Do Chimpanzees help each other?
Two academic papers, tell us a lot about how much chimpanzees communicate with others and their altruistic behavior.
In a study published in the science journal Current Biology, a team of four academics discovered something very interesting about the theory of mind, and intentional communication of wild chimpanzees. Published back in 2012, the study focused on the use of alarm calls to ask whether chimps have the ability to act altruistically. The study strongly suggests that like humans, chimpanzees use calls sensitive to the knowledge state of others.
The study involved monitoring groups of chimpanzees out in the wild and setting up a pretend snake. Chimps, moving in groups and monitored over extended periods, search for food and cover wide areas where they trail back on places they have been to before. They are also capable of producing “two basic types of vocal responses: loud alarm barks and “SOS” screams” which the study recorded. (Crockford et al., 2012, p. 142). Monitoring the groups of chimpanzees and their calls told the team a lot about the chimps.
For starters, the recordings of the groups of chimpanzees coming around showed that they were sensitive to who in their group knew or did not know about the snake puppet. The first time the chimps made the…
