantly more time playing, the study found.

The researchers said their results -- although based only on a small group -- may indicate that sex-based learning differences may date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.

[Junior]

Ping.

[LiteKeeper]

YEC INTREP - so what? Humans are categorically different from chimps - any insight to the habits of chimps is immaterial.

[stanz]

This is not surprising. It follows that in early human development, female children generally acquire speech and organizational skills earlier than their male counterparts while males, later in their development, excel in activities requiring motor skills and in the use of abstract reasoning.

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and some other science topics like cosmology. Long-time list members get all pings, but can request evo-only status. New additions will be evo-only, but can request all pings. FReepmail me to be added or dropped. Specify all pings or you'll get evo-pings only.]

[AntiGuv]

I hope you don't mind if I steal that sentence for something I'm working on. It's a basic point, but you stated it much more neatly and concisely than I had thought to. :)

[Modernman]

Humans are categorically different from chimps

Sure, we have less hair.

Chimps are mean little buggers who wage wars on other tribes of chimps. Sounds like another ape species to you?

[stanz]

If it helps, that's wonderful. What are you working on?

[AntiGuv]

Chimps don't kill for sport, though one might argue that's because they don't have the 'elevated' cognitive capacities to conceptualize the necessary pretext. Of course, very few animals besides mankind do, except for a few carnivores that ocassionally kill something they don't plan to eat due to a generalized predator impulse.

Chimps are also universally bisexual little sluts. Hmmm...

[AntiGuv]

Hey, thanks! Well, I'm in the final editing of a work on the social construction of masculinity and there's a section dealing with the innate differences between the sexes. One of the subtopics I go into are the different styles of learning between males & females and more specifically how the contemporary educational establishment is failing boys.

[Junior]

Chimps don't kill for sport...

Cats do, though. And not only do they kill for sport, they go beyond your "generalized predator impulse" and actually play with their prey. If they were working out of some impulse, they'd kill it and leave it. I've watched my cats with unfortunate field mice that manage to get into the house; they bat it around, chew on it a bit, let it run a short distance, pounce on it and repeat the process. The critter literally dies of exhaustion.

[theFIRMbss]

>Chimps don't kill for sport, though one might argue that's because they don't have the 'elevated' cognitive capacities to conceptualize the necessary pretext.

I think you're behind
the times. I haven't yet read
the book, but I think

latest research shows
chimps are as freaky as us.
(Anyone read this?)

"Contradicting the common belief that chimpanzees in the wild are gentle creatures, Harvard anthropologist Wrangham and science writer Peterson have witnessed, since 1971, male African chimpanzees carry out rape, border raids, brutal beatings and warfare among rival territorial gangs. In a startling, beautifully written, riveting, provocative inquiry, they suggest that chimpanzee-like violence preceded and paved the way for human warfare... -- Publishers Weekly"

[Modernman]

Chimps don't kill for sport, though one might argue that's because they don't have the 'elevated' cognitive capacities to conceptualize the necessary pretext

Kind of reminds me of what a Japanese diplomat said to a Western diplomat: "We had to learn how to be better killers before you considered us civilized."

Chimps are also universally bisexual little sluts. Hmmm...

Interesting. Do they also practice prostitution, like bonobos? (sp?) Dolphins are also notoriously promiscuous. Male dolphins will try to mount human swimmers, too (they aim for the back of your knees, since that's where the female dolphins's, um, Sea World is located)

[AntiGuv]

Very intriguing! I don't know how I missed that book in my research (well, it's somewhat peripheral to my interests) but I'll definitely have to check it out. Thanks!

[stanz]

Sounds interesting. When you have it finished, may I read it?

[firebrand]

Why do the males spend more time playing? Because they can. Why do the females learn faster? Because they have to.

[KarlInOhio]

In a four-year-long field study, Lonsdorf and her colleagues observed 14 young chimps and their mothers engaged in "fishing" in termite mounds with tools they make out of nearby vegetation.

[snip]

The young females also chose to spend more time watching and learning from their mothers, while the males spent significantly more time playing, the study found.

Those male chimps need some Ritalin. That should kill their spirit and get them to sit quietly in front of the termite mound.

[AntiGuv]

Do they also practice prostitution, like bonobos?

Hmm.. That's a good question! I'm not altogether certain. I have seen it explicitly stated that chimps don't practice prostitution, but that referenced much older studies which may well have been factually distorted (as many were in such areas of social volatility).

[freedox]

"The young females also chose to spend more time watching and learning from their mothers, while the males spent significantly more time playing, the study found."

The author conveniently fails to define "playing." Just because you're not sitting at your mama's knee doesn't mean you're not learning anything.

[AntiGuv]

Sure thing if you want. I sent a private message.